Mateo-10:23-39-rva

For Reading and Meditation:     Philippians 1:12-30

We come now to Christ's eighth and final prescription for good spiritual and mental health: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:10). The inevitable result of bringing our attitudes in line...

"Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven." Matthew 10:32

Gracious promise! It is a great joy to me to confess my LORD. Whatever my faults may be, I am not ashamed of Jesus, nor do I fear to declare the doctrines of His cross. O LORD, I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart.

Sweet is the prospect which the text sets before me! Friends forsake and...

The Christian will be sure to make enemies. It will be one of his objects to make none; but if to do the right, and to believe the true, should cause him to lose every earthly friend, he will count it but a small loss, since his great Friend in heaven will be yet more friendly, and reveal himself to him more graciously than ever. O ye who have taken up his cross, know ye not what your Master said? "I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother;...

No one will dispute this statement, for it would be unseemly for the servant to be exalted above his Master. When our Lord was on earth, what was the treatment he received? Were his claims acknowledged, his instructions followed, his perfections worshipped, by those whom he came to bless? No; "He was despised and rejected of men." Outside the camp was his place: cross-bearing was his occupation. Did the world yield him solace and rest? "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests;...

The Bible is fairly full of tokens of God's marvelous care for His people. During Israel's forty-year trek through the wilderness, they ate food from heaven (Exodus 16:4), had an unfailing supply of water (1 Corinthians 10:4), and were equipped with shoes that never wore out (Deuteronomy 29:5).

It is the same in our wilderness journey. To prove this,...

The omniscience of God means that He has perfect knowledge of everything. He has never learned and can never learn.

One of the great passages on the subject is Psalms 139:1-6, where David wrote: "O Lord, thou has searched me and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my...

Our Lord is not speaking here about the direct purpose of His coming but rather about its almost inevitable result. He is saying that whenever people would follow Him, they could expect bitter opposition from their relatives and friends. In that sense, He did not come to bring peace but a sword (v. 34).

History has fulfilled the prophecy. Wherever people have turned to the living, loving Savior, they have met with abuse and hostility. They have been ridiculed, disinherited, thrown out...

What an extraordinary world is this that such a sentence should ever have been uttered in it! Consider what is implied in these words. They manifestly imply that it is an opprobrious thing in the estimation of mankind to give honor to him who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and to acknowledge any connection with him. They imply that it is necessary to present the most powerful motives to the mind in order to subdue the feeling of shame that would naturally arise in the confession of...

Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. § No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You.

I want you to be without care. § Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Are not two sparrows sold for...

It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master.He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. § In the world you will have tribulation. § Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none. § At my first defense no one...