Mark 9:14-29 “The contrast between these verses and those which precede them in the chapter is very striking. We pass from the mount of transfiguration to a melancholy history of the work of the devil. We come down from the vision of glory, to a conflict with Satanic possession. We change the blessed company of Moses and Elijah, for the crude communion of unbelieving Scribes. We leave…
Call To Worship October 16 2016
J.C. Ryle speaking of John 6:28-34, “We should observe, for one thing, in these verses, the spiritual ignorance and unbelief of the natural man. Twice over we see this brought out and exemplified. When our Lord instructed his hearers to “labor for the food which endures to eternal life,” they immediately began to think of ‘works to be done’, and a goodness of their own to be…
Call to Worship October 9 2016
“Let us never doubt for a moment, that the preaching of Christ crucified–the old story of His blood, and righteousness, and substitution–is enough for all the spiritual necessities of all mankind. It is not worn out. It is not obsolete. It has not lost its power. We need nothing new–nothing more broad and kind–nothing more intellectual–nothing more effectual. We need nothing but the true bread of life,…
Call to Worship September 11 2016
“Hebrews 12:28-29 … for our God is a consuming fire: These words are taken from Deuteronomy 4:24 which warns Israel that their covenant relationship with God (‘our God’) would not protect them from the devouring fire of divine judgment if they incurred His jealousy by lapsing into the sin of idolatry. An abiding consciousness of the ineffable holiness of God offers the best deterrent against the commission…
Call to Worship September 4 2016
“It is a painful fact, that there are never lacking professing Christians who try to explain away our Lord’s miracles. They endeavor to account for them by natural causes, and to show that they were not worked by any extraordinary power. Of all miracles, there are none which they assault so strenuously as the casting out of devils…Let us beware of a skeptical and incredulous spirit in…
Call to Worship – August 28 2016
“Let us take care that our own religion is real, genuine and true. The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians, is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of…
Call To Worship August 21 2016
“Let us strive to know more and more, every year we live, our need of a mediator between ourselves and God. Let us seek more and more to realize that without a mediator our thoughts of God can never be comfortable, and the more clearly we see God the more uncomfortable we must feel. Above all, let us be thankful that we have in Jesus the very…
Call To Worship August 7 2016
John 5:1-18 “We are taught, for one thing, in this passage, what misery sin has brought into the world. We read of a man who had been ill for no less than thirty-eight years! For thirty-eight weary summers and winters he had endured pain and infirmity. He had seen others healed at the waters of Bethesda, and going to their homes rejoicing. But for him there had…
Call To Worship July 31 2016
How expectant and aware are we of the Lord’s work? Martin Lloyd Jones once admonished his hearers concerning their expectations in coming to worship the Lord. Jesus recognized the over expectancy of signs and wonders and admonished his hearers for lack of awareness of the constancy of God’s work every day. So, we come to worship this day expecting the one and only God to reveal truth,…
Call To Worship July 17 2016
“In meaning as well as in time, the miracles lie between the incarnation and the ascension. They look backward to the one event and forward to the other.” Westcott “That all our Lord’s miracles were deeply significant, I do not deny. That all were intended to convey deep spiritual lessons, I make no question. All I maintain is that they require reverent and delicate handling, and that…