James 1:14-15

For Reading and Meditation:     James 1:12-20

Yesterday we saw that the first step the psalmist took, the step which helped to save him from spiritual disaster, was most surprising. In the midst of overwhelming temptation, he says to himself: "If I give expression to my doubts and speak out of my envious, discouraged heart, I will put a stumbling-block in someone...

For Reading and Meditation:     James 1:1-18

The Bible is replete with instances of God's wisdom moving men and women through the most difficult times to the most wonderful ends. Take Abraham for example. Although he is known in Scripture as the "the friend of God," he was capable of some shabby behavior. On one occasion he actually compromised his wife's chastity ...

For Reading and Meditation:     Hebrews 10:19-31

The Bible is a veritable mine of information on the fact of God's faithfulness. More than 4,000 years ago He said: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease" (Genesis 8:22). Every year furnishes...

For Reading and Meditation: 1 Corinthians 9:15-27

We continue meditating on the idea that everything we do represents a goal. In fact, most of the frustration we experience in life comes from wrong goals and blocks to those goals. Let me illustrate. Cast your mind back to the last time you were angry. If you can identify your goal and what blocked your goal, then you have the clue to...

For Reading and Meditation:     Psalm 149:1-9

We come now to Christ's third prescription for happiness: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). How we have shied away from that word "meek". We have thought of meekness as weakness and thus have a totally wrong concept of what Jesus meant....

A. P. Gibbs used to say, "You are not what you think you are, but what you think - this is what you are." This means that the mind is the spring from which behavior flows. Control the source and you control the stream that flows from it.

Therefore control of the thought-life is basic. That is why Solomon said, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23) Here the heart is used as a synonym for the...

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be temped by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.[They] lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit … was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days...

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. § Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was...

Return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity; take words with you, and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; receive us graciously.”Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God.” … But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed … Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no...