If there is no God, then there is no real significance to our lives, time simply becomes something to be filled and got through.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 126. Used by Permission.
If we have followed through…in showing unconditional love, then a child will be more ready and able to accept discipline when it has to be given, for he will understand the spirit in which it is given.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 162. Used by Permission.
Wisdom is all a matter of viewing the world God’s way, with God’s revelation providing the necessary framework which alone makes sense of life, giving it some sort of coherence and direction. This is sometimes called a worldview, a kind of moral map with the main points located so we can steer our way through life to maximum benefit. Accordingly, whatever it is that is to be studied, whether science, history, or home economics, all of these things can be placed within a Christian framework, in terms of the Creator-Redeeming God, and where they can be made sense of.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 96- 97. Used by Permission.
True wisdom, which will help us make our way through this complex world, begins by acknowledging the Lord and humbling ourselves before Him (Pr. 9:10). It submits to the view that He knows best, and what this is comes to us through…the special revelation of His Word.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 41. Used by Permission.
In the Bible, self-love as such is seen to be a sinful thing. After all, what is the essence of sin but that we are curved in on ourselves, placing self, rather than God, at the center of the universe. And so Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, tells us that one of the hallmarks of the last days is that people will be “lovers of themselves” instead of “lovers of God,” and that is precisely where we are in our society today.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 109. Used by Permission.
There is the Christian husband whose idea of “headship” is little more than a thinly-veiled biblical justification for dictatorship… I am sad to say that I know of good Christian women who are but stifled shadows of what they could have been, because of the domineering activities of their Christian husbands, men who may even receive the praises of unsuspecting church members.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus, 1998, p. 150.
There is nothing unscriptural in planning, although to hear some people talk today one would think there is. I fear that some are in danger of subscribing to a new form of “the god of the gaps,” so that the Holy Spirit is only at work in the spontaneous and immediate.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 38. Used by Permission.
The late Alan Redpath once suggested that any gossip that comes our way should be subject to the following test summed up in the acronym THINK: T – is it true? H – is it helpful? I – is it inspiring? N – is it necessary? K – is it kind?
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 41. Used by Permission.
Why the Holy Spirit should be restricted so that He can only be at work at the moment a sermon is delivered and not in the thoughtful and prayerful preparation beforehand, I don’t know. The same mistake was made by an actual preacher who used to prepare the first half of his sermons and then freewheel the second half, wishing to “depend on the Holy Spirit for inspiration.” One astute lady listening to him one day was perplexed by the change that took place halfway through the sermon. Afterwards she asked the preacher what happened. So he explained his method to which she replied, “That is strange. You are a better preacher than the Holy Spirit!”
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 38-39. Used by Permission.
[Prayer] is very hard work, why else is the prayer meeting the worst attended meeting in any church? For that is where the battle is.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 180. Used by Permission.
For we can’t choose on our terms when our children will relate to us. It’s only as we give quantity time that out of that arises quality time – a precious window of opportunity.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 160. Used by Permission.
Love your children as your heavenly Father loves you – with selfless love. Children are not there for us, we are there for them. Unconditional love is that love for a child no matter what he or she looks like, no matter what his or her assets or liabilities are, no matter how they act. This love will not increase or decrease according to their achievements or failures. The message conveyed will be, I love you for who you are and not because of what you have done.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 158. Used by Permission.
Here is the Son of God, who in less than three years achieved far more than kings and generals had ever achieved in a thousand years, taking time out. Why? Well, He knew His needs and limitations – even He couldn’t work twenty-four hours a day seven days a week – and neither can we. But also He could have the confidence to do this because of His quiet, serene knowledge that His time was in His Father’s hands, that He wasn’t going to change the world by one endless round of activity, but by doing things in God’s time in God’s way.
Lord, teach me so to conceive time as an unrepeatable gift that I might live my life serenely with Your values in mind so that my life is lived to the full.
Paraphrase of Psalm 90:12, Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 134. Used by Permission.
On the one hand we long for God and on the other hand we run from Him. Accordingly, instead of seeking Him out to find lasting meaning, we turn to other things instead to try and satisfy that deep, spiritual thirst inside, only to discover it is like drinking salt water… We can never find success in these things under the sun because we were never meant to find lasting profit in them but only in God.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 19. Used by Permission.
Secularism is the process whereby God and religion are pushed to the margins of life and so make no significant contribution at all to the policies and values adopted by society. By and large, politics and education carry on as if God were not there.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 97. Used by Permission.
Whether they were rich or poor, religious or pagan, sick or healthy, it didn’t matter; every single person was valued and loved by (Jesus), and by loving them He actually increased their value.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 114. Used by Permission.
Men and women are the jewel in the crown of God’s creation – that of all the beings in the universe only men and women are God-like, bearing His image (Genesis 1:26-27).
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 112. Used by Permission.
There is no new ministry or means of spiritual warfare. We are called to keep on with what Christians have always been called on to do – believe, proclaim, pray and live the gospel.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 181. Used by Permission.
What is the goal of this warfare? To disarm angelic beings? No! Christ has already done that on the cross, as we read in Colossians 2:15: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” It is simply that we take a stand, remain immovable, and that paradoxically is to advance. You advance by standing firm – as Paul repeats in Ephesians 6:11, 13, and 14.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 181. Used by Permission.
The devil will try to destroy us by leading us into immoral behavior (Eph. 4:27). That is a real struggle for every Christian. Which is easier: to march around the city and claim it for Christ or to stop running down a fellow believer behind her back? Which is the more demanding: to pray over someone that the demon of jealousy be cast out or going up to someone and asking their forgiveness for the way you have hurt them by your cutting remarks inspired by jealousy? I know which is a real wrestling match for me (Eph. 6:12). This is where the real battle lies in Christian relationships, putting into practice at personal cost Christian truth – not some imaginary Dungeon and Dragons world.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 178. Used by Permission.
Nowhere in the New Testament are believers ever depicted as living in servile fear of demons, that is precisely the state from which they have been delivered by the gospel.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 172. Used by Permission.
Education in itself without moral correction does little except to produce clever sinners.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 103. Used by Permission.
God’s commands are not arbitrary. They are grounded in His moral character, what He is like within Himself, and orientated towards His purposes for His creation.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 70. Used by Permission.
We have been adopted into God’s family by His Spirit – so that we now possess full rights as members of the divine family, which means that God now looks upon us with the same love and affection He looks upon Jesus.
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 117. Used by Permission.