July 31
“…sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Tim 1:15). We were preaching at 6 a.m., in Exeter, England, near the castle. A young woman was passing by and just heard the sentence, “The greatest sinner in Exeter is welcome to the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was a message from God to her soul. She went home, knelt by her bed, and sobbed out, “Lord, I’m the greatest sinner in Exeter! Am I welcome to You?” Some months after, a Christian friend was asked to see a dying woman. He expected to find someone about to pass into eternity without hope. He was surprised to see a face radiant with heavenly peace. “What...
Read MoreJuly 30
George Goodman writes: “The gospel must be preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven (1 Pet 1:12). This is why such blessing attended the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost. He was filled with the Spirit and spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance (Acts 2:4). The preacher must be one in whom the Spirit of God is not grieved. If he is conscious of unjudged sin, of disobedience of heart, of deceit in his life, let him stop preaching. He is a fruitless branch (Jn 15:4-6). He must also be ‘in the Spirit’ when he preaches. To go unprepared in heart, without exercise before God,...
Read MoreJuly 29
“I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Your testimonies are my meditation” (Ps 119:99). “Moral relativism is a philosophical failure,” Francis Beckwith explains with a true story: “The teacher instructs her class, ‘This is the first day of class, and so I want to lay down some ground rules. First, since no one has the truth about morality, you should be open-minded to the opinions of your fellow students.’ The teacher recognizes the raised hand of Elizabeth: ‘If nobody has the truth, isn’t that a good reason for me not to listen to my fellow students? After all, if nobody has...
Read MoreJuly 28
Paul speaks of men “who suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18). John Blanchard writes: “Although countless scientists today hold to divine creation, Colin Patterson is right to claim that in many cases, ‘post-Darwinian biology is being carried out by people whose faith is in, almost, the deity of Darwin.’ If God is a non-starter, evolution seems to be the only show in town, and all scientific data must somehow be made to support it, even if the usual rules of assessment have to be suspended. Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin is perfectly frank about this: ‘We take the side of science in spite of...
Read MoreJuly 27
J. Hudson Taylor, gospel pioneer to China, though raised in a Christian home, remained ignorant of what it meant to become a true believer. He tried to “make” himself a Christian, but after failing in his attempts, he grew skeptical. He writes: “The inconsistencies of Christian people, who, while professing to believe their Bibles, were yet content to live just as they would if there were no such Book, had been one of the strongest arguments of my skeptical companions.” At age seventeen, to fill a boring afternoon, Taylor read a gospel tract that opened his eyes to see the finished work of...
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