December 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Proverbs 6:16-24
There’s a time to part and a time to meet.
There’s a time to sleep and a time to eat.
There’s a time to work and a time to play.
There’s a time to sing and a time to pray.
There’s a time that's glad and a time that’s blue.
There’s a time to plan and a time to do.
There’s a time to grin and show your grit,
But there never was a time to quit!
--Author unknown
Monday, December 8, 2008
Proverbs 9:1—10:4
My days are in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!
--Lord Byron
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Proverbs 10:3—11:1
“Men have confessed to me every known sin, except the sin of covetousness.”
--Francis of Assisi
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Proverbs 11:1-25
“Is it possible that history teaches us nothing? And that the immense past was only the weary rehearsal of mistakes that future is destined to make on a larger scale? At times we feel so, and a multitude of doubts assails us. Our knowledge of the past is always incomplete – probably inaccurate, beclouded by ambivalent evidence and biased historians, and perhaps distorted by our own prejudices and religious partisanship. Most history is guessing – the rest is prejudice.”
--Will Durant
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Proverbs 11:26—12:22
Inadequate Camouflage
The problems of aging are vast,
They leave my spirit aghast.
The use of pretense
Just doesn't make sense,
The truth will catch me at last.
There’s many a word
I ought to have heard.
To put it succinctly
They spoke indistinctly....
To say I am deaf is absurd.
My friends are off in a race
While I must slacken my pace.
To say my gait is erratic,
My joints rheumatic,
Is a downright disgrace.
Why did they make letters so small
That I cannot see them at all?
To say I am blind
Is really unkind
Not to say that’s too much gall.
I resent George King’s complaint
That my voice is always too faint.
I could holler and roar,
But why be a bore,
It’s enough to rattle a saint.
I really hate to admit
That my temper is getting unfit.
Must I say, “Please excuse me,
These things don't amuse me,”
While I am falling apart bit by bit?
--Author unknown
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.
--Ogden Nash
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Proverbs 17
Dr. Griffith Thomas, when asked, “Don’t you think the world is becoming Christian?” responded, “Well the world is becoming a bit churchy, but the church is becoming immensely worldly.”
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Proverbs 21:1-22
If I forgive an injury,
Because resenting would poison me,
I may feel noble; I may feel splendid,
But it isn’t exactly what Christ intended.
--Jane Mershon
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Proverbs 21:22—22:27
“God is always on the side of the bigger battalions.”
--Napoleon Bonaparte
Friday, December 26, 2008
Proverbs 22:28—23:35
“America is coasting downhill on a godly ancestry.”
--Dr. J. Gresham Machen
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Proverbs 25:1-25
“God was contracted to a span; He wrought out your salvation and mine.”
--John Wesley
November 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Ephesians 4:6-13
The Plains of Peace
I’ve been upon the mountain tops of glory and delight.
By faith I’ve seen my Savior there, His garments showy white.
I felt the ways of ecstasy come rolling o’er my soul
As God poured out His wondrous love on one He has made whole.
But it was in the valley dark that Satan’s fiery thrust
Caused me to lean upon the Lord and in Him fully trust.
There were no shouts of joy and praise--just feelings of despair,
Still, I was girdled round about by Jesus’ loving care.
But now I walk upon the plains where gentle breezes blow.
The valleys are exalted, the mountains all brought low.
You see, I’ve learned to walk by faith and not by feel or sight.
And by that faith I reach my goal, a land both fair and bright.
I still ascend the mountain tops, but faith has brought me rest,
And there with Jesus I can set my head upon His breast.
So Christian friend, if days are dark and cares beset your way,
Just trust in Him, our loving Lord, and read His Word and pray.
--Author Unknown
Friday, November 7, 2008
Ephesians 4:22-29
“Let not the eye lie to the foot, nor the foot to the eye. If there be a deep pit and its mouth covered with reeds shall present to the eye the appearance of solid ground, will not the eye use the foot to ascertain whether it is hollow underneath, or whether it is firm and resists? Will the foot tell a lie, and not the truth as it is? And what, again, if the eye were to spy a serpent or a wild beast, will it lie to the foot?”
--John Crysostom
Monday, November 10, 2008
Ephesians 4:30—5:13
Tell God
Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself as to others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration, just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.
–Fenelon
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Ephesians 5:50—6:1
“When Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, they yet found one flower, wherever they wandered, blooming in perpetual beauty. This flower represents a great certitude, without which few would be happy,--subtle, mysterious, inexplicable,--a great boon recognized alike by poet and moralists, Pagan and Christian; yea, identified not only with happiness, but human existence, and pertaining to the soul in its highest aspirations. Allied with the transient and the mortal, even with the weak and corrupt, it is yet immortal in its nature and lofty in its aims,--at once a passion, a sentiment, and an inspiration.
“To attempt to describe woman without this element of our complex nature, which constitutes her peculiar fascination, is like trying to act the tragedy of Hamlet without Hamlet himself,--an absurdity; a picture without a central figure, a novel without a heroine, a religion without a sacrifice. My subject is not without its difficulties. The passion or sentiment is degrading when perverted, it is exalting when pure. Yet it is not vice I would paint, but virtue; not weakness, but strength; not the transient, but the permanent; not the mortal, but the immortal,--all that is ennobling in the aspiring soul.”
--from Great Women by John Lord
Friday, November 14, 2008
Ephesians 6:1-8
Silver Bus
I was standing along a long weary road;
Where I was going I don’t think I knowed.
I was tired and so hungry for so many things--
No destination, like a bird without wings.
A big storm was coming, I could see, in the sky;
With no place to go, I was trembling inside.
The cars passing by, they didn’t care
If I got caught in the storm--it didn’t seem fair.
Then I saw it coming, a big Cadillac
As black as the night, it didn't seem right.
The window rolled down and a face looked at me,
As evil a face as I ever did see.
He said, “Come with me; I’m going to hell.”
And what that man said to me I’ll never tell.
I turned and ran and fell in the ditch
As the wind and the rain wet every stitch.
Then all at once the clouds rolled away,
The rain stopped falling and the sun had its way.
I saw it coming, a big silver bus,
But I had no money, and that was no fuss.
But believe it or not, it stopped at my feet,
The big door, it opened, and oh, what a treat!
The bus driver smiled as he looked at me,
And he said that his name was Vernon McGee.
He said, “Welcome aboard,” with an old Texas twang,
“And money to us don’t mean a thing.”
I said, “Where are you bound down this long weary road?”
“We’re headed for heaven.” And he seemed like he knowed.
Well I stayed right on, and I’ve left it behind—
The heartaches and sorrows and that sad, worried mind.
He told me of Jesus, how He died on the cross,
How He is my Savior through gain and through loss.
Every mile takes me closer to my God and my home
Down this highway of sin in God’s bus, not alone.
God will keep it running to pick up the strays
And McGee will keep driving while he teaches and prays.
--Author unknown
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Ephesians 6:13-15
Are you resting, Christian?
Resting in his arms of tender care.
That God will meet your situation,
Will you trust him, do you dare?
Oh, they seek to overwhelm us,
Trials soar that wear and tear;
But our God is able, willing,
Everything to help us bear.
Call upon him, call upon him;
He will hear and answer, too.
He is one of great compassions;
Every morning they are new.
Earthly friends are oft unable;
Then again, they prove untrue.
But our God will not forsake us;
He will see us safely through.
--Annie L. Smith
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Ephesians 6:16-24
“If man is the head and she is the crown, a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation. The man was dust refined, but the woman was dust, double refined—one removed further from the earth. The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam—not made out of his head to rule over him—nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Adam lost a rib, and without any diminution to his strength or comeliness, for doubtless the flesh was closed without a scar. But in lean thereof he had a helpmeet for him which abundantly made up for his loss. What God takes away from His people He will one way or another restore with advantage.”
--Matthew Henry
“Old soldiers do not die; they just fade away.”
--General Douglas McArthur
Monday, November 24, 2008
Proverbs 1:1-5
“Here is a man manifestly sustained as well as guided by influences from heaven. The Holy Spirit dwells in him. God speaks through him. The heroism, the nobility, the pure and stainless enthusiasm at the root of his life came, beyond question, from Christ. There must therefore be a Christ, and it’s worthwhile to have such a helper and redeemer as this Christ undoubtedly is as He revels Himself to this wonderful disciple.”
--Henry H. Stanley’s description of David Livingston
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Proverbs 2:1-22
“It is to be feared that even among those who hold and value much precious truth, diligent Bible study is on the wane.”
--Dr. Harry A. Ironside
October 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Psalm 119
“The next great revival will be a revival of the Word of God.”
--Dwight L. Moody
“God is going to win. There will be more saved than there will be lost.”
--Charles Spurgeon
“It is strange that of all the pieces of the Bible which my mother taught me, that which cost me the most to learn, and which was to my childish mind the most repulsive – Psalm 119 – has now become of all the most precious to me in its overflowing and glorious passion of love for the Law of God.”
--John Ruskin
“Walked from Hyde Park corner, repeating the 119th Psalm in great comfort.”
--From the diary of William Wilberforce
Monday, October 6, 2008
Psalms 122-131
“Everything depends on the blessing of God.”
--old German proverb
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Psalms 137-138
Historian Edward Gibbons' five reasons for the decline and fall of Rome
1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
4. The building of great armaments when the great enemy was within; the decay of individual responsibility.
5. The decay of religion, fading into a mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.
–From The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
“In our youth we had a profound sense of national purpose, which we lost over the years of our rise to glory.”
--Clinton Rosita, Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University
“The difference between what Washington men say in public and what they say in private is greater today than at any time since the war. In public they talk about how optimistic and wonderful the future is, but the private conversations of thoughtful men here in Washington are quite different. For the first time since the war, one begins to hear of doubts that mortal men are capable of solving, or even controlling political, social and economic problems life has placed before them”
--James Weston, Wall Street Journal
“The American dream is vanishing in the midst of terrifying realities and visible signs of decadence in our contemporary society.”
--Dr. Seagraves, Singer, History Professor at Salsbury, NC
“The United States of America in the past 50 years has been dominated to a large extent by persons who do not understand the spiritual heritage bequeathed by their own ancestors.”
--Dr. Albert Hyma, Professor of History at University of Michigan
“America’s coasting downhill on a godless ancestry, and God pity America when we hit the bottom of the hill.”
--Dr. J. Gresham Machen
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Psalms 138-139
Tell God
Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself as to others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration, just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.
–Fenelon
“I carry this in the back of my Bible, everywhere I go, and every now and then I get it out and read it. This was written by Fenelon, a great saint and mystic of the Middle Ages.”
–Dr. J. Vernon McGee, in reference to the Fenelon quote above
Monday, October 13, 2008
Psalms 144-150
Dr. A.C. Gaebelein told of a visit he had from an Orthodox Jew:
“He stated that he had read the New Testament and found the title of Jesus of Nazareth so often mentioned as the ‘son of man.’ He then declared that there is a warning in the Old Testament not to trust the son of man. As we asked him for the passage he quoted from this Psalm, ‘Trust not…in the son of man in whom there is no salvation.’ We explained to him that if our Lord had been only the son of man and nothing else, if He had not been Immanuel, the virgin-born Son of God, if it were not true as Isaiah stated it, that He is the child born and the Son given, there would be no salvation in Him. But He came God’s Son and appeared in the form of man for our redemption. His argument showed the blindness of the Jew. The statement is given in this Psalm, that man is sinful, that there is no hope in man, he is a finite creature and turns to dust. There is but One in whom salvation, and all man’s needs is found, the God of Jacob, the loving Jehovah.”
--Dr. A.C. Gaebelein, The Book of Psalms
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Ephesians Introduction
Be Proud of Being a Square
Square: another of the good old words has gone the way of love, modesty and patriotism. Something to be snickered over or outright laughed at. Why, it used to be that there was no higher compliment you could pay a man than to call him a “square shooter,” but today a square is a guy who gets his kicks from trying to do a job better than anyone else. He’s a boob who gets so lost in his work he has to be reminded to go home. He hasn’t learned to cut corners or goof off. This nut we call a square gets all choked up when he hears children singing, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” He even believes in God and says so in public. A square is a guy who lives within his means, whether the Jones’s do or not, and thinks his Uncle Sam should too. He doesn’t want to fly now and pay later. A square is likely to save some of his own money for a rainy day rather than count on using yours. A square gets his books out of the library instead of the drug store. He tells his son it’s more important to play fair than to win. Imagine! A square is a guy who reads the Scripture when nobody’s listening. He wants to see America first in everything. He believes in honoring mother and father, and “do unto others” and that kind of stuff. So, will all of you who answer this description please stand up. Stand up to be counted, you squares who turn the wheels and dig the fields and move mountains and put rivets in your dreams; you squares who dignify the human race; you squares who hold the thankless world in place. This square never needs to look for a job or ask for a raise. He's in demand everywhere.
--Author unknown
Dr. Harry Rimmer, when criticized for speaking in a liberal church answered like this: “Why, madam, I would go to hell and preach the gospel if I had a return ticket.”
Friday, October 17, 2008
Ephesians 1:3, 4
Dr. Harry A. Ironside tells the story of a little boy who was asked, “Have you found Jesus?” The little fellow answered, “Sir, I didn’t know He was lost. But I was lost and He found me.”
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Ephesians 1:8-11
“Put the cookies on the bottom shelf where the kiddies can get to them.”
--Dr. Harry Ironside
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Ephesians 1:12-17
The Way of the Cross
Some of us stay at the cross.
Some of us wait at the tomb.
Quickened and raised with Christ,
Yet lingering still in the gloom.
Some of us bide at the Passover Feast
With Pentecost all unknown,
The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place
That our Lord has made our own.
If the Christ who died had stopped at the cross,
His work had been incomplete.
If the Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb,
He had only known defeat.
But the way of the cross never stops at the cross,
And the way of the tomb leads on
To victorious grace in the heavenly place
Where the risen Lord has gone.
--Author unknown
Friday, October 24, 2008
Ephesians 1:17-23
“When Dr. H.A. Ironside lived in Southern California he would sometimes visit a wonderful man of God who had come from Northern Ireland because of his health. While Dr. Ironside would sit with him, he would open up the Scriptures in such an amazing way that Dr. Ironside one day asked him, ‘Where did you learn that?’ ‘Well,’ this man replied, ‘I didn’t get it be going to seminary because I never went to seminary. I never learned it by going to college. No one particularly taught me. Rather I learned these things on my knees on the mud floor of a little sod cottage in north of Ireland. There with my open Bible before me, I used to kneel for hours at a time and ask the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to my soul, and open the Word to my heart. He taught me more on my knees on that mud floor than I could have learned in all the seminaries and colleges of the world.’”
--Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Edited Messages on Ephesians
Monday, October 27, 2008
Ephesians 2:1-3
“Thomas Hobbes, when he lay dying said, (and he was an infidel, by the way, throughout his life) he said: ‘I’m taking a fearful leap into the dark.' Edward Gibbon, English historian and member of parliament, famous for his ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ was however a noted atheist. Just before he died, he said: ‘All is dark.’ Mirabou, the French revolutionist and Jacobite, held no room for Christ in his life, when dying pleaded, ‘give me more laudanum, I don’t want to think of eternity.’”
--Dr. J. Vernon McGee, postscript to this day’s broadcast
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Ephesians 2:8-13
“A sharp distinction is properly drawn between the compassionate love of God for sinners, and His grace which is now offered to them in Jesus Christ. Divine love and divine grace are not one and the same. God might love sinners with an unutterable compassion and yet, because of the demands of outraged divine justice and holiness, be unable to rescue them from a righteous doom. However, as has been before stated, if love shall graciously provide for the sinner all that outraged justice and holiness could ever demand, the love of God would be free to act without restraint in behalf of those for whom the perfect substitutionary sacrifice was made. This is Christ’s achievement on the cross. On the other hand, divine grace in salvation is the unrestrained compassion of God acting toward the sinner on the basis of that freedom already secured through the righteous judgment against sin—secured by Christ in His sacrificial death. Divine love might desire to save, yet be unable righteously to do so; but divine grace is free to act since Christ has died. It is to be observed, then, that the eternal purpose of God is not the manifestation of His love alone, though His love and His mercy are, like His grace, mentioned in this context and expressed in Christ’s death; but it is rather a manifestation of His grace.”
--Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, The Ephesian Letter Doctrinally Considered
“It is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee; it is Christ. It is not thy hope in Christ that saves thee; it is Christ. It is not even they faith in Christ, though that be the instrument; it is Christ’s blood and merit.”
--Charles Spurgeon
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Ephesians 2:14-22
“He does not mean that He has raised us to that high dignity of theirs, but He has raised both us and them to one still higher.”
--John Chrysostom
September 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Psalms 100—102
They were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou cam’st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.
--George McDonald
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Psalms 103—106
“God remembers that we are dust. We forget it, and when dust gets stuck on itself, it is mud.”
--Dr. George Gill
August 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Psalm 2
We hear little man speaking his little piece and playing his part—as Shakespeare puts it, “A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”
Monday, August 4, 2008
Psalms 3, 4
“Because I fear God, I have no man to fear.”
--Oliver Cromwell
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Psalms 9:1—11:1
“One with God is a majority.”
--Martin Luther
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Psalms 16:1—17:1
“I do not know what the heart of a villain is—I only know the heart of a righteous man, and it’s frightful.”
--Count Joseph de Maistre
“I see no sin committed but what I too might have committed.”
--Johann von Goethe
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Psalms 25:1—27:1
“I have learned that if you fear God, you have no one else to fear.”
--Oliver Cromwell
“Of whom shall I be afraid? One with God is a majority.”
--Martin Luther
Friday, August 22, 2008
Psalms 29, 30
“This psalm is elaborated with a symmetry of which no more perfect specimen exists in Hebrew.”
--Johannes Ewald
“The Psalm of seven thunders.”
--Description of Psalm 29 by Franz Delitzsch
“This Psalm is a magnificent description of a thunderstorm. Its might marches from north to south, the desolation and terror which it causes, the peal of thunder, the flash of lightning, even the gathering fury and lull of the elements, are vividly depicted.”
--J.J. Stewart Perowne
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Psalms 36—38
“[Sinners] are self-destroyers by being self-flatterers; Satan could not deceive them, if they did not deceive themselves. But will the cheat last always? No, the day is coming when his iniquity shall be found hateful.”
--Matthew Henry
July 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Galatians Intro—1:1
“I came to America to convert Indians, but who is going to convert John Wesley?"
--John Wesley
Friday, July 11, 2008
Galatians 3:8-17
“Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”
--John Calvin
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Galatians 4:6-24
“You forget that the old dead cat has nine lives. When you throw him away, he is going to be right back tomorrow.”
--Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer
Monday, July 21, 2008
Galatians 5:1-4
“I want to so trust Christ that when I come into His presence and He asks me, ‘Why are you here?’ I can say, ‘I am here because I trusted You as my Savior.’”
--Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Galatians 5:22-26
“I am not to judge you, but I am a fruit inspector, and I have a right to look at the fruit you are producing.”
--Dr. Jim McGinley
Friday, July 25, 2008
Galatians 6:1-5
“No home is there anywhere that does not sooner or later have its hush.”
--Spanish proverb
“Everyone thinks his own burden is heaviest.”
--French proverb
“No one knows the weight of another’s burden.”
--George Herbert
Monday, July 28, 2008
Galatians 6:6-11
You can not put one little star in motion,
You can not shape one single forest leaf,
Nor fling a mountain up, nor sink an ocean,
Presumptuous pigmy, large with unbelief!
You can not bring one dawn of regal splendor,
Nor bid the day to shadowy twilight fall,
Nor send the pale moon forth with radiance tender;
And dare you doubt the One who has done it all?
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“When the Lord gave me a new heart at my conversion, He did not give me a new stomach. I am paying for the years I spent drinking.”
--Mel Trotter
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Galatians 6:11-18
“Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of circumstances and consequences.”
--attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Psalms Intro—1:1
“The Psalms are the voices of the church.”
--Ambrose
“They are the epitome of the whole Scripture.”
--Augustine
“They are a little book for all saints.”
--Martin Luther
“They are the anatomy of all parts of the soul.”
--John Calvin
“They are the choice and flower of all things profitable in other books.”
--Richard Hooker
“The Psalms foretell what I, what any shall do and suffer and say.”
--John Donne
“They are the thousand-voiced heart of the church.”
--Isaac Watts
“The Book of Psalms instructs us in the use of wings as well as words. It sets us both mounting and singing.”
--Charles Spurgeon
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Psalm 1
“Meditation chews the cud.”
--Bartholomew Ashwood
June 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Job 29, 30
I had a little tea party
This afternoon at three.
’Twas very small, three guests in all,
Just I, Myself and Me.
Myself ate all the sandwiches,
While I drank up the tea.
’Twas also I who ate the pie
And passed the cake to Me.
--Unknown
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Job 32:1—33:30
“I went to confess my coldness, my indifference, and my pride. After I had finished, I went back again to God and I repented of my repentance.”
-- Horatius Bonar
May 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
2 Corinthians 6:1-11
“Shepherds do not produce sheep. Sheep produce sheep.”
--Dr. Earl Radmacher
Friday, May 23, 2008
Esther 4:3—5:4
“Sin is the backward pull of an outworn good.”
--Dr. Shaler Matthews
Friday, May 30, 2008
Job 1:1-5
“The Book of Job is one of the noblest poems in existence.”
--Dr. W.G. Moorehead
April 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Ezra 10
“When I was a boy, I heard my father say that if by some miracle God could change every cold, indifferent Christian into ten blatant infidels, the church might celebrate a day of thanksgiving and praise.”
--Lyman Abbott
Monday, April 21, 2008
2 Corinthians 1:4-20
I NEEDED THE QUIET
I needed the quiet so He drew me aside,
Into the shadows where we could confide,
Away from the bustle where all the day long
I hurried and worried when active and strong.
I needed the quiet though at first I rebelled.
But gently, so gently, my cross He upheld
And whispered so sweetly of spiritual things.
Though weakened in body, my spirit took wings
To heights never dreamed of when active and gay.
He loved me so greatly He drew me away.
I needed the quiet. No prison my bed,
But a beautiful valley of blessings instead—
A place to grow richer in Jesus to hide,
I needed the quiet so He drew me aside.
--Alice Hansche Mortenson
Thursday, April 24, 2008
2 Corinthians 3:11-18
TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS
O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness
you see? There's a light for a look at the Savior, and life
more abundant and free!
Through death into life everlasting He passed, and we follow
Him there; Over us sin no more hath dominion – for more than
conquerors we are!
His word shall not fail you – He promised; believe Him and
all will be well: Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect
salvation to tell!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light
of His glory and grace.”
--Helen Lemmel
Monday, April 28, 2008
2 Corinthians 4:3-18
Sir Isaac Newton, when asked this question, “Sir Isaac, I do not understand. You seem to be able to believe the Bible like a little child. I have tried but I cannot. So many of its statements mean nothing to me. I cannot believe; I cannot understand,” replied:
“Sometimes I come into my study and in my absentmindedness I attempt to light my candle when the extinguisher is over it, and I fumble about trying to light and cannot; but when I remove the extinguisher then I am able to light the candle. I am afraid the extinguisher in your case is the love of your sins; it is deliberate unbelief that is in you. Turn to God in repentance; be prepared to let the Spirit of God reveal His truth to you, and it will be His joy to show the glory of the grace of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
President John Adams, when asked how he felt after he had become an old man, replied, “I feel fine. This old house that I live in is really getting feeble. The shingles are coming off the top and the foundation seems to be coming out from underneath, but Mr. Adams is just fine, thank you.”
March 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
“Every morning and all hours and on the account of the goodness of God towards them they praise and laud Him…And if any of their righteous number passes away from the world they rejoice and give thanks to God…If a child chance to die in its infancy they praise God mightily, as for one who has passed through this world without sin.”
--Aristides’ description of the way Christians in the second century lived
Friday, March 14, 2008
1 Corinthians 12:31—14:2
“Put the cookies on the bottom shelf so the kiddies can get them.”
--Dr. Harry Ironside
“Language without love is noise without melody.”
--Dr. W. Graham Scroggie
They never loved who dreamed that they loved once.
Love looks beyond the bounds of time and space,
Love takes eternity in its embrace.
--from “I Loved Once” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Monday, March 17, 2008
Corinthians 14:1-40
“Tongues seem to have ceased first of all the gifts.”
--Dr. A. T. Robertson
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
1 Corinthians 15:1-44
“It is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee. It is not thy hope in Christ that saves thee. It is Christ. It is not even they faith in Christ, though that be the instrument.”
--Charles Spurgeon
Monday, March 24, 2008
Ezra 1:1, 2
“We already have seen that the Babylonian captivity did not bring the Jews to national repentance and so lead to national restoration. As the reading of Ezra will disclose, when Cyrus, King of Persia, gave permission to the captives to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, scarcely fifty thousand Jews availed themselves of the privilege, a considerable portion of whom were priests and Levites of the humbler and poorer class.”
--Dr. James M. Gray
They were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou cam’st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.
--George McDonald
February 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
2 Chronicles 10:1—12:10
“The Bible Bus continues to roll down the highways of time and you see no one at the driver’s seat. Actually, the same driver is there who has been there all the time--the Holy Spirit. He is the real teacher, who alone can take the things of Christ and show them unto you. Through the modern miracle of the magnetic tape, we were able to leave these introductions as well as the entire two and a half and five-year program of going through the Bible. In fact, there are enough tapes of many books of the Bible that could keep us on the air for many years without repeating a tape. Now it’s up to you to keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, not only here, but throughout the world. When I was well stricken in years, there was yet much land to be taken. That’s still true. There are many other languages into which this program can be translated. It’s up to you now. There is one thing I cannot do, read your letters. That’s a thrill I shall miss.”
--Dr. McGee’s farewell message, which he prepared to be played after his homegoing
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
2 Chronicles 28:5—30:16
“The call is: watch, study, attend to reading. In truth you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well...Therefore, dear sirs...pray, read, study, be diligent.”
--Attributed to Martin Luther
Thursday, February 14, 2008
2 Chronicles 30:17—32:33
“When I was a young man I heard Henry Barley say that the world has yet to see what God can do for a man fully yielded to Him, and I said I wanted to be that man. But I can say today the world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully yielded to Him.”
–Dwight L. Moody
Monday, February 25, 2008
1 Corinthians 3
“The mark of a great statesman is a man who knows the way God is going for the next 50 years.”
–William Gladstone
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
1 Corinthians 4
“Public opinion in this country is everything.”
--Abraham Lincoln
“The last infirmity of a noble mind is the love of fame.”
--John Milton
“Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today will curse tomorrow, only one thing endures—character.”
--Horace Greeley
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
1 Corinthians 5
“Compromise is the most immoral word in the English language.”
--John Morley
Friday, February 29, 2008
1 Corinthians 7:1-20
“The other question which arises is, Was Saul married? Had he the support of some loving heart during the fiery struggles of his youth? Amid the to-and-fro contentions of spirit which resulted from an imperfect and unsatisfying creed, was there in the troubled sea of his life one little island home where he could find refuge from incessant thoughts? Little as we know of his domestic relations, little as he cared to mingle mere private interests with the great spiritual truths that occupy his soul, it seems to me that we must answer this question in the affirmative.”
--Life and Word of St. Paul, by F.W. Farrar
January 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Romans 14:17—15:3
“Despite these objections, the integrity of the epistle as it now stands is certain.”
--Kerr, Introduction to New Testament Study
Sunday, January 6, 2008
“The Proper Posture of Prayer”
THE PROPER WAY
“The proper way for a man to pray,” said Deacon Lemuel Keyes, “and the only proper attitude is down upon his knees.”
“No, I should say the way to pray,” said Reverend Doctor Wise, “is standing straight with outstretched arms and rapturous upturned eyes.”
“Oh, no, no, no!” said Elder Sloe. “Such posture is too proud. A man should pray with eyes fast closed and head contritely bowed.”
“It seems to me his hands should be austerely clasped in front with both thumbs pointing t’ward the ground,” said Reverend Doctor Blunt.
“Last year I fell in Hodkin’s well, head first, “said Cyrus Brown. “With both my heels a-stickin’ up, my head a-pointin’ down., the prayenest prayer I ever prayed was standing on my head.”
--Author unknown
Monday, January 7, 2008
Romans 15:25—16:2
“The sixteenth chapter is neglected by many to their own loss.”
--Dr. William R. Newell, Romans Verse by Verse
Friday, January 11, 2008
1 Chronicles 11, 12
“I judge a man not by the friends he has, but by the enemies he has. If you have the right kind of enemies, you are all right.”
--Dr. Bob Schuler
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