Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time

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...

Our ignorance as to how and when God will use our service should prompt us to be tireless in buying up opportunities. The Lord often works when we least expect it, and He works in an infinite number of novel ways.

A Christian sailor, stationed at a naval air base, was standing near the corner of a hangar, witnessing to a buddy. A third sailor, out of sight around the corner, heard the Gospel, became convicted of his sins, and was soundly converted. The fellow to whom the message was...

What determines whether a son turns out to be wise or foolish? What are the factors that determine whether he becomes a John or a Judas?

Parental training is certainly one important consideration. This includes a thorough grounding in the sacred Scriptures. The sanctifying influence of the Word cannot be overemphasized.

It includes a home that is fortified by prayer. The mother of an outstanding evangelical preacher attributed his preservation from moral and doctrinal evil to the...

The Apostle John was certainly not unaware of the joy of personal soul-winning. It brings tremendous spiritual exhilaration to lead a sinner to the Lord Jesus. But for John, a greater joy - in fact, the greatest joy - was to see his children in the faith going on steadfastly for the Lord.

Dr. M. R. DeHaan wrote, "There was a time in my ministry that I often said, 'The greatest joy of a Christian is to lead a soul to Christ.' As the years passed, I changed my mind…So many, over whom we...

In medical circles, it would be unthinkable to have a cure for cancer and not share it with cancer patients throughout the world. To withhold the cure would betray a callous and inhumane lack of compassion.

The Apostle John paints a parallel picture in the spiritual realm. Here is a man, a professing believer, who has accumulated a fair amount of wealth. He lives in luxury, comfort and ease. All around him is a world of enormous spiritual and physical need. Millions throughout the...

The Holy Spirit here lets us in on a delightful secret. It is contrary to all that we would expect and yet invariably true. The secret is this: the more you give, the more you have. The more you hoard, the less you have. Generosity multiplies itself. Stinginess breeds poverty. "What I gave, I have; what I spent, I had; what I kept, I lost."

It doesn't mean that you will reap the same coinage that you sow, that the faithful steward will become financially rich. He may sow dollars and...

In reading a verse like this, it is tremendously important to know what it means and what it does not mean. Otherwise we might find ourselves adopting grotesque positions that do violence to the rest of Scripture and to the facts of life.

The key to the verse is found in the words "in Christ Jesus." Those words describe our position, that is, what we are in the sight of God. They do not refer to our everyday practice, that is, what we are in ourselves or in the society in which we...

Peter reminds his readers that they are strangers and pilgrims, a reminder that was never more needed than today. Pilgrims are people who are travelling from one country to another. The country they are passing through is not their own; they are aliens in it. It is the country to which they are going that is their homeland.

The hallmark of a pilgrim is a tent. Thus, when we read that Abraham dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, we are to understand that he considered Canaan an alien...

The friendship of Jesus is a theme that evokes a warm response in the hearts of His people everywhere. When He was on earth, He was derided as "a friend of publicans and sinners" (Matthew 11:19), but Christians have taken the taunt and converted it to a title of honor.

Before going to the cross, our Lord called His disciples "friends." "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant...

The subject of hell generates enormous resistance in the human heart. This resistance is most often expressed in the question, "How could a God of love sustain an everlasting hell?"

If Paul were answering the question he would probably say at the outset, "Who art thou that repliest against God?" or "Let God be true and every man a liar." Translation: the creature really has no right to question the Creator. If God sustains an everlasting hell, He has valid reasons for doing so. We have...

When the Lord Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would not speak of Himself, He did not mean that the Spirit would never make any reference to Himself. Rather, the thought is that the Spirit would not speak on His own authority or independently of God the Father. This is borne out by the words that follow: "…whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak." The New American Standard Bible reads, "He will not speak on His own initiative."

But having said that, we should add that the Holy...

One important insight we gather from this verse is that Moses appointed Joshua as his successor, knowing that his own ministry would be coming to an end. In doing so, he set a good example for others who are in places of spiritual leadership. Some may think that this is too elementary to emphasize but the fact is that there is often gross failure to train successors and to turn work over to them. There seems to be an innate resistance to the idea that we are replaceable.

Sometimes this...

When you look out at the religious world today, you see numerous religions, denominations and cults. And yet basically there are only two religions, as suggested in today's text. On the one hand there is the wide gate and the broad, well-traveled way that leads to destruction. On the other is the strait gate and sparsely traveled, narrow way that leads to life. All religions can be classified under one or the other. The feature that distinguishes the two is this: one religion tells what man...

Bethlehem was David's home town. He knew all its streets and lanes, the market place, and the community well. But now the Philistines had a garrison in Bethlehem and David was holed up in the Cave of Adullam. When three of his men heard David yearn for a drink of water from the well at Bethlehem, they broke through the enemy lines and brought the water to him. He was so moved by this courageous act of love and devotion that he could not drink the water, but rather poured it out as a libation...