Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

For Reading and Meditation:     Galatians 4:1-8

The Incarnation, we are saying, is one of the chief distinctives of the Christian faith. But there are some within the Church today who cast doubt on this and many other aspects of Christianity. The Christian faith is being attacked not only from the outside but also from within. The source of these attacks can be...

For Reading and Meditation:     Hebrews 10:1-18

We talked two days ago of humanity's efforts to try to reach God through philosophy and moralism or the law. The inadequacy, even bankruptcy, of trying to find God through the law is brought out most clearly in the passage before us today. The law, we are told, contains no true image, merely a shadow. It was the Word...

For Reading and Meditation:     Colossians 1:1-20

Does salvation come up from mankind through striving, helped by the Divine, or does it come down to us from above, through the act of God and our receptivity of that act? Is it an attainment or an obtainment? The answers separate Christianity from all other religions. Non-Christian religions teach that salvation is...

For Reading and Meditation:     Isaiah 7:13-17

Some religions, such as Hinduism, claim that their gods incarnate themselves, but those so-called incarnations are rooted in fantasy, not in fact. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is not just a great idea - it really happened. There were eyewitnesses and a written record. The genius of Christianity is that it is not...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 6:60-71

The next aspect of Christian uniqueness we consider is the Person of our Lord Himself. "Christianity is Christ," said one great preacher. "He is not just the Founder of Christianity but its very foundation. On Him rests the weight of bringing all men and women to God." It is important to reflect at this point, as John...

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 7:13-29

If the men and women of this world took an unbiased look at Jesus as presented to us in the four Gospels, they would see, as Bishop Stephen Neill put it, that "Jesus Christ is not in the least like anyone else who has ever lived." The way He taught, for example, is not the same as that of any other religious teacher....

For Reading and Meditation:     John 8:31-47

Jesus publicly made the challenge: " Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?" Here we are face to face with a kind of person who had not been seen since Adam in his pre-fallen condition - a man without sin. The disciples had shared every kind of experience with Him that mortals can share, had seen Him at all hours of day...

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 12:1-14

We continue reflecting on the thought that Jesus Christ is not like anyone else who has ever lived. Take the claim which He made in our text today: "One greater than the temple is here." Jesus in effect compared Himself with the temple's grandeur and significance as the center of Jewish life and said: "I am greater...

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...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 5:31-47

Jesus claimed to be greater than the Scriptures. Everyone else has to put themselves under the authority of the Scriptures. In one sense, of course, Christ subjected Himself to the Scriptures, but in another sense He was superior to them. He did not emerge from the Bible; the Bible emerged from Him. The Amplified Bible...

For Reading and Meditation:
     John 13:1-38

What other teacher has taken the Ten Commandments and had the right to add another commandment to them? But this is precisely what Jesus did, as we see from our text today. "A new command I give you," He said. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

The Old Testament and other...

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 9:1-12

Perhaps one of the most significant ways in which Jesus is unlike anyone else who has ever lived is that He had the ability to forgive sins. I am sure you will know the words of the famous hymn which refers to the forgiveness offered by Christ: He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free. I know of...

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 8:18-34

Have you ever wondered why Jesus is never referred to as Jesus the Great? We speak of Alexander the Great, Charles the Great, and Peter the Great but never Jesus the Great. And why? Because He dwells in a sphere where no real comparisons are possible. It simply doesn't seem right to use the designation "the Great" of...

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...