Spiritual Ploughing
"But Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).
I have just had a couple of days at the farm and during that time I saw some ploughing, and afterward when we were back indoors this text came up, and we were told that, in its actual terms it is quite out of date, f ...read
Article
Spiritual Understanding
Reading: Matthew 13:1-9, 11, 14-15, 19, 23, 51
You will probably note that one word occurs in all these varied verses - the word 'understanding' in its different forms. I have recently been very much impressed with the necessity for spiritual understanding.
This parable is, I expect, as familiar to you as any of the parables of the Lord Jesus, ...read
Article
Spiritual Warfare
"If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" Luke 22:36.
Later on Jesus said to those same disciples, "Put your sword back into its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword" (Matthew 26:52). There must be a good explanation for the Lord's earlier command that His disciples should be sure to be armed, and among other po ...read
Article
Spiritual Warfare (1959)
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). "Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, ...read
Article
Spirituality: The Key To All That is of God
A spiritual state is the key to all that is of God. Spirituality is the door, and the key to the door, beyond which lies everything that relates to God. Without spirituality there is no way through; the door is closed. The word "cannot" stands written as an impassable barrier - "cannot understand or receive the things of the Spirit of God. "
The w ...read
Article
Stephen - Thy Witness
An Appeal for Spiritual Christianity
Acts 22:20 (Acts 6 & 7)
It would be difficult to find a Christian who did not hold Stephen in very high esteem. The reading of the account of his martyrdom, as that of a young man of great gifts and unimpeachable character, stirs every kind of emotion into intense reaction. Sorrow, grief, admiration, anger ...read
Article
Stewardship
"Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." (1 Corinthians 4:1,2)
A steward is a man who, on the one hand, stands in a living relationship to all that his lord has and, on the other hand, has an equally close relationship to a ...read
Article
Stripping Down to Christ Alone
We realize, with intense sorrow of heart, that all is not well with that which ostensibly represents the Lord here... and that there is a state of things widely prevailing which does not truly accord with the revealed desire of God.
We live in a time of more than usual dearth spiritually - the state of things may well remind us of Ezekiel's valley ...read
Sermon
Striving In Prayer
A Conference Message
Reading: Phil. 1:29-30; Col. 1:28-2:2; 4:12.
There is much more in the Word of the same nature that could be added to these passages, but these are sufficient, I think, to indicate something we need to lay to heart. I always feel that one of the great factors in our own spiritual enlargement is a real active concern for oth ...read
Article
Subjected... In Hope
"For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:20,21).
'The creation was subjected to vanity... in hope...' It is impressive that, although ...read
Article
Suffering and Glory
Reading: Hebrews 11:32-40, 2 Corinthians 11:23-33; Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:3
It is a remarkable combination which we find in those first people of God - the combination of suffering and joy. It is not easy for us to put ourselves into the atmosphere and conditions in Jerusalem in those first days, but there is no doubt about it that it was ...read
Article
Suitability for the Glory of God
"And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Rev. 21:14).
"And he called unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease, and all manner of sickness. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: Th ...read
Article
Take Your Share
Reading: 1 Chronicles 15:1-2, 2 Timothy 2:1-3.
And David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent. Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the LORD chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever. (1 Chronicles 15:1-2).
Th ...read
Article
Taking Heavenly Ground
In our Editorials we have referred much to the tragedy of spiritual conditions, particularly to the divided state of Christians. It is a matter which no one really concerned for God's glory can easily set aside, or fail to have as a constant burden. Reflection upon this whole matter leads to the prayerful desire to be able to do something toward wh ...read
Article
Taking Responsibility for the Testimony
Reading: Acts 12:1-11.
We will not read more for the sake of time, but there is a word that has been very much on my heart of late which I feel the Lord would have passed on to you; a very important message, I feel, for the Lord's children today.
It is with regard to our privilege and responsibility for the testimony, especially in relation to ...read
Article
Taking the End by Faith
Reading: 1 Peter 1:1-12.
We are here in the presence of the great transition, the great change, which had taken place in the case of Peter and the Apostles and of all who had believed. Before the Cross all their hopes and expectations, their entire mentality and horizon were on this earth. They were looking for the realization of a kingdom, a Me ...read
Article
That Extra Mile
"And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain" (Matthew 5:41).
The idea in this exhortation had itself taken a long journey. It originated among the Persians, was taken over by the Romans, and then applied by the Romans to the Jews during their (the Romans) occupation of Palestine. In the beginning it was the prerogative of ...read
Article
The Abiding Meaning of Pentecost
Readings: Acts 2:1-36; Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 16:28; Acts 2:34; 1 Corinthians 15:25.
Acts is pre-eminently a book of principles; and it is just here we so often go wrong in looking for the repetition of the form by which those principles were expressed; forms of expression change, but the principles abide.
Though the Lord may do a fresh thing, He ...read
Article
The Alpha and The Omega
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8).
"And He said unto me... I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End" (Rev. 21:6).
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (Rev. 22:13).
One of the titles which the Lord ...read
Article
The Altar (The Cross) Governs Everything
Ezekiel forty-three, in verses thirteen to twenty-seven, we have the great altar and its service. We will not read the whole section, but just the first verse of that section: "And these are the measurements of the altar by cubits (the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth): the base shall be a cubit, and the width a cubit, and its border on its ed ...read
T. Austin-Sparks