“We read that “He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth!” At the sound of that voice, the king of terrors at once yielded up his lawful captive, and the insatiable grave gave up its prey…Here, in open day, and before many hostile witnesses, a man, four days dead, was restored to life in a moment. Here was public proof that our Lord had absolute power…
Call To Worship January 8 2017
“The chapter we have now begun is one of the most remarkable in the New Testament. For grandeur and simplicity, for pathos and solemnity, nothing was ever written like it. It describes a miracle which is not recorded in the other Gospels–the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Nowhere shall we find such convincing proofs of our Lord’s Divine power. As God, He makes the grave itself…
Call To Worship January 1 2017
“Bartimaeus was blind in body, but not in soul…Let us strive and pray that we may have like precious faith. Like Bartimaeus, we are not allowed to see Jesus with our bodily eyes. But we have the report of His power, and grace, and willingness to save, in the Gospel. We have exceeding great promises from His own lips, written down for our encouragement. Let us trust…
Call To Worship December 25 2016
In reading these verses, let us first notice the TIMES when Christ was born. It was in the days when Augustus, the first Roman emperor, made “a decree that all the world should be taxed.” The wisdom of God appears in this simple fact. The scepter was practically departing from Judah. (Gen. 49:10.) The Jews were coming under the dominion and taxation of a foreign power. Strangers…
Call To Worship December 18 2016
“We see, thirdly, in these verses, how great is the kindness and condescension of Christ. No sooner was this poor blind man cast out of the Jewish Church than Jesus finds him and speaks words of comfort…He now revealed Himself more fully to this man than He did to anyone except the Samaritan woman. In reply to the question, “Who is the Son of God?” He says…
Call To Worship December 11 2016
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…