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A devotional from the hymn by Fanny J. Crosby Text: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face…” — 1 Corinthians 13:12 Fanny J. Crosby spent almost her entire life without sight. Yet some of her most moving hymns speak of seeing: seeing heaven, seeing the light of home, and, above all, seeing Jesus Christ. In My Saviour First of All, she imagines her earthly work coming to an end and asks us to consider what will matter most when we reach the other side. T

But This Is That: Understanding Peter's Statement At Pentecost "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in

Cherish the Gift While God Has Given It “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” — Ephesians 5:16 Being separated from my wife while she has been in Australia has caused me to think about something I had never really considered quite this way before. This is the only shot we have at this. I love my wife. I miss her. And being apart has reminded me just how precious the ordinary moments of marriage really are—the conversations, the laughter, sitting together doing abso

When the Gospel Was Worth Everything “For the love of Christ constraineth us...”2 Corinthians 5:14 In the summer of 1727, in a small settlement in Saxony called Herrnhut, something was happening that few people outside the community would have considered important. Herrnhut was not a great city. It possessed no magnificent cathedral, no famous university, and no powerful missionary society. It was a small community established on the estate of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzen

Integrity — Service Before Self — Excellence in All We Do I served nearly twelve years in the United States Air Force, and during those years three core values were continually impressed upon us: Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence in All We Do. Those words weren't supposed to be a slogan hanging on a wall. They described the standard by which an airman was expected to conduct himself. Years later, as I look at those three values through the lens of Scripture, I

A Doctrinal Series on Sin, Substitution, Atonement, Regeneration, and Life in Christ ARTICLE 1 — THE STANDARD IS GOD “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” — Romans 3:23 Before we can understand salvation, we must first understand the standard. Most people judge themselves by comparing themselves with other people. I am not as bad as that man. I have never murdered anyone. I try to treat people right. I believe in God. I go to church. I am a decent person.

“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” — John 20:21 KJB In 1954, E. Margaret Clarkson wrote the missionary hymn “So Send I You.” It is not a comfortable missionary hymn. It does not paint Christian service as an adventure filled with applause, success, recognition, and immediate results. Instead, it speaks of sacrifice. Loneliness. Weariness. Love that is not returned. Labour that appears unrewarded. And a servant wh

Born to Overcome “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”— 1 John 5:4 INTRODUCTION — GOD GAVE US A PICTURE Throughout this series, we are going to follow Israel from Egypt to Canaan. Because Israel's journey gives us a remarkable picture of truths we experience in the Christian life. Paul himself tells us concerning Israel: “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are writt

GOD DID NOT CALL JOSHUA MERELY TO CROSS — HE CALLED HIM TO POSSESS Text: Joshua 1:1–9 “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.”— Joshua 1:3 There is a tremendous difference between crossing into the land and possessing the land. Israel could have crossed Jordan, established a comfortable camp on the other side, looked back across the river and congratulated themselves on how far they had come. After all, they

Three Questions That Could Change Our Christian Relationships “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” — Ephesians 4:32 Some of the deepest hurts we experience do not come from strangers. They come from people we love. Husbands and wives. Family members. Close friends. Church members. Brothers and sisters in Christ. The closer someone is to our heart, the greater their ability to hurt it. And when

A Faith Worth Dying For “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”— 2 Timothy 3:12 When we open the pages of Martyrs Mirror, we are not simply opening an old history book. We are looking into a mirror. We see men and women who believed that Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word were worth more than their comfort, possessions, freedom—and even their lives. And for those of us who are Baptists, there is something especially challenging about

When Everything Else Fades, Christ Remains The Story of Henry Francis Lyte “Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.”— Luke 24:29 There are hymns we sing because they are beautiful. There are hymns we sing because they are familiar. And then there are hymns that seem to have been written for the dark valleys of life. “Abide With Me” is one of those hymns. Its words have comforted grieving families, strengthened dying saints, encouraged weary Christi

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”— Philippians 1:21 There are some missionaries whose lives make us stop and ask ourselves a very uncomfortable question: How much is Jesus Christ really worth to me? For C. T. Studd, that question was not answered merely with words. He answered it with his career.He answered it with his fortune.He answered it with his comfort.He answered it with his health.And ultimately, he answered it with his life. Charles Thomas Studd was

THE COURAGE TO ADVANCE I. THERE COMES A TIME WHEN YOU MUST MOVE FORWARD “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.”— Joshua 1:2 There are moments in life when something is over. Something has changed. Something has been lost. Something didn't happen the way we expected. And there comes a point when we have to decide whether we are going to spend the rest

Part One The Church Age: Why God Calls Us to Walk by Faith, Not by Sight Why the Scriptures—Not Signs—Are the Believer's Final Authority "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."— Matthew 7:15 Every generation of Christians has faced its own peculiar dangers. The early church battled Judaizers who sought to place believers back under the Law. Later generations contended with Gnosticism, Romanism, rationalism, lib

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." — Matthew 16:24 Matthew 16 marks one of the great turning points in our Lord's earthly ministry. Only moments after Simon Peter makes one of the greatest confessions recorded in Scripture, he receives one of the strongest rebukes ever spoken by the Lord Jesus. How could the same man be commended by Christ in one moment and corrected so sharply in th

Why Religious Man Rejects the Gospel of Grace "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."— 2 Corinthians 11:3 There has never been a greater battle fought than the battle over the Gospel. From the Garden of Eden until this present hour, Satan's greatest objective has never been to make man irreligious. Rather, his masterpiece has been to corrupt the truth of God jus