約翰壹書 5:10-13 Cunpts

All things else being equal, the destiny of a man or nation may safely be predicted from the idea of God which that man or that nation holds. No nation can rise higher than its conception of God. While Rome held to her faith in the stern old gods of the Pantheon she remained an iron kingdom. Her citizens unconsciously imitated the character of her gods, however erroneous their conception of the Deity might have been. When Rome began to think loosely about God she began to rot inwardly, and...

Since true faith rests upon what God is, it is of utmost importance that, to the limit of our comprehension, we know what He is. "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee" (Psalms 9:10). The name of God is the verbal expression of His character, and confidence always rises or falls with known character. What the psalmist said was simply that they who know God to be the kind of God He is will put their confidence in Him. This is not a...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 John 4:17-21;5:1-12

Although the love of God is clearly laid out in the Old Testament, why did humankind have to wait so long to have the message spelled out in such clear terms as John uses: God is love? People could not see this sufficiently clearly until they had looked into the face of Jesus. In the life of Jesus is the...

For Reading and Meditation:     Hebrews 10:19-25

In every religion in the world apart from Christianity there is a note of uncertainty concerning this matter of personal salvation. Many modern religious attitudes are expressed in the limerick: For as much as without Thee We are not able to doubt Thee, O grant us Thy grace To inform the whole race That we know...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 5:31-47

Jesus claimed to be greater than the Scriptures. Everyone else has to put themselves under the authority of the Scriptures. In one sense, of course, Christ subjected Himself to the Scriptures, but in another sense He was superior to them. He did not emerge from the Bible; the Bible emerged from Him. The Amplified Bible...

"Through faith we understand…" These words embody one of the most basic principles of spiritual life. We believe God's Word first, then we understand. The world says, "Seeing is believing;" God says, "Believing is seeing." The Lord Jesus said to Martha, "Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see…"(John 11:40). Later He said to Thomas, "…blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (

Some of us will be eternally thankful to God for this verse because it taught us that assurance of salvation comes first and foremost through the Word of God and not through feelings. The Bible was written, among other reasons, so that those who believe on the Name of the Son of God can know that they have eternal life.

We can be thankful that assurance does not come through feelings, because they fluctuate with every passing day. "God does not ask the soul to say, 'Thank God I feel so...

Faith is implicit trust in the Word of God. It is confidence in the trustworthiness of God. It is the conviction that what God says is true and that what He promises will come to pass. It deals primarily in the realm of the future ("things hoped for") and the realm of the invisible ("things not seen").

Whittier said that "the steps of faith fall on the seeming void, and find the rock beneath." But not so! Faith is no leap in the dark. It demands the surest evidence, and finds that...

God had given the land of Canaan to the people of Israel. It was theirs by divine promise. But they still had to make it their own. They had to occupy it. The rule of possession was, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you."

God has given us many great and precious promises. The Bible is full of them. But we must appropriate them by faith. Only then are they really ours.

Take, for instance, the promises concerning salvation. The Lord...

There is much evidence given anterior to faith; abundant evidence; far more than men care to gather up, concerning anything of worldly interest. Yet the greatest and most surprising testimonies are reserved for the satisfaction of believers. If unbelief has its necessities, faith has its privileges. Some would like to have, without any figure, a white stone thrown down to them from heaven, with their name upon it, beside the name of God - something that they can clutch in their hand. But...