May 1
One of the most important lessons in the book of Acts is this: there’s room for everyone on the team. Not all could preach like Peter, but Peter first had to be brought to Jesus, and was, by his otherwise retiring brother, Andrew. Matthew arranged a dinner for the local tax office and invited Someone Else to share the gospel with his guests. Dorcas did good works in the community, and won friends for the gospel. The man born blind couldn’t argue with his detractors, but he could say, “I was blind; now I see.” The demoniac was sent back into his hometown to “tell what great things God has...
Read MoreApril 30
How can you believe a Bible that is full of contradictions? Josh McDowell writes: “Certain passages at first glance appear to be contradictory, but further investigation will show that this is not the case.” McDowell points out that different descriptions may be complementary, not contradictory (see one or two blind men, Mt 9:27; Mk 10:46). Also there are translation issues: did the men at Saul’s conversion hear the voice from heaven or not? (Acts 9:7, genitive; 22:9, accusative). They heard the sound, but couldn’t distinguish the words. McDowell concludes: “Some difficulties in Scripture...
Read MoreApril 29
“Because there is wrath, beware lest he take you away with one blow: then a great ransom cannot deliver you” (Job 36:18). Harry Ironside tells the story of meeting “a very refined and elegant lady on a steamer, who asked indignantly, ‘You don’t mean to say I have to go to heaven like the dying thief, do you?’ ‘No, madam,’ I replied, ‘you do not have to. If you reject Christ, you will have to go to hell with the other.’ And so we would remind the reader: The saved thief believed on the Son of God, and is with Christ now. The lost thief scorned a Savior, and is in the depths of woe. You must...
Read MoreApril 28
It’s good to have some simple ways in mind to present gospel truth. For example, an outline of John 3:16, as follows, can be easily sketched on a paper napkin at a restaurant table as you speak to a friend who is searching but still without Christ. The verse can be arranged as follows: GOD LOVED: “God so loved the world”I BELIEVE: “that whoever believes on Him shall not perish” GOD GAVE: “That He gave His only begotten Son”I HAVE: “but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 18-20 Memorize: Nahum...
Read MoreApril 27
Eric Liddell, the winner of the 400-metre race at the 1924 Paris Olympics, was a consecrated Christian. The film *Chariots of Fire* accurately recounts his refusal to run his best event, the 100-metre race, because it was on the Lord’s Day, and that someone slipped a paper to him as he stood at the starting blocks. It read, “Them that honour Me I will honour” (1 Sam 2:30). Having been born in China to missionary parents, he left Scotland in 1925 and returned to China to serve the Lord. A huge crowd gathered at Waverly Station to bid him farewell. He addressed them, saying, “Let our motto be...
Read MoreApril 26
If the Bible is rooted in history, that presents a problem: how can you trust the accounts of Jesus when we now know that history is simply propaganda written by the winners? This is an increasingly popular view, especially in academia. Postmodernist historian Greg Dening argues: “History is something we make rather than something we learn…I want to persuade [my students] that any history they make will be fiction.” The argument quickly grows less robust when the Holocaust is mentioned. Do we not have evidence galore for it’s reality? Yet less than a generation later, Holocaust deniers...
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