Today my thoughts are taken up with our Lord’s promise to return for His church. I think of His words in Jn 14.2-3, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” O the joy of that promise! O the blessing of those precious words to my soul! Will you pause and think with me a moment? Continue reading “Thoughts of His return”
Thoughts of earth
My thoughts soared high yesterday as I dwelt upon the joys, the happiness, and the eternal fullness of living in the presence of God and growing in the knowledge of God forever. Today my thoughts are sobered by the present realities of dwelling upon this earth. Life, as the poets say, is a vale of tears. Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulation (Jn 16.33), and Paul said, we must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations (Acts 14.22). Why, then, should we expect comfort in this world? Continue reading “Thoughts of earth”
Soul-sickness
We’ve got pills for everything! There’s a pill for every sickness, a dose of something or another for every discomfort. Given what stocks the shelves in your local pharmacy, there’s practically no reason to be sick today, no reason to be uncomfortable. Just to go the pharmacy, get what you need, and in no time you’ll be right as rain. And that’s just what we do. The minute we feel a sickness coming on, we’re off to the pharmacy for Vitamin C, Zinc, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, &c. No time to waste; no time to be sick; we can’t afford to be down. I’ve often wondered why we don’t treat soul-sickness the same way. Continue reading “Soul-sickness”
Getting victory over your sin
Jesus tells us to watch and pray in order that we might not enter into temptation (Mt 26.41). So why does it so often happen that we watch and pray and then still find ourselves falling into sin? The answer is because we’re watching and praying against the sin and not against the temptation. We’re on guard against the sin but not against the temptations which give rise to it. Continue reading “Getting victory over your sin”
No longer a slave to sin, Part 2
In yesterday’s post I explained from Rom 7 that in regeneration believers are freed from the dominion of sin as a law over them. They are now placed under the law of the Spirit of life, by which they delight in good (6.17-18) and desire to do good (7.18, 21). And the discovery of the opposition and resistance of sin in them when they would do good (7.21-23) is actually an encouraging sign of grace. Continue reading “No longer a slave to sin, Part 2”