Tag: Devotional

  • WHAT IS A QUIET TIME?

    A quiet time is a meeting with God. The presence of God is the birthright of every believer. This is important to fix in your mind. Otherwise quiet time can become merely a set of routines and techniques for Bible study and prayer. As we cultivate a quiet time, we take seriously the pervasive theme…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Pilate delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were inter-twisted every here and there among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration,…

  • TAUNTING DEATH

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 33:50-34:29; 1 Corinthians 15:35-58; Psalm 29:1-11 My best friend’s mother, a dear family friend, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). Over the span of three years, the disease attacked her nerve cells, starting with her hands and feet and moving inward to her vital organs. Every time I visited her, she would…

  • WHY YOU NEED A QUIET TIME

    Several years ago I visited the Art Institute of Chicago. I took an entire day to walk through the European art, beginning in the fourteenth century and moving from room to room until I reached the twentieth century. The early rooms contained nothing but religious art; the last rooms, nothing but secular art. Somewhere along…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    Why did Jesus suffer himself to be enrolled amongst sinners? This wonderful condescension was justified by many powerful reasons. In such a character he could the better become their advocate. In some trials there is an identification of the counsellor with the client, nor can they be looked upon in the eye of the law…

  • PRAYER AND HOPE FOR THE ANXIOUS

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 33:1-49; 1 Corinthians 15:12-34; Psalm 28:1-9 Anxiety, depression, and fear aren’t part of the Christian life—or the ideal Christian life, anyway. But for those who struggle with these emotions, this tidy concept isn’t helpful or true. What is helpful is hope and belief in the midst of tumultuous emotion. The writer of…

  • THE BENEFITS OF A QUIET TIME

    Where is God? My faith seemed like a burden, and the uncertain future appeared to be a dead end. And God was silent. Or if he was speaking and guiding, it was not apparent to me. We were living in England on a short-term mission assignment. Our term was almost over, the lease on our…

  • MORNING & EVENING

    We are told that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, therefore we who are sinful, and who are far from being perfect, must not wonder if we are called to pass through suffering too. Shall the head be crowned with thorns, and shall the other members of the body be rocked…

  • RISK: OVERSOLD AND UNDERPLAYED

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 32:1-42; 1 Corinthians 14:26-15:11, Psalm 27:1-14 The fears of the psalmist are not our fears today, and the fact that they aren’t should bother us. The psalmist remarks, “Do not give me over to the desire of my enemies, because false witnesses have arisen against me, and each breathing out violence. Surely…

  • DRAWING CLOSE TO GOD

    The Benefits of Quiet Time Where is God?” My faith seemed like a burden, and the uncertain future appeared to be a dead end. And God was silent. Or if he was speaking and guiding, it was not apparent to me. We were living in England on a short-term mission assignment. Our term was almost…