DISCIPLE

  What would you think if I told you I had a way of making you a millionaire in a month? How about if I knew a way you could lose 25 pounds in one month or a way to make you look younger in one week? If you have any discernment at all you would be skeptical of such promises.     There is, however, one easy way that we can increase our spiritual growth in sanctification and service. It is a rather simple method eliminate excuses! We have all made excuses in our lives. Society around us is filled with them, many of them ridiculous. For example, in New Zealand a woman who drove for 25 years without a license explained to the judge who fined her, “I only drive on roads that have very little traffic. And none of those roads lead to an office where I could apply for a driver’s license.”     The Bible tells of those who made excuses for not accepting the Gospel. Felix waited for a “more convenient season” (Acts 24:25). Those invited to the great supper had...

by William Yuille Generations of Christians from the first century onwards have lived in the expectation that the Lord was coming soon. But here we are in the year 2012* [*date of this article] and He hasn’t come yet.  Why not?  Peter speaks to this in 2 Peter 3.     God doesn’t estimate time the way we do. “Do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (v. 8). Some Christians, all the way back to post apostolic times, have interpreted this as a sort of formula and have applied it to human history over a period of one week or 7,000 years.     According to Archbishop Ussher’s calculations, Adam was created around 4,000 BC, so there  were four days before the coming of Christ; another two days take us to 2,000 AD, at which time the seventh day, the millennial age, should arrive. Now that we are in the year 2012*, that theory doesn’t look too likely. In any case, if Peter ...

Beloved friends, it becomes to the believer the prevailing character of his life to please God. That is a beautiful testimony that is borne concerning Enoch: "Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb. 11:5). Many have not yet even thought of doing such a thing as this, and there are some who may have thought of it who perhaps have not yet attained to it. But what a blessed thing it is for a man to be brought so to trust in the Lord Jesus, so to seek the glory of the Savior, so to yield his will to God's will, and so to feel that God is his all and in all, that he comes to please God! You know what it is to be pleased with your child and pleased with what he has done. it is not perfect. From your standpoint you can see many imperfections, but still it is most acceptable as coming from your child. He has done it with all his heart, and you are well pleased with him. Well now, that should be the prevailing character, and it is the prevail...

by Charles H. Spurgeon "With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early."  Isaiah 26:9 There is, in the people of God, a principle of communion with God. For, first, this is where their spiritual life begins. "I will arise and go to my father" (Luke 15:18) was the token that the prodigal was really restored in heart. When he cleansed himself, touched himself up, joined himself to a citizen of that country, and began to work instead of wasting his substance in riotous living, it was a considerable improvement. It is always a good thing for a man to work rather than to waste his time in the indulgence of his vices; but he had not then begun to live spiritually. It was when he remembered his father that the gracious work was begun in his soul: the cry of his spirit was, "I will arise and go to my father."   Beloved, if any of your are seeking after righteousness by your own works or by your pra...