| Article | The Increase of God
Reading: 1 Cor. 3; Heb. 5:11-6:3.
"We desire each one of you to show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope.... that ye be not sluggish, but... through faith and patience inherit the promises."
"Walk worthily of the Lord... increasing in the knowledge of God." - Col. 1:10.
"Holding fast the Head from whom all the body being supplied... inc ...read |
| Article | The Increase of Spiritual Capacity
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit..." (John 16:12).
"I could not speak unto you as spiritual... I fed you with milk, not with meat... not even now are ye able" (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).
"Ye are straitened in your own affections... Be ye enlarged" (2 Corinthians 6:12-13).
"...we have many things to say, a ...read |
| Article | The Inheritance - Gained or Forfeited
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32).
"Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and ...read |
| Article | The Inner Man of the Heart
THE INNER MAN OF THE HEART Or, The Believer's Sphere of Life and Base of Operations
There is no subject more vital in relation to fulness of life and effectiveness of service in Christ than this that we are now to consider. It embraces all the practical meanings and outworkings of the redemptive purposes of God in and through the Cross of Christ ...read |
| Article | The Intrusion of Natural Life in the Service of God
We have been at pains to show that Christianity has become very largely another Judaism, an outward system and a historic tradition. But it has become more than this. In its principles, methods, and means, it has largely become conformed to this world or age. Were we wanting to deal with the negative or defective aspect of things, it would not be d ...read |
| Article | The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength
"Go your way; eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions unto him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy unto our Lord. Neither be ye grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10) - or stronghold - "The joy of the Lord is your stronghold".
My intention is just to take that last sentence - "The joy of the ...read |
| Article | The Law of the House
Reading: Ezekiel 43:1-12
At a time when the temple in Jerusalem was in ruins, Ezekiel the prophet was shown a spiritual temple, measured out by a man with a golden measuring rod. The measurements were all exact; the prophet was led in, led through, led round, led up, set down, so that he could see it from every side. From every angle and every a ...read |
| Article | The Law of Travail
"Unto the woman he [God] said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children... And unto Adam he said... cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil (sorrow) shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ...in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Genesis 3:16,17,19).
"The creation was s ...read |
| Article | The Living God
"And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you... Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into the Jordan." Josh. 3:10-11.
"For they themselves report... how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God" 1 Thess. 1:9.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, ...read |
| Article | The Lord is Greater Than All
"THE LORD IS GREATER THAN ALL..."
That is the motto which we have taken to govern this year 1954. Under that all-embracing statement we have gathered three other aspects of His superior greatness.
The inclusive declaration - for such it was (Exod. 18:11) - related to the emancipation of an elect nation from this world. All the forces of Satan a ...read |
| Article | The Lord is With Him
"Then answered one of the young men and said, Behold I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is skilful in playing, and a mighty man of valour, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely person; and the Lord is with him" (1 Samuel 16:18).
This verse gives us six features of the life of David, the man who came to be described ...read |
| Article | The Lord's Assembly
Reading: Exodus 35
This and the following chapters give us a comprehensive representation of Christ as tabernacling among His people; they are a typical setting forth of the body of Christ, the Church; and they are a most valuable disclosure of the spiritual principles of the life and service of the people of God.
But before we deal with the co ...read |
| Article | The Lord's Attitude To His Children In Adversity
"In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old" (Isa. 63:9).
The first clause of that verse is what will occupy us for a few minutes, and it will be as in the more correct translation that some of you will fi ...read |
| Article | The Lord's Field
"Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth he that plougheth to sow, plough continually? doth he open and harrow his ground? When, he hath levelled the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and put in the wheat in rows, and the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in the border t ...read |
| Article | The Lord's Government of the Ear and the Hand
The Ear
The Lord is to have supreme control of the ear. We must come on to the ground where the ear is dead to every other controlling voice, every other governing suggestion, and is alive unto God, and unto God alone.
It is quite clear that, in some way, the governing faculty of every life is the ear; not necessarily the outward organ, but tha ...read |
| Article | The Lord's Recovery Movement
On the whole today, the Lord's full thought and conception is not the general thing among His people. The testimony of the Lord has largely broken down, and the great multitude called by His name are governed and manipulated and controlled by something that is religiously of the earth and not of the heavens - of man and not of the Holy Ghost; and t ...read |
| Article | The Lordship of Christ
From "The Work of the Ministry" - Volume 3
The Key to Fullness
Reading: Acts 2:23-25, 34-36, 41; 3:13-15; 4:8-12; 5:30-32; 9:4-6; 10:36.
As we read these passages, we cannot fail to see that one note runs through them all - one triumphant note ringing in unmistakable clearness. I think it is gathered up in the most concise and direct form ...read |
| Article | The Marks of Jesus
A Message to Younger Christians
"I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus". (Galatians 6:17.)
The marks of Jesus; whether these were actually marks on his body, scars of his sufferings, or whether he was using a figure, a well-known figure of speech, we may not be quite sure. It is possible that Paul meant both; that is that there were ma ...read |
| Article | The Meaning of Christ
God has something to say right into our hearts by bringing His Son here into this world from infancy onward and having that life here in a world like this for thirty-three years. He is working out something, is doing something, and He is doing that in the spiritual realm; and He wants to repeat that in the Church and in the members of the Church, t ...read |
| Article | The Meaning of Christian Service
What is Christian service according to the mind of God?
It is not our having a very full program of Christian activities - not necessarily.
It is not that we are always busy in what we call "the things of the Lord."
It is not the measure and amount of our activity and busyness - the degree of our perspiration and enthusiasm in the Kingdom of God ...read |
T. Austin-Sparks