Job 13:1-28

It is fear of falling into the hands of God that makes us so eager to get things reduced to a formula. We feel that if we can learn the "secret" of salvation or the "steps" into the blessed life, we can control our future and (though we would not admit it) control God Himself to a large degree. This saves face and preserves our self-confidence, but it also mutes the voice of power in the gospel and weakens the operations of God in the soul. Only the despairing heart can know the inward...

It is fear of falling into the hands of God that makes us so eager to get things reduced to a formula. We feel that if we can learn the "secret" of salvation or the "steps" into the blessed life, we can control our future and (though we would not admit it) control God Himself to a large degree. This saves face and preserves our self-confidence, but it also mutes the voice of power in the gospel and weakens the operations of God in the soul. Only the despairing heart can know the inward...

For Reading and Meditation:     Job 13:13-19

We ended yesterday with the thought that the moments after we have been saved from slipping and sliding, but are left with our main problem still unresolved, are exceedingly critical. Why critical? Because, as we said, the desire to relieve the pain that is going on inside us can sometimes lead us to settle for answers...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Peter 1:1-7

Today we examine the fact that although the psalmist's feet are no longer slipping and sliding, he continues to struggle inwardly with his problem. Listen to what he says: "But when I considered how to understand this, it was too great an effort for me and too painful" (Psalm...

Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God's people is? Think how heinous is your own transgression, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like an alp, but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelian upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain. What an aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of God's children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the...

The insistent voice of the Holy Spirit reminds mortal man frequently in the Scriptures of the brevity of his life. By the repeated use of similes, the Spirit of the Lord impresses on us that our days are limited and passing swiftly.

For instance, He likens life to a weaver's shuttle (Job 7:6), the device that darts back and forth in the loom almost faster than the eye can follow.

Job speaks of life as wind (

If we want a sublime utterance, here is one. Let us give glory to that Blessed Spirit of grace, who thus sometimes teaches the lips of man wondrous things.

Though he slay me, - not simply, though he take away my life. Job would have had no reluctance to part with his life. It would have been an inexpressible relief to him to escape from the load of misery laid upon him. The expression, " Though he slay me," is the strongest possible, and startles us with an exhibition of peculiar...

The Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from evil" (2 Thess. 3:3, R.V.).

When once we see and accept His purpose for our lives to the extent that it becomes our will also, the details of His process cease to matter. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (