Mateus 10:32-42 Nvipt

Sometimes people come into the local church who have never come into the universal church. People join a church who have never been born into the true church. Some churches actually throw the doors open and say, "Now we'll sing the closing hymn for those who want to unite with the church. Come to the front." Al Capone could come in and join. Nobody asks any questions; they just take in anybody. I do not believe in that at all, and I know you do not either. I believe that if you are going to...

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...

For Reading and Meditation:     Mark 10:13-31

Today we ask ourselves: If happiness is not something we can create but something we receive, how do we go about receiving it? Listen again to the words of Jesus: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." What does it mean to be "poor in spirit"? There are those who tell us that the words...

"And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." Matthew 10:42

Well, I can do as much as that. I can do a kind act toward the LORD's servant. The LORD knows llove them all and would count it an honor to wash their feet. For the sake of their Master, I love the disciples.

How gracious of the LORD...

"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;...

Hospitality is not only a sacred duty (Be not forgetful to entertain strangers); it carries within it the promise of glorious surprises (for thereby some have entertained angels unawares).

It had started out as just another ordinary day for Abraham. Suddenly three men appeared before him as he sat by the door of his tent. The patriarch reacted in the typical middle-eastern manner - he washed their feet, arranged a cool resting place for them under a tree, went out to the herd for a...

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...

It is not uncommon for a person to become discouraged in his service for the Lord and to quit. I suppose that most of us have faced that temptation at one time or another. Therefore, in today's reading I would like to share four passages that have been a tremendous encouragement to me and that have kept me from quitting. The first is Isaiah 49:4 : "Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely...

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...