May 26
Grace is a word rich with biblical meaning. It is used to describe the condition of the heart of God moving in good will toward sinners; the practical extending of merciful kindness to such individuals as a result; and the benefits thus received as an unmerited gift from the gracious One. Grace is placed in contrast to “works” (Eph 2:8-9), “debt” (Rom. 4:4), “offence,” that is, trespass, or abounding “sin” (Rom 5:15, 17, 20), and the “law” (Gal 2:21; 5:4). It is the undeserved favor of God to sinners at the expense of Christ. We are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that...
Read MoreMay 25
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (Deut 30:19). Col. and Mrs. George Clarke began the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago in 1877, a “doorway to heaven.” Mrs. Clarke also regularly visited the jail. One of those visited was John Callahan. After escaping a reformatory in New York, he moved to Chicago where he joined a notorious westside gang. The law finally caught him, and he was visited by Mrs. Clarke. Butch Lyons, Callahan’s cell-mate, jumped on the top bunk with derisive laughter, not wanting the “angel of mercy” to deal with him. Callahan,...
Read MoreMay 24
Harold Urey (1893–1981) won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934. Although he played a key part in developing the atom bomb, he is best known today for his contribution to theories on the development of organic life from non-living matter, giving his name to the renowned Miller-Urey experiment. The experiment is fatally flawed, both in its presuppositions about the early conditions on earth and in its results, only proving that there must be intelligence behind our living world. Urey confessed: “All of us who study the origin of life find that the more we look into it, the more we feel it is...
Read MoreMay 23
Andrew Stenhouse tells of a furlough trip from Chile on the Sydney Star, a frozen-meat ship. It had only a few passengers, one an Englishman named Smith. After a botched surgery, he was returning home in a sick-berth cabin. “I asked if he had any hope for eternity. He answered, ‘None whatever.’ I explained God’s way of salvation and I told him about the dying thief. The next day, he had too much pain to concentrate. I said, ‘I’m going to leave you one verse,’ and repeated John 3:16. On the third day, he greeted me with a smile. I asked, ‘Do you see anything clearer today?’ ‘Yes, decidedly...
Read MoreMay 22
“For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12). The paradox of the Bible is this: At the same time it is the most comforting and the most discomforting book in the world. It lifts up the lowly and casts down the proud. The Word succors the suffering as a mother hugs a weeping child; but it also slaps us in the face. It says those who are alive are dead, but those who are dead “in Christ” are alive. This Wonder...
Read MoreMay 21
Here is the conversion story of Charlotte Elliott, author of “Just as I Am.” Dr. Cesar Malan of Geneva, visiting in the Elliott home, asked Charlotte if she knew herself to really be a Christian. She was in poor health and often harassed with severe pain, which tended to make her irritable. She resented the question, and petulantly answered that was a matter she did not wish to discuss. Dr. Malan replied that he would not pursue a subject that displeased her, but would pray that she might give her heart to Christ. The Holy Spirit used her rude conduct to show her what depths of pride and...
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