October 4
I was standing with some Christians in a small antiquities shop hard by the ancient pool of Siloam. The clerk, a Muslim, had been spoken to about the Lord Jesus, and in defense had launched into his own “personal testimony” of his conversion to Islam, a borrowed rendition from previous Christians who had witnessed to him. “Come, come,” I said. “You were born a Muslim, weren’t you? You had no choice in the matter.” He smiled his confession, having been found out. As we continued our discussion, my son stood listening. When there was a lull in the conversation, he thanked the clerk for the...
Read MoreOctober 3
How do you respond to someone who says: “I’d like to be a Christian but I don’t think I can live that kind of life”? Robert J. Little responds, “Christians are not expected to live the Christian life in their own strength. No one could do this. Part of the experience of conversion to Christ is being born again by the power of the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:12-13). Also the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit comes to live within each believer (Eph 1:13; Rom 8:9). The indwelling Spirit gives believers the resources to live for God. The believer is renewed day by day as we read God’s Word and seek His...
Read MoreOctober 2
D.L. Moody paid nine visits to the Civil War battlefront. One evening past midnight, he was called to visit a dying soldier. “He said, ‘I wish you to help me to die.’ ‘I would help you if I could,’ replied Moody. ‘I would take you on my shoulders and carry you into the kingdom if I could, but I can’t. But I can tell you of One who can.’ And I told him of Christ being willing to save him; how He left heaven and came into the world to seek and save the lost. I quoted promise after promise, but all was dark. It seemed the shades of eternal death were gathering round his soul. At last I thought...
Read MoreOctober 1
Charles Darwin wrote: “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree” (Origin of Species, 1859, p. 186). On July 3, 1881, he wrote: “But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any...
Read MoreSeptember 30
Don’t the following verses teach that all people will ultimately be saved? Col 1:20; Eph 1:10; 1 Tim 2:4-6; 4:10; 1 Cor 15:22-28; Phil 2:9-11. This is the teaching of Universalism. Note that both Col 1:20 and Eph 1:10 speak of reconciliation, but only of things in heaven and earth, not things under the earth. Phil 2 includes the things under the earth, but is speaking of subjection, not reconciliation, as does 1 Cor 15. Thank God, every knee will bow to the Lord, including those who will be made His footstool (Heb 10:13) but they are referred to as “His enemies.” As to 1 Tim 2, we rejoice...
Read MoreSeptember 29
It is indifference, not honest opposition, that is the enemy of salvation. Multitudes who have taken God’s Word in hand to disprove it have been won by its winsome power and light. One example is Christian Gerson (1569-1622), a Jewish scholar who bought a copy of Luther’s translation of the New Testament for eight schillings. He and his brothers-in-law were curious as to how this “grave mistake” could have conquered hundreds of thousands of hearts during the Reformation. But, as Risto Santala tells the story, “The gospel message shook him so much that he had to go on reading it alone, in...
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