Category: DEVOTIONALS

  • DISCERNMENT, KNOWLEDGE, AND ACTION

    Connect The Testaments1 Samuel 10:1-11:15; James 2:14-18; Psalm 119:65-80 We often wonder whether God hears our prayers. Even when we acknowledge that God deals with each petition we send His way, we experience doubt because we don’t understand how He has handled our plea. Yet instead of asking “Is God hearing me?” we should be…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    We are very apt to regard the apostolic saints as if they were “saints” in a more especial manner than the other children of God. All are “saints” whom God has called by His grace, and sanctified by His Spirit; but we are apt to look upon the apostles as extraordinary beings, scarcely subject to…

  • MAKING DISTINCTIONS

    Connect The Testaments1 Samuel 8:1-9:27; James 2:1-13; Psalm 119:49-64 We’re often entranced by those who have what we don’t—riches, popularity, position, and power. We want to befriend cool moms, hipsters with ironic mustaches, and supervisors who can get us to the next step on the corporate ladder. We relate to them differently, even though we…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Sanctify them through thy truth. John 17:17 Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that new living principle by which he becomes “a new creature” in Christ Jesus. This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways—mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and…

  • GOD’S UNSEEN WORK

    Connect The Testaments1 Samuel 5:1-7:17; James 1:19-27; Psalm 119:33-48 We often fail to discern when and how it happens: God will work something out in our lives that seems virtually impossible. We get an unexpected insight into the workings of God in 1 Sam 5. After defeating Israel in battle, the Philistines stole the ark…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Pharaoh’s dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of sloth have ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of zealous industry; my seasons of coldness have frozen all the genial glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm; and my fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances…

  • CONFLICT AND CERTAINTY

    Connect The Testaments1 Samuel 2:22-4:22; James 1:9-18; Psalm 119:17-32 Conflict drives fiction and riveting movies, but if we had it our way, we’d live stable, stress-free lives. We might crave the excitement or change of a vacation, but we rarely welcome an unexpected complication. So when James says to “count it all joy … when…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Blessed is the fact that Christians can rejoice even in the deepest distress; although trouble may surround them, they still sing; and, like many birds, they sing best in their cages. The waves may roll over them, but their souls soon rise to the surface and see the light of God’s countenance; they have a…

  • GOD MAKES GOOD OUT OF TROUBLE

    Connect The Testament1 Samuel 1:1-2:21; James 1:1-8; Psalm 119:1-16 God often shows His goodness to us through trials, making good out of human error. We see this principle in the lives of Elkanah and Hannah. Elkanah was prone to make mistakes. His first mistake was to marry two wives (1 Sam 1:1–4); his second blunder…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    The streams of living water which flow from Jerusalem are not dried up by the parching heats of sultry midsummer any more than they were frozen by the cold winds of blustering winter. Rejoice, O my soul, that thou art spared to testify of the faithfulness of the Lord. The seasons change and thou changest,…