Psalm 119:1-56

BELOVED, we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth, as all our fathers were; our days are as a shadow, and there is no abiding. We are born from above and are bound for glory. We are distant from home, where our kindred, our treasure, and our hearts are found. Here we have no fixed residence; nor should we have any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. We are called to submit to many inconveniences. The Bible is our light, our food, our joy, and our...

It is unsafe and improper to trust our feelings or fancies; to listen to suggestions, or judge by appearances; the Christian's guide is God's word, and this should be the object of his trust. If we cannot take God's word and depend upon it, what can we trust?

It is true; on all necessary points plain; it has been tried and always found faithful. We should believe it, rely on it, plead it, expect its fulfilment, and comfort ourselves with it; especially when surrounded with...

There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The...

Whatever your especial need may be, you may readily find some promise in the Bible suited to it. Are you faint and feeble because your way is rough and you are weary? Here is the promise-"He giveth power to the faint." When you read such a promise, take it back to the great Promiser, and ask him to fulfil his own word. Are you seeking after Christ, and thirsting for closer communion with him? This promise shines like a star upon you-"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after...

There are divers kinds of vanity. The cap and bells of the fool, the mirth of the world, the dance, the lyre, and the cup of the dissolute, all these men know to be vanities; they wear upon their forefront their proper name and title. Far more treacherous are those equally vain things, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. A man may follow vanity as truly in the counting-house as in the theatre. If he be spending his life in amassing wealth, he passes his days in a vain...

The first and last words of this short prayer begin with the letters TV, and the verse is especially appropriate when applied to television. Most of the programs on TV are vanity. They picture a world that doesn't exist and a life that is far removed from reality.

Television is a robber of precious time. Watchers squander hours that can never be retrieved. Generally speaking, TV has caused a decline in Bible reading, thus tuning out the voice of God and lowering the spiritual...

God enlarges our heart by taking away from it the idea of our own righteousness and of our own strength; by taking away from us hardness of heart and insensibility; by delivering us from the oppressive fear of an offended God; by casting out a great deal of selfishness; by breathing into us the new life of faith in Christ, and making us buoyant with the delightful assurance of God's undeclining favor; by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.

Then no wonder that we run the way of...

Matthew 13:1-9; Matthew 18-23

Jesus was always teaching. On this particular day His pulpit was a fishing boat, from which He spoke to the multitudes standing on the shore. Perhaps there was a sower somewhere in sight, walking on his field, carrying his bag of grain and slinging his seed broadcast. The sight may have suggested the parable.

Matthew 13:1-9; Matthew 18-23

Jesus was always teaching. On this particular day His pulpit was a fishing boat, from which He spoke to the multitudes standing on the shore. Perhaps there was a sower somewhere in sight, walking on his field, carrying his bag of grain and slinging his seed broadcast. The sight may have suggested the parable.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For … your life is hidden with Christ in God. § For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to...