Category: DEVOTIONALS

  • LOVE AND PEACE

    Connect The TestamentsNehemiah 4:1-5:19; 1 John 4:16-21; Psalm 109:1-15 “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you.” Augustine’s prayer, spoken so many years ago, is still poignant for us today. It appeals to our created purpose: bringing glory to God. When we’re living outside of that…

  • THE “LONG TIME”

    IT is the Lord Jesus Himself who has given us these words in one of His parables. He says: “After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.” (Matt. 25:19.) Thus, while in one place He speaks of “the little while,” in another He speaks of “the long time.” Little,…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his omnipotent grace, and his infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon’s temple, so in this; the materials need making ready. There are the “Cedars of Lebanon,” but they are not framed for…

  • POSITION, PRAYER, AND STRATEGY

    Connect The TestamentsNehemiah 1:1-3:32; 1 John 4:13-15; Psalm 108:1-13 Trying to make a difference in the world can be disheartening; it’s easy to feel like merely a drop in the bucket. When Nehemiah first heard about the suffering of His people, he could have been discouraged. When he learned that the returned exiles were “in…

  • INSTEAD OF ME

    MANY years ago, I was walking with a friend along the pleasant banks of a Scottish river, in one of the early months of summer, when the trees had just begun to show their fresh verdure and to offer us a shade from the sun. A man in rags came up to us begging. We…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    The entire person of Jesus is but as one gem, and his life is all along but one impression of the seal. He is altogether complete; not only in his several parts, but as a gracious all-glorious whole. His character is not a mass of fair colours mixed confusedly, nor a heap of precious stones…

  • MAN VS. NATURE

    Connect The TestamentEzra 9:1-10:44; 1 John 4:7-12; Psalm 107:23-43 As a teenager, I devoured stories about men and women at odds with nature. These man vs. nature struggles always told of a battle of wills. Nature was always at its most magnificent and most frightening: untamed, unwieldy, and heartless. The characters seemed to be living…

  • WHAT IS MY HOPE?

    “I HOPED by this time to have been at the top,” said an old man, who had set out one pleasant autumn morning to climb the hill behind his dwelling. But he had mistaken the way, and was farther from the top than when he set out. He returned weary and disappointed. Like those of…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. – Amos 9:9 Every sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger…

  • THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

    Connect The TestamentsEzra 7:1-8:36; 1 John 4:1-6; Psalm 107:1-22 The Bible is full of unexpected moments. Some events seem almost coincidental, where people are in the right place at the right time. This is exactly the case with Ezra. In ancient times, it was unusual for a king to honor a foreigner with a decree.…