A congregation was singing the familiar song “For You I Am Praying,” as the closing hymn. The preacher turned to a man on the platform and asked quietly, “For whom are you praying?” The man was stunned. “Why, I guess I am not praying for anybody. Why do you ask?”...
When Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a young preacher, his father, the Rev. John Spurgeon, suggested that Charles go to college to gain prominence. It was arranged for him to meet Dr. Joseph Angus, the principal of Stepney College, London. They were to meet at Mr. Macmillan’s home in Cambridge, and...
There are two “living sacrifices” in the Bible, and they help us understand what a “living sacrifice” really is. The first is Isaac (Genesis 22); the second is our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaac willingly put himself on the altar and would have died in obedience to God’s will, but the...
Food and “covering” (clothing and shelter) are basic needs; if we lose them, we lose the ability to obtain other things. A miser without food would starve to death counting his money. I am reminded of the simple-living Quaker who was watching his new neighbor move in, with all the...
Jesus said that worry is sinful. We may dignify worry by calling it by some other name—concern, burden, a cross to bear—but the results are still the same. Instead of helping us live longer, anxiety only makes life shorter. “Take no thought for your life” (Matthew 6:25). The Greek words...
The religious experts in Christ’s day judged Him by their human standards—and rejected Him. He came from the wrong city, Nazareth of Galilee. He was not a graduate of their accepted schools. He did not have the official approval of the people in power. He had no wealth. His followers...
Thoreau once described a city as a place where many people are “lonely together.” Residents of a high-rise apartment can be suffering greatly while the people in the next apartment know nothing about it. Our world can promote spiritual and emotional isolation and insulation, even to the point that we...
Greatness without goodness would make God a selfish tyrant; goodness without greatness would make Him willing to help us but incapable of acting. Whatever God thinks, says, does, plans, and accomplishes is good. He can never will anything evil for us because He is the giver of everything good. In...
The next time you sing “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” recall the following story. The hymn’s composer, Robert Robinson, was converted under the mighty preaching of George Whitefield, but later drifted from the Lord. Greatly used as a pastor, Robinson nevertheless neglected spiritual things. In an attempt to find...
Jesus made it clear that the Son is to be worshiped as well as the Father, “that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent Him” (John 5:23-24, NIV). The late Dr. M.R. DeHaan,...