Bob Deffinbaugh comments: A slight shift in the events recorded in Esther would have doomed the Jews, except as Mordecai said, “help would come from someplace else.” Nevertheless, success in the small details mattered. As an Agagite, Haman may well have used his position against the Jews at the first provocation, whether it came from … More Web of providence, grace and mercy
John MacArthur, in his introduction to Philemon: You ask yourself the question: of all of the subjects that Paul could have written about, why in the world did he pick the subject of forgiveness? This is this just this little isolated kind of odd, out of sync, obtuse tangential little letter stuck in the middle … More Why all the fuss over forgiveness?
Proverbs 17:3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. God tests us, tests our hearts. Repeatedy in the Bible, we read that HE refines us, tests us, just as precious metals are refined to remove impurities. Read these other passages, and ask yourself what remains after going … More Kindling or gold?
Ray Stedman on Esther 7: The chapter opens with an intimate supper in a private banqueting room where Queen Esther, the king, and Haman, the evil prime minister, are gathered, and it closes with a man nailed, screaming, to a tree until he is dead. Here is one of those frequent timeless foreshadowings of the … More Last Suppers
When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as … More Final Four…Three Themes
Bob Deffinbaugh comments at Bible.org: A sleepless night for the king changed the course of history and resulted in the deliverance of the Jews throughout the Persian Empire. In reality, it was a divinely orchestrated sequence of events. Those events nullified the law wicked Haman had passed by deceiving the king and spared the lives … More Sleepless in Susa
Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John … More J. C. Ryle: Downright Untruth
“The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”— Proverbs 16:33 “God’s dice always have a lucky roll,” said Sophocles, one of classical Athens’ three great tragic playwrights. Here’s what Charles H. Spurgeon has to say, in Morning and Evening: If the disposal of the lot is the … More “God’s dice always have a lucky roll”
“The kindness and love of God our Saviour.”—Titus 3:4 C.H. Spurgeon, in Morning and Evening: HOW sweet it is to behold the Saviour communing with His own beloved people! There can be nothing more delightful than, by the Divine Spirit, to be led into this fertile field of delight. Let the mind for an instant … More How sweet? Spurgeon: “Our souls may well faint for joy.”
John Piper, in a sermon, “O,That You Knew the Terms of Peace!” (Luke 19:41-44) I want you to imagine a scene with me. There is a young doctor who has a wife and three small children. He volunteers to take a dangerous six-month mission assignment to a place where there is an epidemic of a … More One Week to Live
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 