CHRIST OUR NEW OCCUPANT: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (Jn 14:23). C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), in his classic, Mere Christianity, writes: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. […]
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55:7). Here is a practical petition for the lost around us. Why do they not turn? Maybe they haven’t been […]
Frederick N. Charrington, heir to the largest distillery in England, while traveling in France, met an acquaintance, William Rainsford, and invited him home. He writes: “When we arrived, to my astonishment Rainsford suddenly said, ‘I feel very guilty. We have traveled all the way over the Continent, and enjoyed ourselves very much, but I have […]
God could keep the enemy always at bay if He chose to, but He didn’t with His Son, nor does He with us. We now come to the crux of the matter as far as Job is concerned. Why do these ne’er-do-wells feel free to terrorize him? He puts his finger on the day God […]
CHRIST the KING ETERNAL: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,…out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Mic 5:2). We were creatures of time, corruptible and doomed to utter collapse. But into our dusty world the Savior came. And, according to […]
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him…Even so, Amen” (Rev 1:7). I recall attending a camp in my childhood where they had a weather rock hanging from a chain. The explanation was this: if the rock is dry, weather fair; if it’s wet, precipitation; if the rock is moving, it’s […]
To some the mental image of God is a blur of disappointment. “Here,” they say resentfully, “is One whom I trusted, but He let me down.” The rest of their lives is shadowed by this letdown…God is a Disappointment. Some, of course, rather enjoy this never-failing well of grievance. The years by no means diminish […]
This lesson overlaps two chapters (Job 29:21–30:19). Was the change so abrupt that a division was inserted? At the end of Job 29, Job is still recalling the days when he was sought out for his wise counsel. “Men listened to me and waited, and kept silence for my counsel. After my words they did not […]
CHRIST the ONE who can MAKE OLD THINGS NEW: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). If only we could go back in time, we might make old things new. But Christ instead takes us up into the realm of the eternal. He gives us a new birth (Jn 3:3) which is life from […]