Christian Publishing House Blog
Apologetic Defense of the faith, the Bible, and Christianity
IF our minds were in perfect harmony with the mind of Christ our views would in many respects be greatly altered. Many things that we now desire and long for would lose much of their attractiveness; and other things that we dread and shrink from would cease to be unwelcome. The great Redeemer is in this article giving utterance to the desires of his heart on behalf of his people.
Some who have become followers of Jesus have begun to mistakenly believe that once they have given their lives to the LORD, they can now live however they may please.
This is a picture of how we come to the Father. We know we do not deserve the great gifts he has in store for us, but he loves us and desires to give us good things. Not only are disciples to receive little children (9:36–37); they are to possess childlike qualities themselves. - Rodney L. Cooper
One of the peculiarities of our Lord’s method of teaching is His repeated use of a number of favorite sayings—or maxims, we may call them—in varied connections and in differing applications. Let's consider Mark 4:21–25.
OVER 1,900 years ago in a discourse in Galilee, Jesus urged his hearers: “But be you seeking first the Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This verse is, in a sense, the summing up of the whole lesson of the Sermon on the Mount up to this point. What did Jesus mean?
As Christians, let us be Christians, recognizably followers of Christ, doing His will in all we do and trying our duty at every stage simply by these questions: Is it according to His will? Does it serve His glory? Is it for His sake? So doing, we cannot but approve ourselves before man and God as followers of Him.
The history of Elijah supplies us with one of the most striking, and, we may add, one of the most instructive, sections of the Old Testament.
“If I may be permitted to touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole.” But there arises this bitter question, “BUT CAN I? I know that I may if I can, but I cannot.” Now that is the question I am going to answer.
You know who Jesus is, and you believe him to be the Son of God, the Saviour of men. You are sure that “he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” You have no doubt about those eternal truths which surround his Godhead, his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his Second Advent. The doubt is concerning yourself personally—“If I may be a partaker of this salvation.”
Convinced of sin, awakened and alarmed, these unhappy ones wait for a long time outside the gate of mercy, shivering in the cold, pining to enter into the banquet which invites them, but declining to pass through the gate which stands wide open for them.