The story is told of some missionaries who were going to New Guinea. As they drew near, the captain of the ship said to the leader of this little band, “Listen, I really feel badly about this. This land is littered with white graves. It’s hopeless! You’ll never get out of this place alive. I’ll […]
Rest isn’t the absence of upset; it’s the calm within when we know Christ is with us in the storm. So the temple was finished, “and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and all the furnishings. And he put them in the treasuries of the house […]
“Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (2 Chron 33:12-13). This […]
George Watmough hitchhiked across America, witnessing to thousands. Once leaving Tucson on his way to Phoenix, he was given a ride by a young man who stopped his witnessing by saying, “I was raised in a preacher’s home and have no time for religion.” “Isn’t that strange,” Watmoungh replied, “I don’t have much time for […]
Christ is God’s A and Z, the Root and Offspring, the First and Last, the Author and Finisher. When something is to be done, obviously the one thing better than starting well is finishing well. In this, our God is the great Exemplar. He finished well in creation: “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all […]
“Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying…” (Neh 1:8). Nehemiah clearly was “instant in prayer.” His first-person narrative (one of the few in Scripture) is a running conversation with the Lord. Notice 4:1-6. When Sanballat and Tobiah started hurling mockery over the wall at his workers, Nehemiah simply included the […]
“That in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (Php 1:20). In the same spirit, Jim Elliot prayed: “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be […]
Throughout the changing ages, one fact remains unchanged: there is only one Savior. “So all the work that Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished” (2 Chron 5:1). The simple tent, unadorned on the outside, had been replaced with a building “exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious” (1 Chron 22:5). The holy furniture had been […]
O to be filled “with the Spirit,” “with the fruits of righteousness…by Jesus Christ,” and “with all the fullness of God”! As noted earlier, the laver in the tabernacle was replaced by a bronze Sea “for the priests to wash in” (2 Chron 4:6). Was there enough water for all the priests? It could contain over 22,000 gallons! Holding up […]