A blessed life

Having suffered a knee injury while dancing a few years ago, Connie Munro of Juneau, Alaska underwent surgery. But the problem persisted. In her words, “it just wouldn’t loosen up….I thought I was permanently disabled.” And then she arrived for work at the state Education Department in downtown one morning, got out of her car […]

The Lord Himself is God

Why should a man worship God? Because God — He Himself, and He alone — is God. Consider Spurgeon’s contemplation of Psalm 100:3 on this topic: As Matthew Henry has very properly said, ignorance is not the mother of devotion, though it be the mother of superstition. True knowledge is the mother and the nurse […]

The righteousness of God

Martin Luther had a problem. Listen to his words: I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in my way but that one expression, ‘the justice (righteousness) of God,’ because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation […]

Why God is patient

Scripture speaks often about the importance and wisdom of being patient. (Consider Prov. 14:29; 15:18; 16:32; 19:11; 20:22; Col. 3:12; Js. 5:10; 1 Pt. 2:20ff as just a few examples). Scripture also speaks of the patience of God. God waits. One of the common New Testament words for patience is to be long-suffering (see Rom. […]

Need a little encouragement?

In an essay on the life of Dwight Eisenhower, historian Stephen Ambrose recounts the following story: In 1963, when he was filming with Walter Cronkite a television special entitled “D-Day Plus 20 Years,” Cronkite asked [Eisenhower] what he thought about when he returned to Normandy. In reply, Eisenhower spoke not of the tanks, the guns, […]

An appropriate prayer

On the sixth day of NASA’s moon mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts aboard the badly damaged space vehicle needed to make a critical course correction in order to position themselves to reenter the earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, the ship’s onboard computer had been shut down to conserve power, so the craft had to be steered […]

Are you content?

Are you content? Pause before you answer that question. Long-time actress and comedienne Gracie Allen once received a small, live alligator as a gag gift. Not knowing what to do with it (just what do you do with an alligator?), Gracie placed it in the bathtub with some water and left for an engagement. When […]

The Lord reigns

Meditating on Psalm 99:1 — “The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble…,” Charles Spurgeon wrote: The fact that “the Lord reigneth” is indisputable, and it is this fact that arises the utmost opposition in the unrenewed human heart. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and […]

How Satan tempts

His name means “adversary.” He is a slanderer, a liar, and a deceiver. He lives to lead people astray from the truth. He is crafty and cunning in all He does. Just as Christ is trustworthy in all that He does, so Satan is untrustworthy in all that he does. But how does Satan tempt […]

My problem

I have a problem. It is a sin I struggle with every single day. When I spend time in confession, I find that it has influenced my every sin. As I ponder my motives and desires I find that it has tainted virtually every thought I have and it certainly has tainted every sinful thought […]

Principles of giving

In 2 Corinthians 8-9, the apostle Paul provides a number of principles about financial giving that honor the Lord. We are typically shy when talking about giving and the need for giving, but Paul wasn’t. From these two chapters, we have at least a dozen principles that should guide our giving: Give as an example […]

A giving heart

Matel Dawson, Jr. is an ordinary man who accomplished something extraordinary. At 76, he still worked for Ford Motor Company — the company that hired him out of high school — operating a forklift. It is unusual to work for one company for more than 57 years. Yet even more remarkably, over six years beginning […]

Why Read the Bible?

Don Carson answers the question, “Why read the Bible?” by first noting why we shouldn’t read the Bible: HT: Desiring God.

Cleaning day

Today should be cleaning day. Today should be the day that I clean out my backpack/laptop case. All those papers, files and notes that I have been carrying between the office and home for weeks need a permanent home outside my backpack (I envision a large, overflowing garbage can…). Over vacation I read ten or […]

Today…

Charles Spurgeon, writing on Psalm 95:7-8 (“TO-DAY! TO-DAY! TO-DAY!,” Sermon no. 1551) — “To-day” is a time of obligation. Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord to-day, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day. “Repent ye therefore, […]