January 5
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). A blind woman once came to me and said, “Do you think that my blindness will hinder me from working for the Master?” “Not at all; it may be a great help, for others seeing your blindness may speak to you, and then you will have the opportunity of giving your testimony for Christ and leading them to the Savior.” “That’s not what I want,” she replied. “It seems to me a waste of time when one might be speaking to...
Read MoreJanuary 4
Sir Robert Anderson, head of Scotland Yard from 1888-1901, was one of England’s premiere legal minds. He tells of his encounter with God after hearing a sermon by a preacher named John Hall. Anderson wrote of being captivated by his message of “forgiveness of sins, and eternal life as God’s gift of grace, unreserved and unconditional, to be received by us as we sat in our pews.” But Anderson was not convinced and asked if he could walk the preacher home. At one point, Hall turned to Anderson. “I tell you, as a minister of Christ and in His name, that there is life for you here and now if you...
Read MoreJanuary 3
Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician, was the author of Why I am Not a Christian. Katherine Tait, Russell’s daughter, wrote: “I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him that the search for God does not have to be vain. But it was hopeless. He had known too many…bleak moralists who sucked the joy from life and persecuted their opponents; he would never have been able to see the truth they were hiding.” Russell wrote in his Autobiography, “Nothing...
Read MoreJanuary 2
Charles Stanley (1821-1890), when given the opportunity to speak to a large crowd of Roman Catholics, said: “I want to prove that the doctrine of the Church of Rome, in the year 60, is the only true doctrine.” He showed them “that we are not in any uncertainty as to which was the true church at Rome in 60.…Neither were we left in any uncertainty as to what were the true doctrines taught. We have an inspired account of those doctrines…From Romans 1–3, we found the ruin of man through sin…I then went on to show God’s righteousness revealed in the glorious plan of redemption—how God is...
Read MoreJanuary 1
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex 12:2). As a new year begins, may we enter fully into the high privilege of our relationship in the Lord Jesus Christ. “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). Built up to offer up spiritual sacrifices—that must be first. Let us resolve to begin each day in the honest and real personal enjoyment of fellowship with the Lord. Then Peter adds: “But you are…a...
Read MoreDecember 31
“We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:11-12). “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The...
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