“And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire” (Jude 23). Think carefully and prayerfully about these words from Alexander Marshall: “A soul saved saves that soul from more misery, anguish, and torment than has ever been suffered by all the people of the world from the beginning of time to this time, […]
The last four kings reigned a total of 22 years, 6 months, and 10 days. Doom and gloom all the way! Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the reign of Jehoahaz. He was king for ninety days—hardly enough time to get your crown and gown sized! The first of three sons of Josiah to reign— Jehoahaz, […]
CHRIST our PEACE: “He is our peace” (Eph 2:14). Peace (Gk, eirene) is the “tranquil state of the soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its lot” (W.E. Vine). True peace in the believer is stated to be the result of justification (Rom 5:1) and reconciliation […]
“You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3). Job is quoting Jehovah here (see 38:2). It’s easy to overestimate what we can handle, and thus our frustration with God when He withholds […]
Stirred by Bunyan’s “Visions of Heaven and Hell,” drunkard miner Billy Bray sought the Lord. For days in soul trouble, finally, he writes: “I said to the Lord, ‘Thou hast said, They that ask shall receive…and I have faith to believe it.’ In an instant the Lord made me so happy that I cannot express […]
“Don’t trouble trouble ’til trouble troubles you; you’ll only make your trouble double-trouble when you do.” From his days as a child-king, Josiah “did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left” (2 Chron 34:2). By age 16, he was fully engaged in ridding the land of every false altar and idol. At 26, […]
CHRIST the BRIGHT and MORNING STAR (Rev 22:16). Our Lord here presents Himself as the herald of His own dawning. All the world shall see the Lord arise as the Sun of Righteousness, but only those looking for Him will see His appearing as the Morning Star. John Fletcher of Madeley (1729–1785), close friend of […]
“I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me” (Ps 119:19). Excuse the irony, but nothing could be stranger! A person always on earth but “born from above.” A heavenly citizen living as a stranger in this world. A possessor of life that is to be lived “more abundantly,” yet […]
William MacDonald writes: We teach our children to accumulate; Christ calls them to forsake all (Lk 14:33). We teach them that it is not respectable to be poor: Jesus said, “Blessed be ye poor” (Lk 6:20). We tell them to stay home and make good; the Lord tells them to “go…into all the world and […]