| Devotional | If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man
Speech is one of the supreme distinctions between man and the lower animals. The power of expressing thought in articulation and written language is one of the high prerogatives of rational beings. A man's conversation is the real test of his character and if any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his ow ...read |
| Devotional | If the household be too little for the lamb
If the household be too little for the lamb. . . . What does all this mean for us as redeemed men and women? Surely, this-that we have no right to claim the purchase of the Savior's blood for ourselves alone, and that we are guilty of selfishness, dishonesty and base in gratitude if we can be content to be saved without having done everything in o ...read |
| Devotional | If ye then be risen
God is waiting today to mark the opening hours, for every ready and willing heart, with a touch of life and power that will lift us to higher pleasures and offer to our vision grander horizons of hope and holy service. We shall not need to look far to discover our risen Lord. He was in advance even of the earliest seeker that Easter morning, and He ...read |
| Devotional | In due season we shall reap, if we faint not
If the least of us could only anticipate the eternal issues that will probably spring from the humblest services of faith, we would count our sacrifices and labors occasions of honor and opportunity and would cease to speak of trials and sacrifices for God. The smallest grain of faith is a deathless and incorruptible germ which will yet plant the h ...read |
| Devotional | In him we live, and move
The hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha, could not heal the lifeless boy. It required the living touch of the prophet's own divinely quickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay. Lip to lip, hand to hand, heart to heart, he must touch the child before life could thrill his pulseless veins. We must come into personal contact with ...read |
| Devotional | Instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree
God's sweetest memorial is the transformed thorn and thistle blooming with flowers of peace and goodness where once recriminations grew. God is waiting to make just such memorials in your life out of the things that are hurting you most today. Take the grievances, the separations, the strained friendships and the broken ties which have been the so ...read |
| Sermon | instruments Of Service
This passage gives us an inventory of God's favorite instruments--of the things that God likes best to use, and the people that God especially chooses; and some of you may be surprised to find yourselves not included in this inventory; some of you may feel that it would be a considerable humiliation to come within it. You have got your choice of fi ...read |
| Devotional | It is God which worketh in you
God does not have two ways for any of us, but one. Not two things for us to do which we may choose between, but one best and highest choice. It is a blessed thing to find and fill the perfect will of God. It is a blessed thing to have our life laid out and our Christian work adjusted to God's plan. Much strength is lost by working at a venture. Mu ...read |
| Devotional | It is high time to awake out of sleep
0ne of the greatest enemies to faith is indolence. it is much easier to lie and suffer than to rise and overcome. It is much easier to go to sleep on a snowbank and never wake again than to rouse one's self and shake off the lethargy and overcome the stupor. Faith is an energetic art. Prayer is intense labor. The effectual working prayer of the ri ...read |
| Devotional | It is I, be not afraid
A little child with a tale of woe on his heart flies to his mother's arms for comfort-intending to tell her the whole story of his trouble. But as soon as that mother takes the child in her arms and expresses her love, the child becomes so occupied with her and the sweetness of her affection that he forgets to tell his story, and in a little while ...read |
| Devotional | It is more blessed to give than to receive
How shall we know the difference between earthly and heavenly love? The one centers on ourselves and is partly our ego seeking its own gratification. The other reaches out to God and to people and finds its Joy in glorifying Him and blessing them. Love is unselfishness, and the love that is not unselfish is not divine. How much do we give to others ...read |
| Devotional | It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps
United to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, we are accepted in the Beloved. He does not merely take our place as a man and settle our debts. He does that and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be. He is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and reproduce ...read |
| Devotional | it shall be recompensed unto him again
Christians have it in their power, by a very little sacrifice, to add millions to the treasury of the Lord. Have you found the joy of sacrifice for Jesus? Have you given up something that you might give it to Him? Are you giving your substance to Jesus? He will take it, and will return to you a thousandfold. I would rather be associated with a work ...read |
| Devotional | Jesus the author and finisher of our faith
Add to your faith, do not add to yourself. This is where we make the mistake. We must not only enter the Christian life by faith, but we must advance by faith each step of the way. At every new stage we shall find ourselves as incompetent and unequal for the pressure as before, and we must take the grace and the victory simply by faith. Is it coura ...read |
| Devotional | Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
More and more we are realizing the supreme importance of getting the right conception of sanctification-not as a blessing but as a personal union with the personal Savior and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Thousands of people get stranded after they have embarked on the great voyage of holiness. They find themselves failing and falling and are astonis ...read |
| Devotional | Keep His Commandments
"Lovest thou me?" the Master asks of each disciple. He expects our first and highest love for Himself, personally, and He has a right to it. More than all our service, more than all our work to build up a cause, He desires our personal devotion to Him. Mary's gift was precious because it was personal. Ye have the poor with you always; but me ye hav ...read |
| Devotional | keep the way of the Lord
God wants people whom He can depend upon. He could say of Abraham, I know, him, . . . that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. God can be depended upon. He wants us to be just as decided, just as reliable and just as stable. This is what faith means. God is looking for men on whom He can put the weight of all His love ...read |
| Devotional | Keep yourselves in the love of God
Some time ago, I was enjoying a beautiful sunset. The western skies seemed like a great archipelago of golden islands, the masses in the distance rising up into vast mountains of glory. The hue of the sky was so gorgeous that it seemed to reflect itself upon the whole atmosphere as I looked back from the west to the eastern horizon. The whole earth ...read |
| Devotional | Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
It is purely a matter of faith. Faith and sight always differ. To your senses it does not seem to be so, but your faith must still reckon it so. This is a very difficult attitude to hold, and only as we thoroughly believe God can we thus reckon upon His Word and His working. But as we do so, faith will convert it into fact, and it will become reali ...read |
| Devotional | Launch out into the deep
Many difficulties and perplexities in connection with our Christian lives might best be settled by a simple and bold decision of our will to go forward with the light we have, leaving the speculations and theories that we cannot decide for further settlement. What we need is to act, and to act with the best light we have. As we step out into the pr ...read |
A.B. Simpson