Daily Devotionals for October 18, 2021

What is God trying to do with His believing people"-the Bible calls us a remnant according to grace, believers taken out of the great, teeming swarm of so-called religious people in today's world. I am inclined to join others in wondering if the Lord is postponing His coming because He is trying to get His Bride ready" For years it has been the popular idea in evangelical Christianity that the whole body of believers in Christ would rise like a flock of frightened birds when the Lord comes....

Today we need people who dare to question the status quo and say, "Wait a minute here. Where do you find this in the Bible"" The idea that all you have to do is to accept Christ and you are in is a great mistake. It leaves people with the impression that if they accept Christ they have no fight to fight, no warfare, no job to do and no temptations. They are just in. When you accept Christ rightly as your Lord and Savior you are in, but to be honest, you have just started to fight. People get...

For Reading and Meditation:     Acts 2:29-41

Let us pursue the question we asked yesterday: What exactly do we mean by resurrection? Some try to explain the resurrection as resuscitation - the return to life from apparent death. Those holding this view subscribe to what is called "The Swoon Theory." There are two forms of this theory. One maintains that Jesus did...

The quiet mercies of the preceding verse are not in themselves the end of our Shepherd's guidance; they are means to an end, and that is - work. Life is not a fold for His sheep to he down in, but a road for them to walk on. All our blessings of every sort are indeed given us for our delight. They...

Let us inquire what is necessary, in order to the assurance that our God will answer us. We must really mean what we say when we pray. We must pray for a definite object. We must pray in accordance with the will of God, as revealed in His promises and precepts.

We must pray in submission to the will of God, as to the time when, and the means by which He will answer us. We must heartily desire what we pray for. Our motives must be pure, as that God may be glorified, sin subdued, and...

"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." Psalms 126:5

Weeping times are suitable for sowing: we do not want the ground to be too dry. Seed steeped in the tears of earnest anxiety will come up all the sooner. The salt of prayerful tears will give the good seed a flavor which will preserve it from the worm: truth spoken in awful earnestness has a double life about it. Instead of stopping our sowing because of our weeping, let us...

Christ has grace without measure in himself, but he hath not retained it for himself. As the reservoir empties itself into the pipes, so hath Christ emptied out his grace for his people. "Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." He seems only to have in order to dispense to us. He stands like the fountain, always flowing, but only running in order to supply the empty pitchers and the thirsty lips which draw nigh unto it. Like a tree, he bears sweet fruit, not to hang on...

This is no unusual occurrence; it is the general rule of the moral universe that those men prosper who do their work with all their hearts, while those are almost certain to fail who go to their labour leaving half their hearts behind them. God does not give harvests to idle men except harvests of thistles, nor is he pleased to send wealth to those who will not dig in the field to find its hid treasure. It is universally confessed that if a man would prosper, he must be diligent in...

When we first read these verses, they sound like the words of an immature braggart or a full grown egotist. In fact, we might almost be surprised to find such boasts in the Bible. They seem rather sub-Christian.

However, as we study the verses more closely, we find a key that removes the difficulty. The psalmist gives a reason for his superior understanding. He says, "… for thy testimonies are my meditation." In other words, he is saying that he has more understanding than all his...

What would this world be without calamity! Men talk about the mystery of present things. The mystery would be infinitely greater, if there was no affliction. We should be utterly at a loss to know what to make of the character of God, if unmingled prosperity were the lot of man. This world would then resemble a Hindoo heaven; and it would be necessary to suppose Hindoo gods presiding over it, in order to get rid of the monstrous anomaly of impenitent sinners occupying the seats of the...

1 Corinthians 10:23-33

Drunkenness is a sore peril. We cannot at once remove the evil from the land - but we may put into the hearts and minds of young people such principles and such motives that they may be able to resist the temptation about them and keep themselves pure and safe, clean and unspotted. Our Lord's prayer for His disciples was not that they should be taken out of the world, away from its...

I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:10; 11 NIV)

Perhaps one of the most significant things to any who are ot ignorant of his (Satan) devicesis that there never has been a...

This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you. § The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. § It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. § And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.” § With His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place … having obtained eternal redemption. § Peace through the blood of His cross. § You were not...

Amen! May the Lord God … say so too. § He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth. § When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself … For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed...

Resting in His glory there will manifest His humility in us here.

"Our hearts have such a tendency to turn back to legalism, and to think it humility. The only real humbleness and strength and blessing is to forget ourselves in the...