Readiness
God called unto him and he said, Here am I
Exodus 3:4
When God speaks, many of us are like men in a fog, we give no answer. Moses' reply revealed that he was somewhere. Readiness means a right relationship to God and a knowledge of where we ... read more
Recall What God Remembers
I remember
the kindness of thy youth.
Jeremiah 2:2
Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because thin ... read more
Receiving One's Self In The Fires Of Sorrow
What shall I say? Father, save me, from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.
John 12:27-29
My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is not to ask that they may be prevented, but to ask that I ... read more
Reconciliation
For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independen ... read more
Reconciling One's Self To The Fact Of Sin
This is your hour, and the power of darkness."
Luke 22:53
It is not being reconciled to the fact of sin that produces all the disasters in life. You may talk about the nobility of human nature, but there is something in human nature which ... read more
Redemption Creates The Need It Satisfies
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.
1 Corinthians 2:14
The Gospel of God creates a sense of need of the Gospel. Paul says - "If our gospel be hid, it is hid" - to those who ... read more
Repentance
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.
2 Corinthians 7:10
Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words -
"My sins, my sins, my Saviour,
How sad on Thee they fall."
Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that e ... read more
Sacramental Service
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ
.
Colossians 1:2
The Christian worker has to be a sacramental "go-between," to be so identified with his Lord and the reality of His R ... read more
Sanctification
This is the will of God, even your sanctification.
1 Thessalonians 4:3
The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Many of us spend so much time in the place of death that we get s ... read more
Self-Consciousness
Come unto Me."
Matthew 11:28
God means us to live a fully-orbed life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, and we tumble into a way of introspection which we thought had gone. Self-consciousness ... read more
Service Of Passionate Devotion
Lovest thou Me?
Feed My sheep.
John 21:16
Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; ... read more
Shall I Rouse Myself Up To This?
Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1
"Having therefore these promises." I claim the fulfilment of God's promises, and rightly, but that is only the human side; the Divine side is that through the promises I recognize ... read more
Shallow And Profound
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life are not ordained of God; they are as much of God as the profound. ... read more
Signs Of The New Birth
Ye must be born again.
John 3:7
The answer to the question "How can a man he born when he is old?" is - When he is old enough to die - to die right out to his "rag rights," to his virtues, to his religion, to everything, and to receive i ... read more
Something More About His Ways
He comes where He commands us to leave.
"When Jesus had made an end of commanding his disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities."
Matthew 11:1
If when God said "Go," you stayed because you were so concerned ... read more
Springs Of Benignity
The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water.
John 4:14
The picture Our Lord gives is not that of a channel but a fountain. "Be being filled," and the sweetness of vital relationship to Jesus will flow out of the saint a ... read more
Still Human!
Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
The great marvel of the Incarnation slips into ordinary childhood's life; the great marvel of the Transfiguration vanishes in the devil-possessed valley; the glory of the Res ... read more
Sublime Intimacy
Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?"
John 11:40
Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your ... read more
Substitution
He hath made Him to be sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God
2 Corinthians 5:21
The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sin not by ... read more
Take The Initiative
Add to your faith virtue
2 Peter 1:5
"Add" means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, G ... read more
The Abandonment Of God
God so loved the world that He gave
John 3:16
Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself. My experimental knowledge ... read more
The Absoluteness Of Jesus Christ
He shall glorify Me.
John 16:14
The pietistic movements of to-day have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them; there is nothing about them that needs the Death of Jesus Christ; all that is required is a pious atmosphere, ... read more
The Account with Persecution
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:39, etc)
These verses reveal the humiliation of being a Christian. Naturally, if a man does not hit back, it is becau ... read more
The Account With Persecution
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."
Matthew 5:39
These verses reveal the humiliation of being a Christian. Naturally, if a man does not hit back, it i ... read more
The Account With Purity
Out of the heart proceed
Matthew 15:18-20
We begin by trusting our ignorance and calling it innocence, by trusting our innocence and calling it purity; and when we hear these rugged statements of Our Lord's, we shrink and say - But I neve ... read more
The Afterwards Of The Life Of Power
Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.
John 13:36
"And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, Follow Me." Three years before, Jesus had said - "Follow Me," and Peter had followed easily, the ... read more
The Authority Of Reality
Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.
James 4:8
It is essential to give people a chance of acting on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual, you cannot act for him, it must be his own deliberate act, ... read more
The Baffling Call Of God
And all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished
And they understood none of these things.
Luke 18:31,34
God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His di ... read more
The Bent Of Regeneration
When it pleased God . . to reveal His Son in me.
Galatians 1:15,16
If Jesus Christ is to regenerate me, what is the problem He is up against? I have a heredity I had no say in; I am not holy, nor likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do ... read more
The Bias Of Degeneration
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man's sin; but that the dispositio ... read more
The Big Compelling Of God
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.
Luke 18:31
Jerusalem stands in the life of Our Lord as the place where He reached the climax of His Father's will. "I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me." That was the one ... read more
The Bounty Of The Destitute
Being justified freely by His grace
Romans 3:24
The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in ... read more
The Bow In The Cloud
"I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth." Genesis 9:13
It is the Will of God that human beings should get into moral relationship with Him, and His covenants are for this purpose. Why does n ... read more
The Bow In The Cloud
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth.
Genesis 9:13
It is the Will of God that human beings should get into moral relationship with Him, and His covenants are for this purpose. Why d ... read more
The Brave Comradeship Of God
Then He took unto Him the twelve.
Luke 18:31
The bravery of God in trusting us! You say - "But He has been unwise to choose me, because there is nothing in me; I am not of any value." That is why He chose you. As long as you think there is ... read more
The Burning Heart
Did not our heart burn within us?
Luke 24:32
We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions, then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart tha ... read more
The Call Of God
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:17
Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel; but remember what Paul means by "the gospel," viz., the reality of Redemption in our Lord Jesus ... read more
The Collision Of God And Sin
Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.
1 Peter 2:24
The Cross of Jesus is the revelation of God's judgment on sin. Never tolerate the idea of martyrdom about the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross was a superb triumph in ... read more
The Commission Of The Call
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake.
Colossians 1:24
We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God He ... read more
The Concentration of Personal Sin
Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips. (Isaiah 6:5)
When I get into the presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense; I realize the concentration of sin in a particular feature of my life. A man w ... read more
The Concentration Of Personal Sin
Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.
Isaiah 6:5
When I get into the presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense; I realize the concentration of sin in a particular feature of my life ... read more
The Concentration Of Spiritual Energy
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians 6:14
If you want to know the energy of God (i.e., the resurrection life of Jesus) in your mortal flesh, you must brood on the tragedy of God. Cut yourself off from prying personal inter ... read more
The Conditions of Discipleship
If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26, also 27, 33)
If the closest relationships of life clash with the claims of Jesus Christ, He says it must be instant obedience to Himself. Discipleship means personal, pass ... read more
The Conditions Of Discipleship
If any man come to Me, and hate not
he cannot be My disciple.
Luke 14:26,27,33
If the closest relationships of life clash with the claims of Jesus Christ, He says it must be instant obedience to Himself. Discipleship means personal, passio ... read more
The Consciousness Of The Call
For necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
1 Corinthians 9:16
We are apt to forget the mystical, supernatural touch of God. If you can tell where you got the call of God and all about it, I question wheth ... read more
The Consecration Of Spiritual Energy
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Galatians 6:14
If I brood on the Cross of Christ, I do not become a subjective pietist, interested in my own whiteness; I become dominantly concentrated on Jesus Christ's interes ... read more
The Constraint Of The Call
Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
1 Corinthians 9:16
Beware of stopping your ears to the call of God. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact; but that is not the call to preach, it is merely an illustration in preac ... read more
The Cross In Prayer
At that day ye shall ask in My name.
John 16:26
We are too much given to thinking of the Cross as something we have to get through; we get through it only in order to get into it. The Cross stands for one thing only for us - a complete and e ... read more
The Delight Of Despair
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.
Revelation 1:17
It may be that like the apostle John you know Jesus Christ intimately, when suddenly He appears with no familiar characteristic at all, and the only thing you can do is to fall ... read more
The Delight Of Sacrifice
I will very gladly spend and be spent for you;
2 Corinthians 12:15
When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ's interests in other people, and Jesus Ch ... read more
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