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 […]
Eternity strides toward us. Finding joy in Christ now prepares us for the unbroken joy of heaven. Do you “direct” your prayers? David did. “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up” (Ps 5:3). To “direct” (Heb, ‘ârak) means “to arrange, set in order.” […]
Read More… from February 9, 2026 — The Joy Of The Devoted Soul
CHRIST the ANTITYPE: In His passion to reveal the fullness of God in Christ, the Spirit inspired many “types” to picture Him. The “anti” in antitype does not mean the opposite of, but the comparison of. It does not mean “against” but “over against” as a portrait and its subject would be placed side-by-side to […]
“…Teach us what we shall do for the child” (Jdg 13:8). These words of Manoah express the concern we all should feel when a child comes into this world. J. Wilbur Chapman, standing in the store of New York’s famous jeweller, Tiffany & Co., saw a salesman showing a woman a $17,000 pearl, and then […]
“For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor 16:9). “Praying also for us, that God would open to us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ…” (Col 4:3). “Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God […]
CHRIST the THEME of PROPHECY: “To Him all the prophets witness” (Acts 10:43). Divine prophecy is different from human predictions in three key ways: it must be sufficiently remote in time that it could not be anticipated as a logical trend, sufficiently specific in detail that it could not be contrived as one of many […]