John 1:35-51

For Reading and Meditation:     Luke 15:1-10

We turn now to look at another aspect of Christianity's uniqueness - the issue of personal salvation. The vocabulary of salvation is distasteful to those of other religions and many insist we should give it up. They say, "It smacks of spiritual smugness and arrogance." But before we answer this criticism we must realize...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 20:24-31

Jesus Christ accepted worship as God. What other person in his right mind has ever made such a claim? Earlier Simon Peter had made the confession "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16), which was a profound and powerful statement. Some Bible...

WHEN the eyes of our understanding are opened by the Eternal Spirit, we begin to see out of darkness and obscurity; but our sight is imperfect, we have seen but little yet, there is much more behind to be revealed by-and-bye. We shall see greater depths of sin in our nature, and greater depths of grace in the person of Christ; we shall have clearer evidences of interest in Jesus, and see more of His love to us. We shall experience the cleansing efficacy of His precious blood to a greater...

Sin requires a sacrifice, and the sacrifice must be in proportion to the offence, and the dignity of the offended; such a sacrifice could not be found, but God condescended to provide one, which was no less a person than His only-begotten Son. This Lamb was provided to expiate and remove sin; to honour the divine government, and reconcile us to God.

Let us daily direct our attention to the Lamb of God, who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested...

"Thou shalt see greater than these." John 1:50

This is spoken to a child-like believer, who was ready to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel, upon one convincing piece of argument. Those who are willing to see shall see; it is because we shut our eyes that we become so sadly blind.

We have seen much already. Great things and unsearchable has the LORD showed unto us, for which we praise His name; but there are...

"And He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." John 1:51

Yes, to our faith this sight is plain even at this day. We do see heaven opened. Jesus Himself has opened that kingdom to all believers. We gaze into the place of mystery and glory, for He has revealed it to us. We shall enter it soon, for He is the way.

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This case is an excellent pattern of all cases where spiritual life is vigorous. As soon as a man has found Christ, he begins to find others. I will not believe that thou hast tasted of the honey of the gospel if thou canst eat it all thyself. True grace puts an end to all spiritual monopoly. Andrew first found his own brother Simon, and then others. Relationship has a very strong demand upon our first individual efforts. Andrew, thou didst well to begin with Simon. I doubt whether there...

The brothers of the Shulamite maiden had sent her to work in the vineyard. She kept so busy tending the vines that she neglected her own vineyard, that is, her personal appearance. Her skin had become swarthy and dried, and no doubt her hair was unkempt.

There is always the danger of neglecting our own vineyard by becoming overly occupied with someone else's. There is the peril, for instance, of becoming so engrossed with the evangelization of the world that one's own family is lost....

The normal method of personal evangelism is for Christians to witness for Christ within the context of their daily lives. This does not mean that God never uses the "cold turkey" approach, that is, walking up to total strangers and presenting the Gospel to them. He does! But it is far more convincing when a believer witnesses to people who know him and who can see that Christ makes a difference in his life. This is what Simon did.

Walter Henrichsen tells of a young man who was...