2 Corinthians 4:10-14

So strong, so beautiful is hope that it is scarcely possible to overpraise it. It is the divine alchemy that transmutes the base metal of adversity into gold. In the midst of death Paul could be bold and buoyant because he had firm confidence in the final outcome. "For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake," he said, but his heart remained cheerful knowing that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all"...

For Reading and Meditation:
     2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Today we stay with the thought that half our spiritual perplexities would never arise if we started out by being prepared not to understand immediately the things that God does or allows. We must accept that one of the fundamental principles of the Christian life is the truth that there will be many times when...

For Reading and Meditation:     Isaiah 40:21-31

T he man-centered focus that is creeping into today's Church must be resisted at all costs. Such matters as disciplining children, marital problems and establishing proper priorities should be addressed also, but we must be careful that "market forces" do not mold our theology. People may want to know about these...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

We continue meditating on the importance of looking at life "steadily and whole". I venture to suggest that people who are not Christians are unable to see life as a whole. How can they, when their thinking takes place only on the level of the natural? Natural thinking is notoriously partial and incomplete....

When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from … he said … , “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”The ear tests words as the palate tastes food. § I believed and therefore I spoke. § I know whom I have believed. § I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.The goodness of...

We have the same spirit of faith.As chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. § We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body … Therefore we do not lose...

For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9).

Our Lord the Vine provides all that His branches will ever need for fruit-bearing. All provision is according to our Father's riches in glory by Christ Jesus (