Devotions

The Great Mystery For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) Obedience to Jesus’ authority provides the key to understanding what is for many the great mystery of Christianity: faith. Saving faith-that by which we are justified, made right with God-is a gift of God; and yes, it involves a rational process as well because it comes from hearing the Word of God.…

Only Through Experience O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you.(John 17:25) Scripture is filled with descriptions of God’s character. You can read these accounts and believe them to be true about God. Yet God does not merely want you to read about Him, He wants you to know Him. For the Greeks, to know something meant you understood a…

Hearing God Let me hear what God the Lord will speak.(Psalm 85:8) Hearing God? A daring idea, some would say-presumptuous and even dangerous. But what if we were made for it? What if the human system simply will not function properly without it? There are good reasons to think it will not. The fine texture as well as the grand movements of life show the need. Is it not,…

All the Sweeter Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!(Psalm 24:10) To have found God and still pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. Saint Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be…

The Ease of Mistrust Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the Living God.(Hebrews 3:12) I sympathize with those who find it difficult to trust God in adversity. I’ve been there often enough myself to know something of the distress, despair, and darkness that fills our souls when we wonder if God truly…

One Deep Blessed Cry The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord, he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. (Psalm 37:39) Our heart is the scene of a divine operation more wonderful than Creation. We can do as little toward the work as toward creating the world, except as God works in us to will and to do. God only asks of us to yield, to consent, to wait upon…

Moving Forward With God The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.(John 14:26) I have found that God always has a fresh and deeper truth He wants us to learn about Him. So once He has taught you one thing, get ready for the next marvelous truth God will soon introduce. God’s Holy Spirit is your personal teacher. He…

Personal and Conscious Let him who boasts in this, that he understands and knows me. (Jeremiah 9:24) God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality, He communicates with us through the avenues of our…

Surveying a Great Mountain And many peoples shall come, and say; “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.”(Isaiah 2:3) Recognizing that the study of God is worthwhile, we prepare to start. But where shall we start from? How do we plot our course? Five basic truths, five foundation-principles of the knowledge about God that Christians have, will determine our…

The Keynote of Life When the Lord restores the fortunes of His people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.(Psalm 14:7)   “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!”( Genesis 49:18) It is not easy to say exactly in what sense Jacob used these words, in the midst of his prophecies in regard to the future of his sons. But they do certainty dictate that both for…