Those who would attack God’s people might like to know beforehand that God is for us (Rom 8:31). It was all well and good to give Esther and Mordecai the house of Haman and the royal signet, but destruction was still approaching. Why? Any official decrees “cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, […]
CHRIST OUR BENEFACTOR: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 […]
“You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes” (Ps 119:68). In other words, “Lord, I love both who You are and what You do.” The Lord’s statutes are what give us the true measurement of the good. Clearly, what God does is determined by who He is, and He always acts consistently with […]
One treasure for which the heart longs is the security of unchanging love. It is the believer’s certainty that there is nothing that “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39). George Matheson, in spite of a deteriorating eye condition, graduated from Glasgow […]
CHRIST the BELIEVER’S PASSION: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him” (2 Cor 5:9). The passion of Christ is the only passion we can give ourselves to wholeheartedly and it won’t corrupt us. Instead, it will enlarge our hearts and refine our desires. Jim Elliot (1927–1956) […]
“After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight” (Hos 6:2). How desperately we need reviving! And what is its basis? How does God revive His people? Adam Clarke comments: “These words are supposed to refer to the death and resurrection […]
One of the reasons that sinful or worldly habits are so expensive is that they shut our mouths as gospel witnesses. King David knew this. In one penitential psalm, he wrote, “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, […]
CHRIST our CHAMPION and the DEVIL’S CHIEF ADVERSARY: “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor 16:9). Notice the “and” in the center of this sentence. Paul does not write “but”; the “and” would indicate that these two ideas actually come together: great opportunities for the […]
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph 3:20-21). Who has not thrilled to the words by Edward Perronet, “All […]