Buddhism, founded in India by Siddharta Gautama (the Buddha, or Enlightened One) in 520 bc, has 360 million adherents. Beliefs differ: Theravada Buddhism is atheistic; Mahayana is more polytheistic. Buddha taught nothing is permanent. Life’s purpose is to avoid suffering, gain enlightenment and release from the cycle of rebirth, or at least attain a better […]
When others unjustly start name-calling, what do we do? We call on the name of the Lord! Psalm 7 is the second Biographical Psalm, and is titled “A Meditation of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.” I hope I’m not spoiling it for you, but those words would hardly […]
CHRIST UNSEEN: “…Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:7-8). J. Sidlow Baxter, in his devotional, Going Deeper, quotes the words of F.B. Meyer: “The great painters of Christendom covered the walls of picture […]
“Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law” (Ps 119:18). The current term to “be woke” or “stay woke” refers to a need for awareness about conditions around, especially injustice. But the idea is an old one. We need to be sensitive about holy living: “Awake to righteousness, and do not […]
Faith is often needed not only for spiritual efforts but for financial provision as well. In dark days, when funds were low for the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor received a letter from George Müller: “My chief object is to tell you that I love you in the Lord; that I feel deeply interested about […]
When He makes you lie down, even in green pastures (see Ps 23:2), it helps you to look up. With Psalm 6, we come to the first of the Penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143). The title indicates the use of stringed instruments for this moving psalm, but adds another word […]
“The Lord Jesus CHRIST, our HOPE” (1 Tim 1:1). Charles Spurgeon tells of visiting with the Earl of Shaftsbury who had taken his dying daughter to Menton on the French Riviera in hopes of her regaining some strength. Spurgeon writes: “That day he was particularly cast down about the general state of society. He thought […]
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites…” (Mt 6:5). How often there is a serious gap in our prayers and platitudes between what we profess and what we possess. Prolific English author Thomas Fuller warned people like me: “How easy is pen-and-paper piety! I will not say it costs nothing, but […]
John Townsend was born into a well-to-do family in Exeter, England. At the age of 20, while studying to become a clergyman, he realized to his shock that he was an unconverted man himself. He abandoned the ambition of his life which he had chosen, feeling he could not lead others to Christ until he […]