During the first pre-Christian century a famous letter was written by Sulpicius Severus, a Roman, to Cicero, the great orator, on the occasion of the death of Cicero's beloved daughter Tullia. The letter expresses deep sympathy and reminds the orator that his daughter had only experienced the common
At the end of yesterday’s devotional, we said that one consequence of knowing that our Redeemer lives is that we, too, shall live. Jesus’s bodily resurrection is proof of our own future bodily resurrection.Then, too, we shall see God. This is the second consequence. We shall live again and in that l
There is a third point to Job's statement. Not only does Job declare that he has a Redeemer, not only does he affirm that He is a living Redeemer, but he adds, quite properly, that He is his Redeemer. "My" is the word he uses. "I know that my redeemer liveth!" Do you know that "my" in relation to Je
At the conclusion of yesterday’s study, we said that there is overwhelming evidence for Jesus’ resurrection.There is the evidence of the narratives themselves. These are quite evidently four separate and independent accounts, for if they were not, there would not be so many apparent discrepancies—th
Now I recognize that there are different ways of translating the phrase which says, “Yet in my flesh shall I see God” (v. 26). Some versions read, “Yet without my flesh.” But these fail to make full sense of the passage. What is redeemed if it is not Job’s body? Not the soul or spirit certainly, for
As we think about the resurrection on this Easter Sunday, I want to take you to a very special verse from the Old Testament. It is Job 19:25, which reads, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” I do not know if you have ever had the experience of
When I read these verses that talk about God being in this city forever, I think to something else that Ezekiel wrote about. Ezekiel, as I pointed out at the very end of his prophecy, gives that revelation of the new name for Jerusalem, “the Lord is there.” But that itself makes me think of somethin
John begins to describe some of the other details, and he talks about this great wall all the way around it. A wall would symbolize protection, and so you have an image there of our eternal security and safety. He talks about the twelve foundations. Why twelve? Well the reason is that they relate to
When John begins to describe this in chapter 21, the thing that impresses him most about Jerusalem is that God dwells there. He writes, “I saw the Holy City,” he says, “the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud
It's really not possible to come to this chapter at this point in the Bible, right at the end, without realizing that when John has this vision of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, this is in contrast to practically all of the great themes preceding this that have to do with our normal, e
A funeral service of the Book of Common Prayer is a very beautiful thing—both in its simplicity and in the wise way it uses Scripture. The Old Testament readings have to do with many of the psalms. There is the twenty-third as you can imagine, as well as the forty-sixth, which tells us that the Lord
In yesterday’s study we concluded by referring to the three reasons John gives in 1 John 4 for why we should love one another.The first reason is found in verse 7: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” God is love. Th
Whom do you think of when you read these verses? “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always
As I look at these items, I think they characterize the major types of Christian ministry today, even the types of ministry present in a single Christian congregation. When Paul talks about tongues and prophecy, is he not speaking of what we generally call a charismatic type of service? When he spea
Paul teaches the importance of love by contrasts. He says that if he could speak with the tongues of men, or even angels, but without love, it would be nothing. Or prophecy: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge” but if I do not have love, it is nothing. Or f
It would not take a great spiritual genius or even a great literary genius to pick 1 Corinthians 13 as one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. It deals with love, and according to the very teaching of the chapter love is the greatest of all the things one could be considering (v. 13). Love is gre
Yesterday we concluded by saying that because God has made peace with us, we must be peacemakers toward others. Among other things, we must be peacemakers in the home. Donald Grey Barnhouse wrote:Every minister knows that adjustments must be made by two people who have stopped living in single libe
The fourth beatitude encourages a hunger and thirst after righteousness. It stands at the center of them all. Righteousness is what we most lack, and, therefore, our greatest problem is how we as sinful men and women become right before God. We can deal with other problems. We can find partial solut
The third beatitude concerns meekness. What do you think of when you think of meekness? Most of us think of Caspar Milquetoast or else the skinny 98-pound weakling in the Charles Atlas ad. That is not what meekness meant in the ancient world. Aristotle once outlined what the proper virtues of a civi
When we read the phrase, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” we think of somebody in material poverty and we assume that the Lord is saying that it is better to be poor than to be rich. But our Lord never said anywhere that it is better to be poor than to be rich. He did have many warnings about being
No portion of our Lord’s teaching is better known and probably no portion of the Word of God is more difficult to read than the Beatitudes given in Matthew 5. This is because it is impossible to read these verses without realizing acutely that while they may describe the Lord Jesus Christ, they most
In verses 13 and 14 Jesus talks about prayer, saying that prayer is effective. Notice the way He puts it: “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”I find that very comforting. Jesus did not say, “
In verse 9 Jesus talks about knowing God. He says, “You really can know God, and the way you know God is by knowing me.” It comes out of a question Philip asked. Philip had said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” (v. 8). When Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except thr
Let me list the things Jesus tells us are a basis for why we should not be troubled. First, there is a place called heaven, and He has gone there to prepare it for us. D.L. Moody once talked about a man he knew who had some thoughts about heaven. He said that when he was young, he never thought abou
