Are you ready for Jesus to come? That can mean different things. It can mean—have you obeyed the gospel plan of salvation to have your sins washed away by the blood of Jesus, so that you are sin-free when He comes? It can mean—are you living faithfully to His commands as He has instructed us to do, so that He finds you actively doing His…

Under the Levitical system, priests would offer the blood of animals (certainly not the priest’s own personal blood) to make atonement for the sins of the people (Ex. 29:36-37), but that blood could not “take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). But, when Christ came into the world, He did not come to offer someone else’s blood. Note the emphasis in these four verses. “The church…

When one reads the book of Proverbs, he will find the word “wise” 72 times and the word “wisdom” 50 times. Yes, the book of Proverbs was written “to know wisdom and instruction” (1:2), for “a wise man will hear and increase learning” (1:5) and “receive commands” (10:8). The wise, inspired penman pleaded, “Pay attention to my wisdom” (5:1), “Hear instruction and be wise”…

The words of the song are over 180 years old. One would think that something written that long ago could not retain its meaning in modern times. Such a conclusion would be mistaken. John R. Wreford (in 1837) wrote the hymn, “When My Love to Christ Grows Weak.” The words of that hymn are so moving. Consider this fourth verse, “There behold His agony, Suffered on the…

When the Bible says that something is “not wise,” it ought to cause us to really pay attention. In 2 Corinthians 10:12, Paul shows us that it is “not wise” to spend any effort in “measuring” ourselves or “comparing” ourselves with others. Doing so will usually make us either feel guilty or feel better. But what others do or don’t do is not our standard! Consider…