Each of us as God’s workmen will be either approved or ashamed. The word approved means “one who has been tested and found acceptable.” The word was once used to describe metals which had passed tests for quality. Each trial we go through forces us to study the Word to...

The Father is for us, and proved it by giving His Son. The Son is for us, and So is the Spirit. God is making all things work for us. In His Person and His providence, God is for us. Sometimes, like Jacob, we lament, “All these things are against...

We do not know when the Day of the Lord will happen, but we are told what will happen. Kenneth Wuest gives an accurate and graphic translation of 2 Peter 3:10: “The heavens with a rushing noise will be dissolved, and the elements being scorched will be dissolved, and the...

We cannot love and serve two masters (Matthew 6:24-34). We can be sure that, apart from Christ, even the material possessions of life give no lasting joy or pleasure. It is good to have the things money can buy, provided we do not lose the things that money cannot buy....

There is a real sense in which the Christian must be separated from “the world”—and by that term, I mean “society without God.” As the children of God, we are in the world physically but not of the world spiritually. We are sent into the world to let our lights...

Remember that hypocrisy robs us of reality in Christian living. We substitute reputation for character, mere words for true prayer, money for the devotion of the heart. No wonder Jesus compared the Pharisees to tombs that were whitewashed on the outside but filthy on the inside! Hypocrisy not only robs...

Phillips Brooks said, “The great purpose of life—the shaping of character by truth.” Godly character and conduct are far more important than golf trophies or home-run records, though it is possible for a person to have both. Paul challenged Timothy to be as devoted to godliness as an athlete is...

You do not become patient and persevering by reading a book (even this one) or listening to a lecture. You have to suffer. What were the believers in Thessalonica enduring? Paul used several words in 2 Thessalonians 1 to describe their situation: persecutions, which means “attacks from without,” or “trials”;...

In justification, God declares the believing sinner righteous; He does not make him righteous. Before the sinner trusts Christ, he stands guilty before God; but the moment he trusts Christ, he is declared not guilty and he can never be called guilty again! Justification is not simply “forgiveness,” because a...

The people of Israel in Moses’ day failed to claim their promised inheritance and thus were forced to wander about aimlessly in the wilderness. It is impossible to stand still in the Christian life; we either go forward and claim God’s blessing, or we go backward and flounder without a...