Revelation 2:9-11

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 10:1-20

We are saying that many Christians are ineffective witnesses because they attempt to water down their testimony to avoid persecution - and end up achieving nothing. Once we accept that those who reject Christ and His teaching will also reject us, we will then be free to throw our whole weight on the side of Christ and...

REAL saints always feel themselves to be poor sinners. Many of God's people are really poor in reference to the things of time, for God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him. They are often persecuted, tried, tempted and cast down; so was the church in Smyrna; but Jesus says to her, "THOU ART RICH." So are all the Lord's people. Rich by relation--God is their Father, and Jesus their elder Brother. Rich by...

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." Revelation 2:11

The first death we must endure unless the LORD should suddenly come to His temple. For this let us abide in readiness, awaiting it without fear, since Jesus has transformed death from a dreary cavern into a passage leading to glory.

The thing to be feared is not the first but...

This fruit of the Spirit is generally understood as being faithfulness. It is not the faith that saves, or the trust we exercise in God day by day (although it may include that). Rather it is our fidelity and dependability in our dealings with the Lord and with one another. Someone has defined it as being "true to oneself, to one's nature, to any promise given, to any trust committed."

When we say that a man's word is his bond, we mean that in dealing with him, no written contract is...

It is important to know the devices of our enemy, the Devil. Otherwise he is likely to take advantage of us.

We should know that he is a liar, and has been from the beginning. In fact, he is the father of lies (John 8:44). He lied to Eve by misrepresenting God, and he has been doing it ever since.

He is a deceiver (Revelation 20:10). He mixes a little truth with error. He imitates or...

Seven times in His letters to the churches of Asia, the Lord Jesus says "I know" and usually those words are used in a favorable sense. "I know thy works…thy labour…thy patience…thy tribulation…thy poverty…and charity…and faith." In those words "I know" there is tremendous comfort and sympathy and encouragement for God's people.

Lehman Strauss points out that when Jesus said "I know," "He did not use the word ginoske, which frequently means to know in the...

The meaning is not. Be thou faithful all thy days; but, have thou that faithfulness which characterizes the martyr disciple, leads him to count not his life dear unto himself, and enables him at any moment to lay it own freely in the service of his Master. The expression does not refer to length of service, but to entireness of consecration. Be thou unrebukably faithful in all possible situations and circumstances.

Christ requires of every disciple that he should have the spirit of a...

Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of...