March 26
J. Oswald Sanders recounts the story of a believer who had tried every way to share the gospel with an elderly lady. He had used all the well-known gospel verses—John 3:16, Romans 10:9 and the like—but all to no avail. She just couldn’t get it. As he was preparing to visit her again, the Christian poured out his heart to the Lord, confessing his inability to illuminate the old woman’s mind, and asking for some helpful portion of Scripture that would shed heaven’s light into her darkened heart. Immediately a verse came clearly to his mind. It was 2 Corinthians 6:18, “I will be a Father to...
Read MoreMarch 25
We need to be up and doing: girding up the loins of our minds (1 Pet 1:13), stirring up our gifts (2 Tim 1:6), and offering up prayers and sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5). We should be stirring up one another (2 Pet 1:13), and building up one another (Jude 20), until we’re caught up to be with one another and with our beloved Lord forever (1 Thes 4:17). We need to be storing up for ourselves a good foundation (1 Tim 6:19), not laying up for ourselves treasures on earth (Mt 6:19) because we know that otherwise it will all be burned up (2 Pet 3:10). So if we lift up our eyes to see the whitened fields...
Read MoreMarch 24
People who habitually turn away the Savior’s invitation need to understand how precarious their situation is. John explains, “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 Jn 5:10-11). Wherever such a person goes, whatever they accomplish, whatever they may think or believe, still, says the Lord Jesus, “the wrath of God abides on him” (Jn 3:36). One cannot...
Read MoreMarch 23
Alexander Marshall, the great pioneer of the gospel in the northeastern U.S., told of an old man he knew from East Anglia, England who used to say: “It took me forty-two years to learn three things: 1) That I could do nothing to save myself; 2) that God did not ask me to do anything; 3) that Christ did it all.” Forty-two years is a long time to learn this, but definitely better late that never. And what verses of Scripture can we use to help people learn these three important facts now? 1) “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28);...
Read MoreMarch 22
Mrs. Nisbet, an upright woman living in Dumfernline, Scotland, met an evangelist who asked her if she had experienced the great change without which, the Lord declared, no one can see the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3). In the course of the conversation, Mrs. Nisbet exclaimed, “With all my religion, I have never been born again!” But, she implored the evangelist, “What must I do to be saved?” “You have nothing to do but believe in what has already been done for you.” “Oh,” she exclaimed, “if only I had the least grain of faith!” “I believe you have faith. Who made the world, Mrs. Nisbet?” “God, of...
Read MoreMarch 21
Evolutionary paleontologist Niles Eldredge confesses: “That individual kinds of fossils remain recognizably the same throughout the length of their occurrence in the fossil record had been known to paleontologists long before Darwin published his Origin. Darwin himself…prophesied that future generations of paleontologists would fill in these gaps by diligent search…120 years of paleontological research later, it has become abundantly clear that the fossil record will not confirm this part of Darwin’s predictions. Nor is the problem a miserably poor record. The fossil record simply shows that...
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