Ever read a book or heard a sermon about the key to living the Christian life? Typically, as the story goes, the author/preacher struggled for years in living for Christ. He or she was an earnest, devoted follower of Jesus, but never seemed to make much progress in Christlikeness. Then one day, someone gives them […]
When I was a child my Christian parents assigned to me the mealtime responsibility of thanking the Lord for our food and to ask His blessing upon it. They never required me to vary the few words I prayed, so before long the thrice-daily habit devolved into mechanical repetition. One time I went through the […]
In my travels, at the start of a meal with Christian brothers and sisters, I’m often asked, “Will you bless the food?” “No.” My hosts sit there in stunned silence for a moment. Then, with everyone staring at me with awkward, “What do we do now?” looks, I’ll add, “But I’ll be happy to ask […]
When you see few, if any, conversions in your place of ministry, it can be hard to believe that what Jesus said in John 4:35 is true. In that verse He said to His disciples, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your […]
John 4:35 Jesus said to His disciples, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” But Jesus’s disciples couldn’t see it. The “fields” before them at the moment were a large group of […]
In John 4, Jesus Christ met a woman from the city of Samaria who had come for water to the well where He was resting. When Jesus’s disciples returned to Him with food from the city, “they marveled that he was talking” with her (v. 27). Why? Because it seemed evident that there was no […]
Read the previous post here. In John 4:35 Jesus said to His disciples, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” The disciples weren’t expecting a harvest there in Samaria, at least not […]
I thrill to read of the 3000 saved when the Apostle Peter preached in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. I glory in reading of people coming in great numbers to Christ when George Whitefield, or Jonathan Edwards, or Charles Spurgeon preached. I believe such spiritual harvests actually happened as reported. And I pray […]
We’ve all heard of the three “wise men from the east” (Matthew 2:1) and the role they played in the story of Jesus’ birth. Who are the three wisest people you know? Do you know how to gain wisdom like theirs? Wise King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 13:20, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise.” […]
[Read part one of this post here.] Then I heard Jean tell her own story. She would keep Bibles open in several rooms—in the kitchen, nursery, bathroom—and look at them when she could. While preparing a meal or changing a diaper, she’d glance over and perhaps read only one verse. But this intentionality helped her […]
