2017: A huge flood ravages a village in India. A man carries his household goods out of the house to save everything from destruction. Among other things, his “god,” a Hindu image of God. A man carries his god—what a contrast to Christians: God carries us! The Bible shows us this wonderfully comforting truth in…
Not only these but a number of other scriptural passages that deal with looking at or seeing God seem to contradict each other at first glance. In 1 Timothy 6:16, Paul writes of God: “… who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see …” (cf. John 1:18:…
Job was very righteous and could not understand why a great calamity had befallen him. He felt it was unjust and fought eloquently for his innocence, even making accusations against the Almighty. With the statement quoted above, Elihu made it clear that he was missing four statements in the words Job had addressed to God:…
There is a subtle temptation, even in Christian service, to become great, to see one’s name in the magazines or hear it over the radio. But it is a great snare. It robs Christ of glory. It robs us of peace and joy. And it makes us prime targets for the Devil’s bullets. It robs…
It is rarely possible to understand a chapter of the Bible without taking into account its context. If this is generally true, it is especially so in the case of Matthew 13. The context The Gospel of Matthew (a) presents Christ as the King, and (b) sets out the dispensational change connected with His…
It is difficult to trust someone who is not reliable, who constantly changes his views, or who can be described as changeable and fickle. These things never apply to our Lord! When John falls to the ground, half-dead with fear, the Lord calls out to him, “Do not be afraid!” and justifies it as follows:…
The prophet Obadiah shows Edom’s gloating over Israel’s defeat. Jonah, on the other hand, speaks of the displeasure of an Israelite at the merciful sparing of the heathen in Nineveh. There is joy at the disaster; here, sorrow that no disaster will come. The Messenger The prophet Jonah came from Gath-Hepher in Galilee, north of…
Indian hunters have devised a clever way of catching rhesus monkeys: They don’t catch them at all—but they make sure they do it themselves! First, a narrow box is built in which a banana is placed. A small opening is made into which the monkey’s hand just fits. The monkey now approaches and immediately reaches…
God ordained the home as the institution to train children in the way they should go. God didn’t expect the church, the preacher, the school, or any other agency to do this. Parents dare not blame such agencies when their children go wrong. The Deuteronomy passage quoted above says that parents shall teach diligently. Spiritual…
The Bible talks about marriage in many places. God gives us important guidelines for our benefit. On the one hand, God teaches us through examples (positive and negative). On the other hand, He does so through specific instructions. A repeated instruction When you read the New Testament, you will notice that God gives a specific…
As believers, we often behave just like Elisha’s servant: we see the danger around us, despair, and have only one anxious question: “What shall we do?” (2 Kings 6:15). The army (of worries) seemed so insurmountably large to the servant that he did not even reckon with the possibility of the Lord’s intervening. He felt…
How can we lead people to Christ? The passage of the four friends becoming creative in order to bring their paralyzed friend to the Lord is very helpful in regards to this question. We learn the following lessons from this story: A paralyzed man cannot walk. The man must be carried to the Lord because…
Question: Does the devil produce evil thoughts in me? I am also troubled by the idea that the devil could read my thoughts. Answer: It is not the devil who is the source of evil thoughts in us, but the flesh, that sinful nature which is still present in the believer. Although we are no…
God allows us to suffer difficulties and hardships for a purpose. God led the children of Israel to wander through the wilderness for forty years to humble and test them. When they refused to obey Him and enter the Promised Land, the Israelites revealed that they did not really know Him. If they had, they…
The messenger and the message Malachi lived and worked at a time when some of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (the “remnant”) that God had awakened had returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon. This revival had since faded. The sacrificial service did take place, but the regulations from God’s law were not observed,…
There are two basic attitudes that we believers can adopt towards our lives. We can try to save it, or we can consciously lose it for the sake of Christ. It is natural for us to try to save it. We can live a self-centered life and try to protect ourselves from effort and inconvenience….
In front of them was the insurmountable sea, and behind them, the rapidly approaching army of the furious Pharaoh. A dead end with no prospects and no way forward. We can well imagine how the Israelites all cried out in fear. We, too, can sometimes find ourselves in such a dead end. There is no…
We are in danger of losing our gratitude. Is it because we suffer from external deprivation? Certainly not! Most of us have more than enough—not only food, clothing, a house or apartment but also many things we don’t even need. Compared to many poor people, we are doing exceptionally well. Yet we find that the…
A great many people who try to be comforters only lay thorns under aching heads. No art needs a more delicate touch than the comforter’s. The hands of most of us are too rough to be laid on throbbing hearts. No wonder Job felt that his friends were miserable comforters, or that he was not at first in a mood…
A rich Christian regularly prayed that God would give needy people what they needed. However, he himself rarely opened his wallet. One day, his young son said to him: “Dad, I wish I had your money!” His father asked in surprise: “Why? What would you do with it?” – “I would use it to answer…