June 11
The message we preach is “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) for now grace reigns in life and through righteousness (Rom 5:17, 21). It is “the gospel of His Son” (Rom 1:9) for God gave His only Son that He might bring many sons to glory (Heb 2:10). It is also “the gospel of Christ” (Rom 1:16), the climax to the story of the long-promised Messiah; this fulfillment of God’s promises is the message of which Paul was not ashamed (he uses it 10x). And “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace” (Rom 10:15) for it is the Word of Reconciliation. Thus sinners can...
Read MoreJune 10
A.T. Pierson told of Alexander MacLaren using the illustration of a compass “with one foot firmly set in the true center, and the other describing a circle which, while that center was preserved, could not possibly err in width or range of circumference. Our first necessity is to get the truth center and fix there the point of our compass, and then, however wide the circle of our activity, we shall always be right, scriptural, spiritual; and, on the contrary, if we have not the true center and do not keep it, our best enterprises, by whatever name called, will be more or less failures.”...
Read MoreJune 9
“There is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee” (Ps 73:25). In his book Heaven’s Cure for Earth’s Care, George Henderson tells the following story: A Christian woman who had just finished reading T.H. Huxley’s Life and Letters was asked with some anxiety by a friend whether her faith had suffered any eclipse under the shadow of a mind so brilliant and so utterly unbelieving as the great scientist’s. “Oh, no,” she answered, “my need went so much deeper than anything Professor Huxley had to offer. I was like a lost child looking for its mother, to whom someone insists on showing a piece...
Read MoreJune 8
J.F. Strombeck, in his book, So Great Salvation, suggests God’s salvation is great because it is available to such a great number: “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (Rom 3:22). As well, it is great because of what was required to accomplish it: Christ must be “made in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3) must “suffer for sin” (1 Pet 3:18), must be “made sin” for us (2 Cor 5:21), as well as being made a curse for us (Gal 3:13), to name a few. It is also great because of what it includes: deliverance from the reign of Satan,...
Read MoreJune 7
Abdullah did not see why the Messiah must die for our sins. I took him to Genesis, telling him the story of a holy, faithful, and loving God who created humans to enjoy a close relationship with Himself. Next, we heard of God’s prohibition to Adam (2:16-17). I asked Abdullah, “Did God tell Adam that if he ate the forbidden fruit he must begin to pray, fast, give alms, and perform good deeds to ‘balance out’ his bad deeds?” “No!” replied Abdullah, “God told Adam, ‘In the day you eat of it, you will surely die!’” By going back to this original story, Abdullah understood that the penalty for...
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