Category: DEVOTIONALS

  • TO DESPISE THE WORLD AND SERVE GOD IS SWEET

    The Imitation of Christ THE DISCIPLE NOW again I will speak, Lord, and will not be silent. I will speak to the hearing of my God, my Lord, and my King Who is in heaven. How great, O Lord, is the multitude of Your mercies which You have stored up for those who love You.…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    God’s promises were never meant to be thrown aside as waste paper; he intended that they should be used. God’s gold is not miser’s money, but is minted to be traded with. Nothing pleases our Lord better than to see his promises put in circulation; he loves to see his children bring them up to…

  • UNEXPECTED RIVALRIES

    Connect The TestamentsGenesis 25; Matthew 18; Ecclesiastes 5:12-20 When in survival mode, you have to compete against anything that could hinder your survival. Strong competitors, like professional athletes, often can’t explain their almost inhuman acts under pressure; adrenaline takes over. The same thing that the ancients used to escape from wild animals is what makes…

  • ALL THINGS SHOULD BE REFERRED TO GOD AS THEIR LAST END

    The Imitation of Christ THE VOICE OF CHRIST MY CHILD, I must be your supreme and last end, if you truly desire to be blessed. With this intention your affections, which are too often perversely inclined to self and to creatures, will be purified. For if you seek yourself in anything, you immediately fail interiorly…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    By the words “to save” we understand the whole of the great work of salvation, from the first holy desire onward to complete sanctification. The words are multum in parro: indeed, here is all mercy in one word. Christ is not only “mighty to save” those who repent, but he is able to make men…

  • AVOIDING THE UNAVOIDABLE

    Connect The TestamentsGenesis 24; Matthew 16-17; Ecclesiastes 5:8-11 It’s common to put people in our lives on hold, even if we love them, until something forces us to pay attention. Forgetting those who are closest to us is a frightening thought. Peter, Jesus’ disciple, likely realized that people were making a similar mistake in their…

  • SELF-ABASEMENT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD

    The Imitation of Christ THE DISCIPLE I WILL speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. If I consider myself anything more than this, behold You stand against me, and my sins bear witness to the truth which I cannot contradict. If I abase myself, however, if I humble myself to nothingness,…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber – 1 Kings 22:48 Solomon’s ships had returned in safety, but Jehoshaphat’s vessels never reached the land of gold. Providence prospers one, and frustrates the desires of another, in the same business and…

  • FEAR GOD

    Connect the TestamentsGenesis 21:22-23:20; Matthew 15; Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 In Ecclesiastes 5, the author stops to consider God’s place in the heavens and our place on earth. He acknowledges that there is a great gulf of understanding between who God is and who we think He is. This realization should affect our entire posture before Him.…

  • GRACE MUST BE HIDDEN UNDER THE MANTLE OF HUMILITY

    The Imitation of Christ THE SEVENTH CHAPTER THE VOICE OF CHRIST IT IS better and safer for you to conceal the grace of devotion, not to be elated by it, not to speak or think much of it, and instead to humble yourself and fear lest it is being given to one unworthy of it.…