Daily Devotionals for August 7, 2024

Perseverance is the badge of true saints. The Christian life is not a beginning only in the ways of God, but also a continuance in the same as long as life lasts. It is with a Christian as it was with the great Napoleon: he said, "Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me." So, under God, dear brother in the Lord, conquest has made you what you are, and conquest must sustain you. Your motto must be, "Excelsior." He only is a true conqueror, and shall be crowned at the...

Just as those who lived in the past had the privilege of being God's people of faith then, so do we in our own day! It is good to come to the understanding that while God wants us to be holy and Spirit-filled, He does not expect us to look like Abraham or to play the harp like David or to have the same spiritual insights given to Paul. All of the former heroes of the faith are dead. You are alive in your generation. A Bible proverb says that it is better to be a living dog than a dead lion....

Care, even though exercised upon legitimate objects, if carried to excess, has in it the nature of sin. The precept to avoid anxious care is earnestly inculcated by our Saviour, again and again; it is reiterated by the apostles; and it is one which cannot be neglected without involving transgression: for the very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting ourselves into his place to do for him that which he has undertaken to do for us. We attempt...

That I may know him" (Phil. 3:10).

"The one unchanging factor on this earth is the Word of God. It is upon the written Word, and in the Living Word, that the Christian life is to be established. Yet there are Christians throughout the world who are seeking to get along on the basis of questionable blessings, and fluctuating self-centered...

There has probably never been another time in the history of the world when so many people knew so much about religious happenings as they do today. The newspapers are eager to print religious news; the secular news magazines devote several pages of each issue to the doings of the church and the synagogue; a number of press associations gather church news and make it available to the religious journals at a small cost. Even the hiring of professional publicity men to plug one or another...

"Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law, which Moses My servant commanded thee: turn not from It to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest." Joshua 1:7

Yes, the LORD will be with us in our holy war, but He demands of us that we strictly follow His rules. Our victories will very much depend upon our obeying Him with all our heart,...

WHO is this proposing to come quickly? Is it an enemy threatening us? Is it a stranger? No, it is JESUS whom we love, speaking to cheer us. It is IMMANUEL, to whom we are betrothed in righteousness, judgment, lovingkindness, mercies, and faithfulness. It is our SAVIOUR, who saved us by His death, and preserves us by His life. He will come shortly, the period cannot be far distant. He will come gladly, with delight and pleasure, to receive us to Himself. "Surely," He says, "I come quickly;"...

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. § If you … , being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! § Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. § You...

Matthew 24:32-51

It was Tuesday evening. Jesus had left the temple, to return to it no more. His last words to the people had been spoken. On the way His disciples called His attention to the temple, perhaps suggesting its magnificence and its solidity. It was indeed a wonderful building. But Jesus said, "I tell you the truth - not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."

The little company moved out...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 12:11

Living as he did in an agricultural community, it is easy to see why Solomon likens words to goads. A goad is a long stick with an iron point that is jabbed against the tough hindquarters of an animal to make it increase its speed. Words motivate and urge us to action. The New Living translation used a different...

In this exalted passage, the Messiah is describing some of the marvelous exchanges which He brings to those who receive Him. He gives beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for heaviness.

We bring Him the ashes of a life burned out with pleasure, the ashes of a body ruined by liquor or drugs. We bring Him the ashes of wasted years in the wilderness, or the ashes of frustrated hopes and shattered dreams. And what do we get? He gives us beauty, the beauty of a dazzling bridal diadem....

If we are created anew, we are created unto good works. The world ought not to be angry with God for creating men anew; for he is creating them for this among other things that they may tread in the footsteps of 'their Divine Master and abound in good works to their fellow-men. The world, how ever, is irritated at the proposition that men need a special creation in order to become competent to bestow good gifts. It professes to be able to point to men, who have spent for tune, time, health,...

Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. § He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.To you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” § Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but...