Dear Ones: Our enemy is forever seeking to turn us in on ourselves, causing us to look within instead of away to Christ. Hence, we relate our “resources” to the issues at hand, instead of appropriating the living Christ for our needs. This is what is called “unbelief,” and the Lord is pleased only when…
Dear Ones: What a wonderful event it is when a family member or friend, whom we have not had the privilege to see and speak with for a long time , comes for a visit. What makes such a visit so enjoyable, rewarding, and encouraging is not the gifts that they may bring, or those…
Dear Ones: When I was a boy I remember having a rubber knife. At the time, I thought it was truly a great thing to have. But, I knew that it was a toy. Compare a rubber knife, regardless of it size and appearance, to a real sword. Go a step further and ask yourself…
Dear Ones: It is a rare thing to find someone who lives “before the Father.” And yet, the Lord Jesus did all things to please Him, only accomplishing that which He saw the Father do. It was to the Father that He constantly made His appeal for the answer to every need. This bears out…
Dear Ones: Samson had a good beginning, a faulty interlude, but finished well. Abraham had a good beginning, and in spite of errors and hesitancy, finished well. The list is very long in the Bible of those who had a good beginning, stumbled and sometimes fell along the way, but crossed the finish line in…
Dear Ones: Jesus once said that one could gain the whole world and lose his soul. He also said that there was a broad way that leads to destruction, and a narrow one that leads to life. Could it not be said that the concept of true greatness can be seen through the same prism,…
Dear Ones: There are certain pinnacles of history that are world-changing, life-changing. One of these occurred in the 8th century B.C. It had to do with a very knowledgeable, successful, and influential person whose name was Isaiah. In the sixth chapter of his book, we read that he had a vision of “…the Lord sitting…
Dear Ones: God is sometimes not a reality to us because we do not believe in the imminence of His presence, and the iminence of His present attitude towards the believer. We have the tendency to always relate everything in life to what we can see or grasp intellectually. We forget that the person of…
Dear Ones: In our culture of great possibilities, and because of our western mentality, not to mention the media that we are exposed to, we are apt to believe that life is composed of only great things. And yet, the Lord, with reference to the building of the temple, would say to Zechariah, “..for who…
Dear Ones: There is nothing so frustrating as seeing the necessity of climbing a wall, or scaling a mountain, and not being able to do so. And what makes it even more imperative is the demand by circumstances…it is essential, perhaps to life itself. It is those moments, or perhaps days, that two questions must…