"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart" ...Deut 6:5. The Decalogue opens with God's claim to exclusive worship. This expression of God's will is not only His command, it is also His desire. But if the ten commandments show us what gives God joy, the temptations in the wilderness reveal what will bring joy to Satan. In both cases it is...

Rest follows work. In the fullest sense, rest is only possible when the work is completed to a point of satisfaction. It is no trifling matter that God rested after those six days of creation. How, we may ask, could He - this God of purpose, this God of abundant life - come to such a rest? Genesis 1:31 gives us the reason: "God saw everything that ...

Recall the incident of the Pharisee and the publican at prayer in the temple. The Pharisee understood all about tithes and offerings, yet from him there was no cry from his heart to God; it was all in his mind so to speak. It was the publican who cried from his heart , "Lord have mercy upon me!" Something went out and touched God from that man, whi...

Nothing so satisfies God as our confession of Christ! Jesus often said, "I am." He loves to hear us say "Thou art." We do it far too little. When everything goes wrong and all is confusion, don't pray, Confess! Confess out of your heart what you know to be true about Him! Declare it out aloud from your mouth, "Jesus you are Lord!". Today, when the ...

The word rendered here as a type of "servant" really signifies a bondservant which is a slave. The distinction is important for us, for this word is used several times in the second half of Romans 6, where Paul writes of our usefulness to God. What is the difference between a servant and a slave? A servant may serve another, but the ownership of th...