Category: DEVOTIONALS

  • A FAMOUS GOD

    Connect The TestamentNehemiah 10:28-11:36; 1 John 5:17-21; Psalm 113:1-114:18 Fame can have startling effects on people. Those who attain power and influence suddenly become less available: They’re selective with the phone calls they take, the emails they answer, and the people they associate with. Those who receive their attention tend to feel special. When we…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    What must be the apostate professor’s doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear that voice, “Depart, ye cursed; thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and departed from me: I also have banished thee for ever from my presence, and will not have mercy…

  • FROM CONCERN TO ACTION

    Connect The TestamentsNehemiah 9:1-10:27; 1 John 5:13-16; Psalm 111:1-112:10 When I approach God, I often try to persuade Him that I am worthy of something or that He should act on my behalf. But there is no reason God should act on our behalf—none is worthy of His intercession. When we pray, we often need…

  • THE WORLD PASSETH AWAY

    THE things that are seen are temporal. Ours is a dying world, and here we have no continuing city. But a few years,—it may be less,—and all things here are changed. But a few years,—it may be less,—and the Lord shall have come, and the last trumpet shall have sounded, and the great sentence shall…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the…

  • IT’S SIMPLE

    Connect The TestamentsNehemiah 7:66-8:18; 1 John 5:6-12; Psalm 110:1-7 I tend to complicate matters. Determined to understand the nuances of a problem, I spend more time constructing a solution than I need to. Often, delaying a simple solution is my way of avoiding action that requires me to be courageous, intentional, or perhaps admit I’m…

  • WHITHER? WHITHER?

    IN the beginning of last century, an old American Christian died, leaving on his death-bed this message to his son,—“Remember that there is A LONG ETERNITY.” But this was not all. He laid upon his family the dying command, that the same message should be handed down to the next generation, and from that to…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    It is fondly imagined by some that it must have involved very special privileges to have been the mother of our Lord, because they supposed that she had the benefit of looking into his very heart in a way in which we cannot hope to do. There may be an appearance of plausibility in the…

  • DISCERNMENT AND PRAYER

    Connect The TestamentsNehemiah 6:1-7:65; 1 John 5:1-5; Psalm 109:16-31 “For all of them sought to frighten us.… And now, God, strengthen my hands” (Neh 6:9). While God calls us to “love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us]” (Matt 5:44), he also calls us to act with discernment and prayer. Loving others doesn’t…

  • I CAN’T LET GO

    THE vessel was pretty high out of the water, and there was no ladder, either of rope or iron, at his side for the poor lad to descend by, so as to reach the boat which lay below. The lad looked over and saw his position. There was the boat, and here was the slowly…