“On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the door locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, and said , ‘Peace be with you!’ After he had said this he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they […]

“Then everyone deserted Him and fled. A young man wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind” (Mark 14:50, 51). The emphasis in this short but important passage falls on several words. There is the word then (then they deserted him), also the word […]

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days […]

Another year has passed and a new one lies ahead. What will it bring? What will we experience, if we may live, in the months, weeks and days ahead? Such questions arise in our minds, often accompanied with anxieties and fears. What will happen in the world at large, in our own country, and, last […]

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” The Bible does not give us Mary’s life story. (The Bible doesn’t give any biographies.) But it does give us a brief account of some of her experiences. We are given a golden chain of unusual incidents and miraculous happenings that began […]

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities, which you did not build, and houses full of all good things, which you did not build, and cisterns hewn out, which you […]

“I know that the Lord has given this land to you.” Joshua 2:8 It doesn’t sound quite right, does it, that the Christian church should listen to a prostitute? Of course, she was a converted prostitute, and it is her faith that God wants the Israelites to know about, in order that it may be […]

For this child I prayed . . . So I dedicated him to the Lord. I Sam. 1:27, 28. It was in the period of the Judges, in the Old Testament. It has been described as the period of the five R’s regarding Israel. Relapse into sin, Retribution (punishment), Repentance, Release and Rest At this […]

Even now, declares the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments, return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate. Joel 2:12, 13. It was exceptionally hot and dry in mid-western America, the “bread-basket” of the nation. In […]

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him—but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. I. Cor. 2:9, 10a On Pentecost day there were no angels visibly present. Often we read of their presence in the life of Christ, in […]