Jeremiah 17:10-18

For Reading and Meditation:     Jeremiah 9:17-24

A minister speaking at a recent conference of a well-known denomination said: "The reason why there is so much depletion of spiritual energy in people nowadays is due to the rush of modern-day life." But is this really true? If it is then it puts the blame for our condition outside of us rather than inside us - the...

For Reading and Meditation:     Psalm 51:1-12

We are looking at the Beatitudes as containing the principles which enable us to experience good mental and spiritual health. I cannot think of anything more psychologically in harmony with the best thinking of today's social scientists than the words of Jesus: "Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." We...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Corinthians 11:27-34

From what we have seen over the past few days, it is clear that the psalmist has come to the place where his views have changed. He sees that God is ruling over human affairs and that the ungodly are not in such an enviable situation after all. We come now to see that he was not only put right in his thinking...

For Reading and Meditation:     Jeremiah 17:5-13

We continue focusing on the thought that one of the reasons why we go through the same difficulties and problems year after year is that we never stop to examine ourselves and find out what makes us act the way we do. The psalmist examined himself in the presence of God and discovered that three things had led him...

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honour is to be given to God who giveth virtue unto medicine, and bestoweth power unto the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone; he claims it as his prerogative, "I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal;" and one of the Lord's choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee....

The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God's Word, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;" and it is a great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain...

"You may have already won $100,000!" With this and similar come-ons, we are constantly barraged by the temptation to participate in some form of gambling. The housewife shopping in the supermarket is enticed by the latest sweepstakes. The average citizen is encouraged to send his name (together with a subscription for a magazine) to participate in an upcoming lottery involving millions. Or it may be a bingo contest in which you are almost assured of being a winner.

Then, of course,...

For the devices of man only increase my malady. The utmost they can do is to conceal a plague spot here and a plague spot there; but concealment is not abatement. What is my pride the better for all their prescriptions? What have they done for my self-will? For my unbelief, slothfulness, irritability, prayerlessness, impulsiveness? I come to thee, Lord. He that created me, and whose creation I have spent my days in marring, can alone restore to me his image, and make me to walk in the health...

There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. § I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.In my prosperity I said, “I shall never be moved.” … You hid Your face, and I was troubled. I cried out to You, O Lord; and to the Lord I made supplication:  “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Will the dust...

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. § You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. § The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then . . . Peter went out and wept bitterly.Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should...