Categories
church human

Taking Things Patiently

F. B. Meyer

What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall
take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this
is acceptable with God.”? (1?Peter 2:20)

The servants here addressed were the household servants and
slaves, so largely employed in the great establishments of that age. Wealth and position
made special boast of the vast number of dependents that were maintained. Life was held
cheaply enough; and when a slave was once purchased, he cost little to keep. The Roman
empire swarmed with bondmen; and they became her ruin.

Categories
church

Directions for Young Christians

Walter Scott

1. Make the Holy Scriptures your sole authority for your justification, forgiveness,
and hope of glory (Rom. 5:1; 1 John 2:12; Col. 1:27).

2. Make the Bible your daily companion, and prayer, at least night and morning, your
characteristic daily habit (2 Tim. 3:15-17; 1Thess. 5:17).

3. Confess Christ at all times, and under all circumstances, by word, behavior, or by
silence (Lk. 12:8,9,11; 2 Tim. 2:12,13; 1 Pet. 3:4).

Categories
study the father worship

The Hatred of God

Keith Keyser

In modern colloquial English the word “hate” is commonly used
to mean something far weaker than its dictionary definition. People often say “I hate
traffic jams,” or “I hate the Dallas Cowboys.” What they usually mean by
such statements is that they dislike such phenomena or people. When God uses the word,
however, it carries a far weightier meaning.

Categories
acts church study

Kicking Against The Goad

James Stalker

It was the persecutor?s hope utterly to exterminate Christianity.
But little did he understand its genius. It thrives on persecution. Prosperity has often
been [nearly] fatal to it, persecution never. “They that were scattered abroad went
everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). Hitherto the Church had been confined
within the walls of Jerusalem; but now all over Judea and Samaria, and in distant
Phoenicia and Syria, the beacon of the gospel began in many a town and village to twinkle
through the darkness.

The Hacking of Agag

Mark Kolchin

It would have appeared after Saul?s return from his battle with
the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15) that his victory over them was complete and decisive. Charged
by God to utterly destroy these perennial enemies (v. 2), he launched a successful
military campaign against them and defeated these foes with the edge of the sword.
Although he had decimated their ranks, Saul had not completely destroyed them but had
spared Agag their king and the best of the flocks.