2 Corinthians 4:9

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:     1 Peter 4:7-19

We continue focusing on the fact that many Christians are persecuted, not because of identifying with Christ, but because of their tactlessness and folly. This eighth Beatitude - "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" - does not apply to such people. Let us...

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....

Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.”I have forgotten prosperity. And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord.” § Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever. § Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over...

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...