Daily Devotionals for December 14, 2025

It is true that a select company of Christians through the centuries have testified that they were rapt into a state where for varying lengths of time they were able to experience the Beatific Vision at least to some degree while still here in their natural bodies, seeing the everblessed One not with their physical eyes but with the eye of the Spirit. Being myself extremely cautious and slow to accept the unusual, I have tended to back away from this burning bush; but the holy characters of...

In other words, blessed is he that blesseth. Happy is he who makes it his chief concern to bestow happiness on others. Rich is he who seeks to enrich. " Consider thyself," says the world; "study the advancement of thy interests; for there is none to do thee good if thou neglect thy own good. Will men sell and buy for thee whilst thou art busied about the poor? Will they supply thy wardrobe if thou empty it for the poor?

Will they send medicines to thee and a physician, when thou...

We ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. § Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.”Job answered the Lord and said: “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth.” § The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns...

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had a most profitable journey. Their companion and teacher was the best of tutors; the interpreter one of a thousand, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord Jesus condescended to become a preacher of the gospel, and he was not ashamed to exercise his calling before an audience of two persons, neither does he now refuse to become the teacher of even one. Let us court the company of so excellent an Instructor, for till he is...

Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you" (Isa. 30:18).

Waiting upon the Father is not a matter of long-suffering, but of expectant faith - quiet, restful, confident dependence upon One who is fully trusted. Often the God of circumstances must teach this waiting by placing us in situations...

. . . Here is where we need a reformation, a purgation, a removal of the faults and a restoration again of the faith of Christians to a belief in the truth. May Christians say, without a question, "Yes, that is true." Actually, I suppose they would not like to have it put to them like that: People do not like the most realistic constructions. What would the liberals and modernists say if you backed them in a corner with the question, "Do you think God has been forced to change His mind"" I...

One of the great tragedies of our existence is to see men and women living wasted lives. Man, after all, was made in the image and likeness of God. He was destined for a throne, not for a bar stool. He was created to be a representative of God, not a slave of sin. In answer to the question, "What is the chief end of man?," the Shorter Catechism reminds us that "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." If we miss that, we miss everything.

J. H. Jowett weeps as...

Matthew 8:2-17

A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said: "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean!"

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy!

After the Sermon on the Mount, we have narratives of many healings. The first was that of a leper....

This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise. § I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me. Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth. § Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His...

Put your religion beyond a doubt; let there be no reason to question whether you are sincere or not. Calling separates us from sin, Satan, and the world; to holiness, Christ, and the church.

Election is the root of calling; it is God's choice of us from others - in Christ, by grace, to holiness, for His glory. We know our election of God, by our being led to choose Christ, holiness, and heaven; to choose them freely, heartily, and habitually. If we thus choose them, we shall use every...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

We continue meditating on the importance of looking at life "steadily and whole". I venture to suggest that people who are not Christians are unable to see life as a whole. How can they, when their thinking takes place only on the level of the natural? Natural thinking is notoriously partial and incomplete....

How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here! Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness, but in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his Master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal: his constant cry is, "Help me to serve thee, O my God." If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labour; not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, "I am not wearied of the labour, but I am...

"And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21:5

Glory be to His name! All things need making new, for they are sadly battered and worn by sin. It is time that the old vesture was rolled up and laid aside, and that creation put on her Sunday suit. But no one else can make all things new except the LORD who made them at the first; for it needs as much power to make out of evil as to make out of...