YHWHRulz

 Worthy Brief - April 25, 2025 Never forget! Ruth 1:16-17 But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me." Yesterday, Israel observed Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day—honoring the memory of the six million Jews who perished. Tragically, a recent poll reveals that nearly half of Israelis fear the possibility of another Holocaust. In light of this sobering reality, I want to share a powerful story of one remarkable woman who rescued 2,500 Jewish children from the ghettos during World War II. Her name was Irene Sendler. She was an employee of the Polish Social Warfare Department who had a special permit to enter the ghettos to check for signs of typhus. During these visits, she would ...

Daily Encounter: Faith and Belief for Friday, April 25, 2025

Is this item on sale? — Ha’im prit zeh l’mechira? - IFCJ

He Loves Us - Holy Land Moments Devotional

 Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" Devotional for April 25 “What to Leave Children ” - Proverbs 20:7 Anxiety about our family is natural, but we shall be wise if we turn it into care about our own character. If we walk before the LORD in integrity, we shall do more to bless our descendants than if we bequeathed them large estates. A father’s holy life is a rich legacy for his sons. The upright man leaves his heirs his example, and this in itself will be a mine of true wealth, How many men may trace their success in life to the example of their parents! He leaves them also his repute. Men think better of us as the sons of a man who could be trusted, the successors of a tradesman of excellent repute, Oh, that all young men were anxious to keep up the family name! Above all, he leaves his children his prayers and the blessing of a prayer-hearing God, and these make our offspring to be favored among the sons of men. God will save them even after we are dead. Oh, that...

 Charles Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening" Devotional for April 25 Morning “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord.” 1 Samuel 17:1-12 , 1 Samuel 17:14-18 1 Samuel 17:1 Israel had sinned, and her king had cast off his allegiance, and therefore chastisement came. God. has the hearts of wicked Philistines in his hands, and can move them to be a scourge to his offending people. 1 Samuel 17:2 , 1 Samuel 17:3 For forty days they remained gazing upon one another. O, had Israel been faithful to her God, she would soon have been delivered, for then the promise would have been fulfilled, “five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight.” When God is gone, the strongest are as weak as water. 1 Samuel 17:4 , 1 Samuel 17:5 whose height was six cubits and a span or about ten feet. 1 Samuel 17:10 Goliath is called “the champion,” or, in the Hebrew, the middle-man or Mediator, he typifies Satan, our great enemy. Where could we have found another Med...

 Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer Devotional for April 25 Tozer in the Morning COMPROMISE IS COSTLY Christianity today is so entangled with this present world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere-but actually no real union between the world and the Church is possible. When the Church joins up with the world it is the true Church no longer but only a pitiful hybrid thing, an object of smiling contempt to the world, and an abomination to the Lord! Nothing could be clearer than the pronouncements of the Scriptures on the Christian's relation to the world. The confusion which gathers around this matter results from the unwillingness of professing Christians to take the Word of the Lord seriously. This whole thing is spiritual in its essence. A Christian is what he is not by ecclesiastical manipulation but by the new birth. He is a Christian because of a Spirit which dwells in him. Only that which is born by the ...

 Streams in the Desert Devotional for April 25 "And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre" (Matthew 27:61). How strangely stupid is grief. It neither learns nor knows nor wishes to learn or know. When the sorrowing sisters sat over against the door of God’s sepulchre, did they see the two thousand years that have passed triumphing away? Did they see any thing but this: "Our Christ is gone!" Your Christ and my Christ came from their loss; Myriad mourning hearts have had resurrection in the midst of their grief; and yet the sorrowing watchers looked at the seed-form of this result, and saw nothing. What they regarded as the end of life was the very preparation for coronation; for Christ was silent that He might live again in tenfold power. They saw it not. They mourned, they wept, and went away, and came again, driven by their hearts to the sepulchre. Still it was a sepulchre, unprophetic, voiceless, lusterless. So with us. Ev...

 Days of Heaven on Earth Devotional for April 25 “The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) A great tidal wave is bearing up the stranded ship, until she floats above the bar without a straining timber or struggling seaman, instead of the ineffectual and toilsome efforts of the struggling crew and the strain of the engines, which had tried in vain to move her an inch until that heavenly impulse lifted her by its own attraction. It is God’s great law of gravitation lifting up, by the warm sunbeams, the mighty iceberg which a million men could not raise a single inch, but melts away before the rays and the warmth of the sunshine, and rises in clouds of evaporation to meet its embrace until that cold and heavy mass is floating in fleecy clouds of glory in the blue ocean of the sky. How easy all this! How mighty! How simple! How divine! Beloved, have you come into the divine way of holiness! If you have, how your heart must swell with gratitude! If you have not,...

 True Vine Devotional for April 25 “ This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another, Even as I Have Loved You ” - John 15:12 This is the second time our Lord uses the expression—Even as I. The first time it was of His relation to the Father, keeping His commandments, and abiding in His love. Even so we are to keep Christ’s commandments, and abide in His love. The second time He speaks of His relation to us as the rule of our love to our brethren: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” In each case His disposition and conduct is to be the law for ours. It is again the truth we have more than once insisted on—perfect likeness between the Vine and the branch. Even as I—But is it not a vain thing to imagine that we can keep His commandments, and love the brethren, even as He kept His Father’s, and as He loved us? And must not the attempt end in failure and discouragement? Undoubtedly, if we seek to carry out the injunction in our strength, or without a full apprehension of the trut...

 Wayside Chapel Daily Devotional 25th April 2025 4/25 John 14:9 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" Philip had lived with Jesus for three years. The next day Jesus would be executed. Jesus had just explained that He is the only way to the Father. Philip asked for Jesus to show them the Father, and they would be content with that. Philip wasn't ready to die; he just wanted a burning-bush experience. He was asking for a revelation of God. Jesus explained that His life was one continuous revelation of God. To see and hear Jesus was to see and hear God. They are one in essence, while being different persons. Is Jesus saying this to Philip in a note of surprise or sorrow? Philip had heard Jesus preach the upside-down world of the kingdom of God. He had seen Him demonstrate the truth of it by healing all who came to Him, casting out demo...

A New Boldness | Acts 4:13 - Daily Devotions From Greg Laurie - Omny.fm

"No Satisfaction" — Proverbs 29:9 (Together in Christ)

'Humble Prayer and Seeking' — 2 Chronicles 7:14 NCV (Spiritual Warfare)

Psalm 121:1-2 — Today's Verse for Friday, April 25, 2025

"Blinded by Religious Prejudice" — Matthew 9:32-34 (What Jesus Did!)

'Members of His Body' — 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 (Praying with Paul)

'With Fire!' — Matthew 3:11 NLT (God's Holy Fire)

Proverbs 18:10 — Daily Wisdom for Friday, April 25, 2025

Quotemeal for Friday, April 25, 2025

A Change of Pace

 Colossians 1:27-28 Complete Jewish Bible 27 To them God wanted to make known how great among the Gentiles is the glorious richness of this secret. And the secret is this: the Messiah is united with you people! In that rests your hope of glory! 28 We, for our part, proclaim him; we warn, confront and teach everyone in all wisdom; so that we may present everyone as having reached the goal, united with the Messiah. https://biblegateway.com

Israel War Crisis Response - IFCJ

Christians Fear Expulsion, Threats In Mauritania - Worthy Christian News

Health of Brazil's ex-president Bolsonaro has worsened, doctors say - BBC News

Israel War Crisis Response - IFCJ

 Worthy Brief - April 24, 2025 Where are your accusers? John 8:3-5, 10-11 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." Yeshua (Jesus) knew the heart of every man and woman. As a totally pure and righteous human being, His experience of every other sin-filled person is really impossible for us to imagine. He knew that every repulsive thought, attitude, and action of every person in the world would soon fall on Him and that He would carry them...away. And so Yeshua did not ...

Daily Encounter: I Want to Hear God for Thursday, April 24, 2025

How much is it? — Kamah zeh? - IFCJ

Let My People Go - Holy Land Moments Devotional

Filled with the Holy Spirit | Acts 2:41 - Daily Devotions From Greg Laurie - Omny.fm

 Days of Heaven on Earth Devotional for April 24 “Fret not thyself in any wise” (Psalms 37:8) A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden upon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent to steady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough way, but they touched God’s work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed and lifeless. Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone. If we wholly trust an interest to God we can keep our hands off it, and He will guard it for us better than we can help Him. “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Fret not thyself in any wise because of him that prospereth in the way, because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pass.” Things may seem to be going all wrong, but He knows as well as we; and He will arise in the right moment if we are really trusting Him so fully as to let Him work in His own way and time. There is nothing so masterly as inactivity in so...

 Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" Devotional for April 24 “Condition of Blessing ” - Malachi 3:10 Many read and plead this promise without noticing the condition upon which the blessing is promised. We cannot expect heaven to be opened or blessing poured out unless we pay our dues unto the LORD our God and to His cause. There would be no lack of funds for holy purposes if all professing Christians paid their fair share. Many are poor because they rob God. Many churches, also, miss the visitation of the Spirit because they starve their ministries. If there is no temporal meat for God’s servants, we need not wonder if their ministry has been little food in it for our souls. When missions pine for means and the work of the LORD is hindered by an empty treasury, how can we look for a large amount of soul-prosperity? Come, come! What have I given of late? Have I been mean to my God? Have I stinted my Savior? This will never do. Let me give my LORD Jesus His tithe by ...

Charles Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening" Devotional for April 24 Morning “The Lord looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:1 , 1 Samuel 16:4-14 , 1 Samuel 16:22 , 1 Samuel 16:23 1 Samuel 16:1 It was both natural and right that the prophet should lament Saul’s sin, but he must not repine at the Lord’s punishment of him, but rather bestir himself to be God’s messenger to the better king who would one day prove a great blessing to Israel. We must lament that any should so sin as to incur God’s anger, but at his judgments upon them we must not rebel, for the Judge of all the earth must do right. When the wicked are cast into hell, the saints in heaven do not murmur out of pity to the offenders; but, in obedient sympathy with the most Holy God, they adore with reverential awe. 1 Samuel 16:4-6 Even prophets err when they judge by appearances. Men are not to be valued by their looks but by their hearts. 1 Samuel 16:11 He who was retiring and pious was but little esteemed at home. P...

 Streams in the Desert Devotional for April 24 "Faith is...the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). True faith drops its letter in the post office box, and lets it go. Distrust holds on to a corner of it, and wonders that the answer never comes. I have some letters in my desk that have been written for weeks, but there was some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents, so they are yet unmailed. They have not done either me or anybody else any good yet. They will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands and trust them to the postman and the mail. This the way with true faith. It hands its case over to God, and then He works. That is a fine verse in the Thirty-seventh Psalm: "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He worketh." But He never worketh till we commit. Faith is a receiving or still better, a taking of God’s proffered gifts. We may believe, and come, and commit, and rest; but we will not fully realize al...

 True Vine Devotional for April 24 “ This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another ” - John 15:12 God is love. His whole nature and perfection is love, living not for Himself, but to dispense life and blessing. In His love He begat the Son, that He might give all to Him. In His love He brought forth creatures that He might make them partakers of His blessedness. Christ is the Son of God’s love, the bearer, the revealer, the communicator of that love. His life and death were all love. Love is His life, and the life He gives. He only lives to love, to live out His life of love in us, to give Himself in all who will receive Him. The very first thought of the true Vine is love—living only to impart His life to the branches. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. He cannot impart Christ’s life without imparting His love. Salvation is nothing but love conquering and entering into us; we have just as much of salvation as we have of love. Full salvation is perfect love. No wonder that C...

 Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer Devotional for April 24 Tozer in the Morning WE ARE NOT ORPHANS I once wrote in an editorial that Christian believers are not orphans in this world, making the point that the divine Shepherd goes before us and that we travel an appointed way. A reader wrote to question my allusion to our traveling an "appointed" way, asking: "I was brought up a Methodist. In your comments, do you mean this to be foreordination? That is what the Presbyterians believe. Just what did you mean?" I replied that I had not meant to go down that deep into doctrine-that I had not been thinking of foreordination, predestination or the eternal decrees. "I was just satisfied that if a consecrated Christian will put himself in the hands of God, even the accidents may be turned into blessings," I told him. Anyway, I am sure the Methodist brother can go to sleep at night knowing that he does not have to become a Presbyterian to be certain that God is ...

 Wayside Chapel Daily Devotional 24th April 2025 4/24 John 13:3-4 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. The perspective that Jesus had only comes from God. Jesus understood that His Father had given everything into His hands; therefore, He could lose nothing. He understood that He came from God and was going back to God. That is why this world had nothing worth clinging to. With these two realities in mind, Jesus dressed in a servant's apron. The angels must have gathered to wonder at such humility. Jews used foreign slaves to do this job, for sandaled feet that walked through the same streets that animals traveled could be quite disgusting. Can you grasp the wonder of God's own Son washing the filth from the feet of men who were about to abandon Him? Yet this condescension was nothing compar...

'Dear Loved by God' — Mark 1:9-11 NLT (Spiritual Warfare)

2 Chronicles 7:14 — Today's Verse for Thursday, April 24, 2025

"Two Necessities" — Matthew 9:27-31 (What Jesus Did!)

'The Body of Christ' — 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (Praying with Paul)

'Reassurance' — Matthew 1:19-20 MESSAGE (God's Holy Fire)

Proverbs 15:18 — Daily Wisdom for Thursday, April 24, 2025

'Take Delight!' (Passion for Praise)

Jesus Will Not Forsake You

God’s Guarantee

The Conquering Love of Christ

 1 Peter 1:18-19 Complete Jewish Bible 18 You should be aware that the ransom paid to free you from the worthless way of life which your fathers passed on to you did not consist of anything perishable like silver or gold; 19 on the contrary, it was the costly bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah, as of a lamb without defect or spot. https://biblegateway.com

Pope’s Death Raising Eternity Questions - Worthy Christian News

 Worthy Brief - April 23, 2025 Pete, remember you're on the winning side! 1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. As we are entering some of the most turbulent times in history, we've been receiving an unbelievable amount of email expressing concern about the future. But I want to tell you a little something -- the future is VICTORY! It's not defeat or loss. If you think about it, all the great leaders of the Bible shone in the hardest of times. When the giant Goliath stood against the army of Israel, David didn't sit around with his brothers complaining about how big Goliath was. Though David was a dwarf next to this evil giant, he was still convinced he was going to be victorious because God was on his side! When the apostles saw Yeshua die, they must have felt utterly defeated -- then, suddenly, there he was, out from the grave, gloriously alive before them -- and from then on they wa...

Daily Encounter: Determined to Do God's Will for Wednesday, April 23, 2025

May I have a receipt? — Ani yechola l’kabel kabbalah? | Hebrew Word of the Day | IFCJ

Out of Egypt - Holy Land Moments Devotional

Aineta aryballos - Wikipedia

 True Vine Devotional for April 23 “ These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled ” - John 15:11 If any one asks the question, “How can I be a happy Christian?” our Lord’s answer is very simple: “These things,” about the Vine and the branches, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” “You cannot have My joy without My life. Abide in Me, and let Me abide in you, and My joy will be in you.” All healthy life is a thing of joy and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His joy in full measure. To many Christians the thought of a life wholly abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort. They cannot see that the strain and effort only come, as long as we do not yield ourselves unreservedly to the life of Christ in us. The very first words of the parable are not yet opened up to them: “I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for all; I ask nothing of the br...

 Charles Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening" Devotional for April 23 Morning “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” 1 Samuel 15:1-3 , 1 Samuel 15:9-11 , 1 Samuel 15:13-23 1 Samuel 15:1-3 This wandering people had wantonly attacked the Israelites in the desert, in the most cowardly manner, and this national sin had long been registered in God’s book against them. They were moreover a barbarous race of plunderers, most dangerous to their neighbours and to all settled government. The time was come when divine justice required that they should be brought to condign punishment. Saul was therefore sent of God to be the executioner, and was commanded to do his work thoroughly. 1 Samuel 15:9 This was half-obedience, which is whole rebellion. Many are ready to slay their disreputable sins, but their fashionable transgressions they cannot give up. 1 Samuel 15:11 The rejection of sinners is a great grief to saints: God has no pleasure in the death of sinners, nor have his people. 1 S...

 Streams in the Desert Devotional for April 23 "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me" (Psalms 138:7). The Hebrew rendering of the above is "go on in the center of trouble." What descriptive words! We have called on God in the day of trouble; we have pleaded His promise of deliverance but no deliverance has been given; the enemy has continued oppressing until we were in the very thick of the fight, in the center of trouble. Why then trouble the Master any further? When Martha said, "Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died," our Lord met her lack of hope with His further promise, "Thy brother shall rise again." And when we walk "in the center of trouble" and are tempted to think like Martha that the time of deliverance is past, He meets us too with a promise from His Word. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me." Though His answer has so long delayed, though we may still c...

 Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" Devotional for April 23 “No Fear of Death ” - Revelation 2:11 The first death we must endure unless the LORD should suddenly come to His temple. For this let us abide in readiness, awaiting it without fear, since Jesus has transformed death from a dreary cavern into a passage leading to glory. The thing to be feared is not the first but the second death, not the parting of the soul from the body but the final separation of the entire man from God. This is death indeed. This death kills all peace, joy, happiness, hope. When God is gone, all is gone. Such a death is far worse than ceasing to be: it is existence without the life which makes existence worth the having. Now, if by God’s grace we fight on to the end and conquer in the glorious war, no second death can lay its chill finger upon us, We shall have no fear of death and hell, for we shall receive a crown of life which fadeth not away. How this nerves us for the fight! Eter...

 Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer Devotional for April 23 Tozer in the Morning The Unchanging Need of the Human Heart We of the twentieth century have exactly the same basic needs as the people of the first century. We feel the weight of sin and mortality just as they did. We long for peace and life eternal exactly as they did. We are tortured by fears, stunned by losses, grieved by betrayals, hurt by enmities, made heartsick by failures, scared by threatening death, chased by the devil and frightened cold by the thought of coming judgment. They sat in their simple houses and worried by candlelight. We speed along in sleek, shiny cars and do our worrying between stoplights. But the end result is the same for everybody: slow progress backward toward old age and the grave with no place to hide and no friend to help. God called His Son's name Jesus because He knew the human race needed deliverance from sin; and He sent the angels to announce "Peace on earth" because He kn...

What Is Your Name?

The Training We Need | 1 Peter 2:21 - Daily Devotions From Greg Laurie - Omny.fm

A New Lease on Life

 Wayside Chapel Daily Devotional 23rd April 2025 4/23 John 12:43 43 For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Although these religious leaders believed Jesus was the Messiah, they wouldn't confess that He was for fear of being put out of the synagogue. They were afraid the Pharisees would no longer allow them to participate in the affairs of their community and in Sabbath worship. It would mean their community would shun them. There will always be a stigma attached to being a serious follower of Jesus. Belief that leads to salvation must be followed by confession (Romans 10:9-10). The stumbling block for these leaders was their concern for the opinions of man. They loved the glory that comes from man, which is the praise and respect that people give to those they consider to be spiritual. It wasn't that they didn't want the glory that comes from God, but that they loved the glory from men more. Whose praise is more important to yo...

 

"Detestable to the LORD" — Proverbs 3:31-32 (Together in Christ)

'Discovering God's Great Treasure' — Psalm 119:161-162 NLT (Spiritual Warfare)

Philippians 4:23 — Today's Verse for Wednesday, April 23, 2025

"No Show, Just Grace" — Matthew 9:23-26 (What Jesus Did!)

'Waiting on Each Other' — 1 Corinthians 11:33-34 (Praying with Paul)

'Conception' — Matthew 1:18 NLT (God's Holy Fire)

Proverbs 10:12 — Daily Wisdom for Wednesday, April 23, 2025

'Shout!' (Passion for Praise)

Jesus is Yahweh (Jehovah)

 Romans 14:11 Complete Jewish Bible 11 since it is written in the Tanakh, “As I live, says Adonai, every knee will bend before me, and every tongue will publicly acknowledge God.”[a     (a)Romans 14:11 Isaiah 45:23 https://biblegateway.com

Houthis claim US Air Force attacked Hodeidah, northwestern Yemen - The Jerusalem Post

More Than 170 Christians Killed During Lent, Easter in Nigeria  - International Christian Concern

Large explosion at Russian ammunition depot east of Moscow - BBC News

Iran's executions ramp up under Pezeshkian as US pushes nuclear talks | Fox News

 Worthy Brief - April 22, 2025 learn how to teach! 2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. When the apostle Paul wrote this letter to his young student Timothy, he taught him some profound truths that I often apply in my life. I suppose when Timothy received these instructions, he was about my age – a young man still developing his skills at evangelism, teaching and instructing. Early in my Christian walk, I grabbed hold of a passage – let no man despise thy youth, but rather be an example in word, in conversation, in love, in spirit, and in faith. This was my mantra in the first years of my walk. Now I'm focusing on being a servant able to teach. Paul's instructio...

Daily Encounter: Our Helper for Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Prayer Points - IFCJ

I would like to return this. — Ani rotzah l’hachzir et zeh. | Hebrew Word of the Day | Learn Hebrew

Faith over Fact - Holy Land Moments Devotional

Equipped to Serve | Hebrews 13:21 - Daily Devotions From Greg Laurie - Omny.fm

 Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer Devotional for April 22 Tozer in the Morning Mistaking Word for Deed The genuine philosopher, Epictetus used to say, was not one who had read Chrysippus and Diogenes and so could discourse learnedly on the teachings of these men, but one who had put their teachings into practice. Nothing else would satisfy him. He refused to call any man a philosopher who showed evidence of pride, covetousness, self-love or worldly ambition. Epictetus was not impressed by eloquence or learning. It was a waste of time for the student to recite the list of books he had read. ?What has your reading done for you?? he asked his students, and looked not to their words but to their lives for the answer. He required of the young men who sought him out that they bring their lives into immediate harmony with the Stoic doctrines. ?If you don?t intend to live like a philosopher, don?t come back,? he told them bluntly. He drew a sharp distinction between a philosopher in fac...

 Days of Heaven on Earth Devotional for April 22 “Christ is the head” (Ephesians 5:23) Often we want people to pray for us and help us, but always defeat our object when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret of union is for both to look upon God, and in the act of looking past themselves to Him they are unconsciously united. The sailor was right when he saw the little boy fall overboard and waited a minute before he plunged to his rescue. When the distracted mother asked him in agony why he had waited so long, he sensibly replied: “I knew that if I went in before he would clutch and drag me down. I waited until his struggles were over, and then I was able to help him when he did not grasp me too strongly.” When people grasp us too strongly, either with their love or with their dependence, we are intuitively conscious that they are not looking to God, and we become paralyzed in our efforts to help them. United prayer, therefore, requires that the one for whom ...

 Streams in the Desert Devotional for April 22 "He knoweth the way that I take" (Job 23:10). Believer! What a glorious assurance! This way of thine-- this, it may be, a crooked, mysterious, tangled way-- this way of trial and tears. "He knoweth it." The furnace seven times heated-- He lighted it. There is an Almighty Guide knowing and directing our footsteps, whether it be to the bitter Marah pool, or to the joy and refreshment of Elim. That way, dark to the Egyptians, has its pillar of cloud and fire for His own Israel. The furnace is hot; but not only can we trust the hand that kindles it, but we have the assurance that the fires are lighted not to consume, but to refine; and that when the refining process is completed (no sooner-- no later) He brings His people forth as gold. When they think Him least near, He is often nearest. "When my spirit was overwhelmed, then thou knewest my path." Do we know of ONE brighter than the brightest radiance of the visi...

 True Vine Devotional for April 22 “ If Ye Keep My Commandments, Ye Shall Abide in My Love, Even as I have Kept My Father’s Commandments, and Abide in His Love ” - John 15:10 We have had occasion more than once to speak of the perfect similarity of the vine and the branch in nature, and therefore in aim. Here Christ speaks no longer in a parable, but tells us plainly out of how His own life is the exact model of ours. He had said that it is alone by obedience we can abide in His love. He now tells that this was the way in which He abode in the Father’s love. As the Vine, so the branch. His life and strength and joy had been in the love of the Father: it was only by obedience He abode in it. We may find our life and strength and joy in His love all the day, but it is only by an obedience like His we can abide in it. Perfect conformity to the Vine is one of the most precious of the lessons of the branch. It was by obedience Christ as Vine honored the Father as Husbandman; it is by ob...

 Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" Devotional for April 22 “Power to Raise ” - Psalms 146:8 Am I bowed down? Then let me urge this word of grace before the LORD. It is His way, His custom, His promise, His delight, to raise up them that are bowed down. Is it a sense of sin and a consequent depression of spirit which distresses me? Then the work of Jesus is, in this case, made and provided to raise me up into rest. O LORD, raise me, for Thy mercy’s sake! Is it a sad bereavement or a great fall in circumstances? Here again the Comforter has undertaken to console. What a mercy for us that one Person of the sacred Trinity should become the Comforter! This work will be well done since such a glorious One has made it His peculiar care. Some are so bowed down that only Jesus can loose them from their infirmity, but He can, and He will, do it. He can raise us up to health, to hope, to happiness. He has often done so under former trials, and He is the same Savior and will...

 Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" Devotional for April 22 “Power to Raise ” - Psalms 146:8 Am I bowed down? Then let me urge this word of grace before the LORD. It is His way, His custom, His promise, His delight, to raise up them that are bowed down. Is it a sense of sin and a consequent depression of spirit which distresses me? Then the work of Jesus is, in this case, made and provided to raise me up into rest. O LORD, raise me, for Thy mercy’s sake! Is it a sad bereavement or a great fall in circumstances? Here again the Comforter has undertaken to console. What a mercy for us that one Person of the sacred Trinity should become the Comforter! This work will be well done since such a glorious One has made it His peculiar care. Some are so bowed down that only Jesus can loose them from their infirmity, but He can, and He will, do it. He can raise us up to health, to hope, to happiness. He has often done so under former trials, and He is the same Savior and will...

 The Way by Kevin Pauley Everlasting Love Date Posted: April 22, 2025 Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” - Jeremiah 31:3 They say hind sight Isaiah 20/20. We look back on our lives and see God at work. Those situations that we thought would be the end of us turned out to be our finest hour. Those people that we mistakenly thought were our best friends or the loves of our lives, ended up being jerks . We were heartbroken when we lost them and shook our little fists at God and cried “Why, God? Why are you doing this to me?” Sometimes, like little children having a temper fit we’ve even yelled “I hate you!” Then later, sometimes years afterwards, we realize the pit we unknowingly avoided. Yes, hind sight Isaiah 20/20. But as for the present we still are woefully myopic. There is the danger of saying “Long ago the Lord said…or did” tacitly implying that whatever involvement God had i...