Insight Not Emotion 'I have to lead my life in faith, without seeing Him.'
2 Corinthians 5:7
For a time we are conscious of God's attentions, then, when God begins to use us in His enterprises, we take on a pathetic look and talk of the trials and the difficulties, and all the time God is trying to make us do our duty as obscure people. None of us would b ...read
Inspired Invincibility 'Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.'
Matthew 11:29
"Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth." How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us into the place where we can have communion with Him, and we groan and say - "O Lord, let me be like other people!" Jesus is asking us to take one end of the yoke - "My yoke is easy ...read
Instant In Season 'Be instant in season, out of season.'
2 Timothy 4:2
Many of us suffer from the morbid tendency to be instant "out of season." The season does not refer to time, but to us - 'Be instant in season, out of season," whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. ...read
Instantaneous And Insistent Sanctification 'And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.'
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
When we pray to be sanctified, are we prepared to face the standard of these verses? We take the term sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared for what sanctification will cost? It will cost an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense ...read
Interest Or Identification? 'I have been crucified with Christ.'
Galatians 2:20
The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself. Paul says - "I have been crucified with Christ\ ...read
Intimate With Jesus 'Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?'
John 14:9
These words are not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus is leading Philip on. The last One with whom we get intimate is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One Who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (se ...read
Is God's Will My Will? 'This is the will of God, even your sanctification.'
1 Thessalonians 4:3
It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the Atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my ...read
Is He Really Lord? '... so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus.'
Acts 20:24
Joy means the perfect fulfilment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing. The joy Our Lord had lay in doing what the Father sent Him to do, and He says - "As My Father hath se ...read
Is It Not In The Least Likely? 'For Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom.'
1 Kings 2:28
Joab stood the big test, he remained absolutely loyal and true to David and did not turn after the fascinating and ambitious Absalom, but yet to wards the end of his life he turned after the craven Adonijah. Always remain alert to the fact that where ...read
Is Your Hope In God Faint And Dying? 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed on Thee.'
Isaiah 26:3
Is your imagination stayed on God or is it starved? The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker's life. If you have never used your imagination to put yourself before God, begin to do it ...read
Is Your Imagination Of God Starved? 'Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.'
Isaiah 40:26
The people of God in Isaiah's day had starved their imagination by looking on the face of idols, and Isaiah made them look up at the heavens, that is, he made them begin to use their imagination aright. Nature to a saint is sacramental. If we are childr ...read
Isn't There Some Misunderstanding? 'Let us go into Judea. His disciples say unto Him ... Goest Thou thither again?'
John 11:7-8
I may not understand what Jesus Christ says, but it is dangerous to say that therefore He was mistaken in what He said. It is never right to think that my obedience to a word of God will bring dishonour to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dis ...read
It Is Finished 'I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.'
John 17:4
The Death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very Mind of God. There is no room for looking on Jesus Christ as a martyr; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented: His death was the very reason why He came.
Never ...read
It Is The Lord! 'Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.'
John 20:2
"Give Me to drink." How many of us are set upon Jesus Christ slaking our thirst when we ought to be satisfying Him? We should be pouring out now, spending to the last limit, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me" - that means a life of unsu ...read
Judgment On The Abyss Of Love 'For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.'
1 Peter 4:17
The Christian worker must never forget that salvation is God's thought, not man's; therefore it is an unfathomable abyss. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is only a gateway by which salvation comes into our conscious l ...read
Justification By Faith 'For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.'
Romans 5:10
I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger ...read
Leave Room For God 'But when it pleased God...'
Galatians 1:15
As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God - to give God "elbow room." We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way ...read
Let Us Keep To The Point 'My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage.'
Philippians 1:20
My Utmost for His Highest. "My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed." We shall all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus on the point He ...read
Liberty On The Abyss Of The Gospel 'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.'
Galatians 5:1
A spiritually minded man will never come to you with the demand - "Believe this and that;" but with the demand that you square your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One Whom the Bible revea ...read
Look Again And Consecrate 'If God so clothe the grass of the field ... shall He not much more clothe you?'
Matthew 6:30
A simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us if we are not simple. How are we going to be simple with the simplicity of Jesus? By receiving His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, obeying Him as He brings the word of God, and life wil ...read
Oswald Chambers