Daily Readings – Articles – Devotions
Archive for January, 2012
Philippians – United (Lesson 3
This week our focus will be on Philippians 1: 27 – 2:11. After reading the section, go back and read verses 1: 27 – 30 again.
Paul has been writing about his circumstances and how he chose to respond to them. Then he talks about the circumstances that the Philippians are having to deal with and how he wants them to respond. In verse 27 he shifts gears … the content of the letter moves from personal comments to exhortation, to teaching.
“Whatever happens.” You see, Paul does not know the outcome of his trial. He does not know what his More >
A Bitter Cup
In Matthew 26:42, Jesus went away again a second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
Some people say there are many ways to get to Heaven or to God and it is not only through Jesus Christ. Ironically, while they believe there are many ways, they try to sell their way as being the best way to get to God. Even as Christians we can fall into the trap of trying to sell why Christianity is true. It sometimes appears that Christian apologetics, or maybe the petition to come forward at the end of More >
Thought for the morning of Tue January 31, 2012
It will always give a Christian the greatest calm, quiet, ease, and peace, to think of the perfect righteousness of Christ. How often are the saints of God downcast and sad! I do not think they ought to be. I do not think they would if they could always see their perfection in Christ. There are some who are always talking about corruption, and the depravity of the heart, and the innate evil of the soul. This is quite true, but why not go a little further, and remember that we are “perfect in Christ Jesus.” It is no wonder More >
Day 362 | Read the Bible in a Year
read the bible in a year: day 362 Luke 3:21-38
21 Now it came about that when all the people had been given baptism, Jesus, having had baptism with them, was in prayer, when, the heaven being open, 22 The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased. 23 And Jesus at this time was about thirty years old, being the son (as it seemed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 The son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the More >
Watch and Pray
In Matthew 26:41, Jesus says to Peter, James, and John, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
I think every Christian should have this verse embedded in their DNA. This is one of the most important verses in our Christian walk with Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we should “pray without ceasing.” It seems he is re-emphasizing the point that Jesus is making here. Jesus told them to keep watching and praying so that they may not enter into temptation. It seems most of the More >
Thought for the morning of Mon January 30, 2012
The members of Christ’s Church should be very prayerful, always seeking the unction of the Holy One to rest upon their hearts, that the kingdom of Christ may come, and that his “will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven;” but there are times when God seems especially to favour Zion, such seasons ought to be to them like “the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.” We ought then to be doubly prayerful, doubly earnest, wrestling more at the throne than we have been wont to do. Action should then be prompt More >
Day 361 | Read the Bible in a Year
read the bible in a year: day 361 Luke 3:1-20
1 Now in the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being ruler of Judaea, and Herod being king of Galilee, his brother Philip king of the country of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias king of Abilene, 2 When Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the waste land. 3 And he came into all the country round about Jordan, preaching baptism as a sign of forgiveness of sin for those whose hearts were changed. 4 As it says in the More >
Philippians – Living & Dying (Lesson 2
As we finish Philippians 1: 12 – 26 today, focus your attention on verses 19 – 26.
Paul sits in custody. He is using his waiting time well – writing to the churches that he has helped establish as he has journeyed through Asia and not into Europe – talking of Jesus to the guards that are chained to him. But he does not know the outcome of his impending trial. He does not know if he will be released to continue his work … or if he will be put to death.
His desire was that Christ be “exalted in his More >
Thought for the morning of Sun January 29, 2012
In our Christian pilgrimage it is well, for the most part, to be looking forward. Forward lies the crown, and onward is the goal. Whether it be for hope, for joy, for consolation, or for the inspiring of our love, the future must, after all, be the grand object of the eye of faith. Looking into the future we see sin cast out, the body of sin and death destroyed, the soul made perfect, and fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Looking further yet, the believer’s enlightened eye can see death’s river passed, More >
Day 360 | Read the Bible in a Year
read the bible in a year: day 360 Luke 2:21-52
21 And when, after eight days, the time came for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name which the angel had given to him before his birth. 22 And when the necessary days for making them clean by the law of Moses had come to an end, they took him to Jerusalem to give him to the Lord 23 (As it says in the law of the Lord, Every mother’s first male child is to be holy to the Lord), 24 And to make an offering, as it is ordered in the law of the More >
