“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” ((Ephesians 4:30-31)) Bitterness creates a climate for the devil. Did you know the devil is bitter? In Revelation…
There is a courage of the battlefield, which is often a splendid thing. There is a courage needed for every adventure, whether in Africa or on Everest. But perhaps the finest courage is the quiet and steady courage of fidelity. To do things when you don’t feel like doing them, to keep on keeping on,…
The sufferings of Christ fully satisfy justice. The justice of God as the supreme Governor and Judge of the world requires the punishment of sin. The supreme Judge must judge the world according to a rule of justice. God does not show mercy as a judge but as a sovereign; therefore his exercise of mercy…
For Thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. ((Psalm 25:11)) But how could he make this a plea for pardon? Because the greater his iniquity was, the more need he had of pardon. It is as much as if he had said, “Pardon my iniquity, for it is so great…
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. ((2 Timothy 4:13))
How utterly forsaken the apostle was by his friends!25 If he had no cloak of his own, couldn’t someone lend him one? Ten years before, the apostle was brought in chains along the Appian Way to Rome. Fifty miles before he reached Rome, members of the church came to meet him. When he came within twenty miles of the city, a still larger posse of the disciples came to escort him, so that the chained prisoner Paul went into Rome attended by all the believers in that city. But, ten years later, nobody comes to visit him. He is confined in prison, and they do not even know where he is, so Onesiphorus, when he comes to Rome, has to seek him out. People have so forgotten him and the church has so despised him that he is friendless. The Philippian church, ten years before, had made a collection for him when he was in prison. Now he is old, and no church remembers him. Poor soul, he served his God and worked himself down to poverty for the church’s sake, yet the church has forsaken him! Oh! how great must have been the anguish of the loving heart of Paul at such ingratitude.
When Jesus rose, you rose with Him. Christians are not just nice people, they are new creatures. We have the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. We have come out of the grave of the old life. Our old master has no more hold on us. The old debt has no more…
“Strive with all diligence to keep out that monster unbelief. It so dishonours Christ, that he will withdraw his visible presence if we insult him by indulging it. It is true it is a weed, the seeds of which we an never entirely extract from the soil, but we must aim at its root with…
Many times the Lord will deliberately delay that He may be gracious to us. When Lazarus fell sick, his family sent for Jesus. Instead of coming immediately, Jesus waited (see John 11:1-46). He held back until Lazarus was dead. And if you read John 11:15, He said, “I’m glad”— because He had something greater in…
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” ((Matthew 5:8)) Hebrews 11:27 says that Moses “endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” You get your heart right and you’ll see the invisible God… …in circumstances …in nature …in the face of your spouse, your child, your grandchild. You’ll see Him in the…
A. C. Dickson, a fine expositor of the Word of God, said when we depend upon organization, we get what organization can do. When we depend upon education, we get what education can do. When we depend on money, we get what money can do. When we depend on singing and preaching, we get what…
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who…
The measure of love is the undeserved, yet gladly offered, substitutionary death of Christ for our sins. Whenever we think the love commandment is demanding too much of us, we should compare our love to His. “For the love of Christ constraineth us [not our love for Him, but His love for us] . .…