God’s majesty is displayed in every work of His creation. There is nothing about the natural environment that God has designed to surround and support us that does not show His greatness — if we have eyes to see and hearts to understand.
“It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is” (Tozer).
We need to redefine our personal concept of what greatness is and where it comes from. It is nothing less powerful than God’s gentleness that can make us great. And when it has done so, our own gentleness will be the strongest part of our strength.
Whatever we give is only a giving back to God — nevertheless, it is true that we are able to give of ourselves to God. And although our gifts fall short of the perfection He deserves, the wondrous truth is that God is still ready to receive them.
As we age, we know we’re getting very close to our heavenly home — and we cherish the love of a Father who waits for us there. “One sweetly solemn thought comes to me o’er and o’er: today I’m nearer to my home than e’er I’ve been before.”
As rebels against God’s love, we are right to fear the consequences of our rebellion. But the wonder of God’s character is the grace by which He is willing and able to make us His friends once again. He is eager to welcome us back home.
We must genuinely respect God’s will. As a man after God’s own heart, David could be counted on to trust God’s wisdom implicitly, carry out God’s instructions faithfully, and depend on God’s help humbly. We must choose to have the same character.
Since the old self never relinquishes its desires except when forced to do so, it will never find Jesus’ yoke “easy” and His burden “light.” So the old self must die and a new self must come to life. We must be “crucified with Christ.”
It is true spiritually, as well as physically, that growth requires the exertion of effort. It is inconsistent to say that we want to grow but do nothing in our actions to produce growth. Passivity only breeds weakness and leads to stagnation.
We misappropriate the truth God has revealed to mankind when we make it merely the grist for intellectual debate. When we study, we ought to be looking for “obeyable” information. To study for any other reason than obedience is actually dangerous.
It is encouraging that God is always at the door of our hearts, wanting us to open up and accept His gift of life. But it should sober us to ...
How should we respond to the truth that God gave His Son to save us? If we are to do more than just admire the beauty of the gospel, we ...
Material prosperity breeds a false confidence in ourselves and deludes us into thinking that we are self-sufficient. Like candy which makes us think we don’t need any food, physical comfort ...
None of us can figure this world out and control it. That’s the message of Ecclesiastes, and it prepares us for the gospel. It denies that we are the masters ...
What we lost in sin was not just biological life, but the life we would have had as “sons of God.” Jesus taught that this “eternal” kind of life can ...
What had to happen for us to enter God’s kingdom was the forgiveness of our sins. The means whereby God was able to do that was the death of His ...
The gospel is “the power of God,” but it is salvation that this power is for. Whatever secondary blessings may flow from Christ, His mission was to save us from ...
In baptism, the physical water itself does not wash away our sins. Our new lives are created “through faith in the powerful working of God” (Colossians 2:12). Baptism, then, is ...
Mankind never would have sinned if it had not believed the devil’s lie; so the only path out of sin is the one that leads back toward truth. The problem ...
John wrote about Jesus’ miracles “so that you may believe.” The miracles authenticated the truth of what Jesus claimed about Himself. Called “signs” by the gospel writers, they “signified” the ...
May we never underestimate the seriousness of what must happen to us in Christ. “Crucifixion” not too strong a word for it. It was distrust that drove us to sin. ...
In the world, obedience is often based on personal feelings or legal obligation, but in the gospel, it’s based on trust in God. Confident that His way is always the ...