1 Corinthians 1:1-25

For Reading and Meditation:     Romans 8:28-39

What is God's great goal in the universe to which His energies are devoted? We have it in our text for today.The Living Bible puts this best and I have no hesitation in saying that although it is not regarded as a true translation (it is rather a paraphrase), its rendering of

For Reading and Meditation:     Psalm 36:1-12

How wonderful it is, in an age where unfaithfulness abounds, to focus our gaze on those Scriptures that point to the trustworthiness of our God. The one before us today is quite wonderful, but consider also these: "O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord, and your faithfulness surrounds you" (

For Reading and Meditation:     Mark 15:16-39

I cannot believe that God would write a law of "saving by sacrifice" within our hearts and evade it Himself. The psalmist asks: "Does he who formed the eye not see?" (Psalm 94:9). And Browning said: "He that created love, shall He not love?" We might add: "He that created...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Another of the chief differences between Christianity and the world's religions, and something which adherents of other faiths find a major stumbling block, is the cross, which humbles all pride and dashes all hope of self-salvation. It also speaks of the tremendous and uncalculating generosity of God in...

"For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 1 Corinthians 1:19

This verse is a threatening so far as the worldly wise are concerned, but to the simple believer it is a promise. The professedly learned are forever trying to bring to nothing the faith of the humble believer, but they fail in their attempts. Their arguments break down, their theories fall...

Yonder city of the great King is a place of active service. Ransomed spirits serve him day and night in his temple. They never cease to fulfil the good pleasure of their King. They always "rest," so far as ease and freedom from care is concerned; and never "rest," in the sense of indolence or inactivity. Jerusalem the golden is the place of communion with all the people of God. We shall sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in eternal fellowship. We shall hold high converse with the noble...

The Bible is full of paradoxes, that is, truths that seem contrary to what we would normally suppose or truths that seem to contradict one another. G. K. Chesterton maintained that paradox is truth standing on its head to attract attention. Here are a few of the paradoxes trying to attract our attention.

We save our lives by losing them; we lose our lives by loving them (Mark 8:35).

We are strong when we are weak (

Some in the church in Corinth were trying to make the Gospel intellectually respectable. Their preoccupation with the wisdom of this world made them sensitive to those aspects of the Christian message which were offensive to the philosophers.

There was no thought of their abandoning the faith, only of redefining it so that it would be more palatable to the scholars.

Paul came down hard on this attempt to marry the world's wisdom to God's. He knew only too well that the achieving...

The wisdom of God is a thread that runs all through the Bible. For example! "With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding…With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his" (Job 12:13; Job 12:16). "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of...

God is faithful and true. He cannot lie or deceive. He cannot go back on His word. He is absolutely trustworthy. No promise of His can ever fail.

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"(Numbers 23:19). "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God" (