Aches and Pains — and Prayer!
There’s that wonderful word sufficient again! “My grace is sufficient for thee!” Jesus Christ is able to meet our physical needs as well as our spiritual and material needs! Perhaps you, too, have a “thorn in the flesh,” some physical affliction that God has permitted in your life. Paul’s affliction was not the result of
Better Than a “Silver Lining”
Read 2 Corinthians 9. During the early days of the Great Depression in the United States, people talked and sang about the clouds having a “silver lining.” One skeptic said, “It’s fine for a cloud to have a silver lining, but how do you get it to the mint so you can spend it?” Jesus
God Is Sufficient!
2 Corinthians 3:1-6 Paul asks a personal question in 2 Corinthians 2:16: “Who is sufficient for these things?” By “these things” the apostle means the demands and sacrifices of the Christian life. Who is sufficient for living a creative, victorious Christian life? But Paul does more than ask the question: he gives us the answer!
Strength for the Journey
1 Kings 19:1-8; Isaiah 40:28-31 Whether a man carries a briefcase or a lunch bucket, he needs “strength for the journey.” Elijah had been in hiding for three years when God called him to face the Baal worshipers on Mount Carmel. Because he had been waiting on the Lord, Elijah was able to “mount up
My Favorite Cemetery (Part 2)
Retracing our steps and walking west, we pass Bunyan, then the graves of the Cromwells (not Oliver or Richard), and to the right discover the grave of Mrs. Susannah Wesley, mother of John and Charles—and seventeen others! In spite of her busy life, she spent at least one hour each morning and evening in prayer
My Favorite Cemetery (Part 1)
If you ever want to visit John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, John Owen, Susannah Wesley, and a host of other great Christians, then make your way to Bunhill Fields. This quaint cemetery is located in London, on city Road, across the street from Wesley’s Chapel. Be sure to visit the Chapel first, especially the grave of
For What Am I Praying? (Part 2)
Paul made several requests, and the first one is in verse 16, where he prayed for spiritual strength: “That he would grant you, according ot the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” There is in the believer an inner man that corresponds with the outer
For What Am I Praying? (Part 1)
Last month I asked two question in our prayer inventory based on Ephesians 3:14-21. The first question was, “Why am I praying?” Paul said, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father.” We discovered that “cause” spelled out at the end of chapter 2–it’s the building of the Church. When you and I
R Is for Rejoice (Part 2)
The joy of preaching Christ Paul had a difficult situation in the city of Rome because the believers there were divided into three camps: those who helped Paul, those who opposed Paul and those who remained uncommitted (Phil. 1:12-18). Paul could have been discouraged over this division, but instead he rejoiced because Christ was being
R Is for Rejoice (Part 1)
On January 11, 1877, Phillips Brooks, the well-known rector of Trinity Church in Boston, MA, stood before the ministerial students, faculty and guests at Yale Divinity School to deliver the first of eight lectures in distinguished “Lyman Beecher Lectureship on Preaching.” After taking a few minutes to lay the groundwork for his series, Brooks made
Y Is for Yoke (Part 2)
Discipline “It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young” (Lam. 3:27). The child that doesn’t learn to listen and obey isn’t likely to become a leader when an adult, unless soemthing unusual happens along the way. Though he argued that he wasn’t qualified, Jeremiah was a young man when
Y Is for Yoke (Part 1)
Unless you live in a pre-industrial society, you don’t think much about yokes because teams of draft animals pulling plows have been replaced by powerful tractors. But if you were a farmer in Bible days, you needed yokes so you could harness your animals and plow your land. Cultivating the land meant growing food to