성령 안에 있는 의와 평강과 희락(롬14:17)

THE NOTION OF DIVINE CONTROL “How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” Matthew 7:11 Jesus is laying down rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit. By the simple argument of these verses He urges us to keep our minds filled with the notion of God’s control behind everything, which means that the disciple must maintain an attitude of p..

THE DISCIPLINE OF DISILLUSIONMENT “Jesus did not commit Himself unto them. . . for He knew what was in man.” John 2:24-25 Disillusionment means that there are no more false judgments in life. To be undeceived by disillusionment may leave us cynical and unkindly severe in our judgment of others, but the disillusionment which comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as..

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN YOUR CLOUDS? “Behold, He cometh with clouds.” Revelation 1:7 In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God. It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were no clouds, we should have no ..

AFTER OBEDIENCE—WHAT? “And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side. . . .” Mark 6:45 We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us..

THE WAY TO KNOW “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” John 7:17 The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience. If things a..

THE ACCOUNT WITH PURITY “Out of the heart proceed. . .” Matthew 15:18-20 We begin by trusting our ignorance and calling it innocence, by trusting our innocence and calling it purity; and when we hear these rugged statements of Our Lord’s, we shrink and say—But I never felt any of those awful things in my heart. We resent what Jesus Christ reveals. Either Jesus Christ is the supreme Auth..

AM I BLESSED LIKE THIS? “Blessed are. . .” Matthew 5:3-10 When we first read the statements of Jesus they seem wonderfully simple and unstartling, and they sink unobserved into our unconscious minds. For instance, the Beatitudes seem merely mild and beautiful precepts for all unworldly and useless people, but of very little practical use in the stern workaday world in which we live. We soon..

DISPOSITION AND DEEDS “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5: 20 The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in motive because he has been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being..

THE MIRACLE OF BELIEF “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul was a scholar and an orator of the first rank; he is not speaking out of abject humility, but saying that he would veil the power of God if when he preached the gospel, he impressed people with his “excellency of speech.” Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the efficacy of ..

MASTERY OVER THE BELIEVER “Ye call Me Master and Lord; and ye say well; for so I am.” John 13:13 Our Lord never insists on having authority; He never says— Thou shalt. He leaves us perfectly free—so free that we can spit in His face, as men did; so free that we can put Him to death, as men did; and He will never say a word. But when His life has been created in me by His Redemption, I i..