Do Not Turn to Folly

2 Kings 23:28–25:30; Ephesians 6:1–24; Proverbs 9:13–18 I have a problem with criticism. Being one of the youngest in a large, opinionated family, I quickly learned how to stand up for myself and get my way as a young child. I learned to deflect teasing. I also learned I had a knack for ignoring reprimands—punishment…

The Key to The Missionary Message

And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2. The key to the missionary message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Take any phase of Christ’s work—the healing phase, the saving and sanctifying phase; there is nothing limitless about…

The Key to The Missionary

All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. Matthew 28:18–20 . The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon Our Lord as One Who assists us in our enterprises for…

The Last Person You Would Expect

Ezekiel 26:1–27:36; Revelation 13:1–10; Job 36:13–23 Yahweh is capable of doing anything and everything He pleases. If He were not a good God, this would be deeply frightening, but considering His wonderful character, this is comforting. In Ezekiel 26:1–6, Yahweh describes the sins of Tyre and His plans against the powerful Phoenician city-state. The people…

Missionary Predestination

And now, saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be His servant. Isaiah 49:5. The first thing that happens after we have realized our election to God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our prejudices and our parochial notions and our patriotisms; we are turned into servants of God’s own purpose….

The Divine Rule of Life

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48. Our Lord’s exhortation in these verses is to be generous in our behaviour to all men. In the spiritual life beware of walking according to natural affinities. Everyone has natural affinities; some people we like and others we do not like….

Do You Continue To Go With Jesus?

Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. Luke 22:28. It is true that Jesus Christ is with us in our temptations, but are we going with Him in His temptations? Many of us cease to go with Jesus from the moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch…

His Temptation and Ours

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15. Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is that mentioned by St. James—”Every man is tempted, when he…

What’s The Good of Temptation?

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. 1 Cor. 10:13. The word ‘temptation’ has come down in the world; we are apt to use it wrongly: Temptation is not sin, it is the thing we are bound to meet if we are men. Not to be tempted would be…

The Divine Region of Religion

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. Matthew 6:6. The main idea in the region of religion is—Your eyes upon God, not on men. Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying…

What to Renounce

But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. 2 Cor. 4:2. Have you “renounced the hidden things of dishonesty”—the things that your sense of honour will not allow to come to the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone which you would not like to be dragged…

Imagination vs Inspiration

The simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Cor. 11:3. Simplicity is the secret of seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly for a long while, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think a spiritual muddle clear, you have to obey it clear. In intellectual matters you can…

Missionary Munitions

Ministering as Opportunity Surrounds us. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. John 13:14. Ministering as opportunity surrounds us does not mean selecting our surroundings, it means being very selectly God’s in any haphazard surroundings which He engineers for us. The characteristics we…