"neither cold nor hot". Lukewarm! Trying to be hot and cold at the same time, but succeeding only in making an insipid mixture admired by no one. This is the Spirit's complaint about the church in Laodicea and it is the Spirit's complaint about many today. In test cricket there is a second innings when ... Read more

"How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God". The important words to note here are 'thoughts to me' - that is, God's thoughts relating to the Psalmist. The word translated 'thought' is unique in the Old Testament. It conveys the meaning of 'association of ideas or plans', and it is the revealed idea ... Read more

"if the goodman of the house had known". We don't know when the Lord will return and so need to be ready. That He is coming He made quite clear with the words "I will come again". We need to be ready. Followers of Jesus all down the years have lived in expectancy of His ... Read more

"you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! ". The church in Laodicea thought it was all right when in fact it was very spiritually sick. This wrong assessment arose from counting earthly instead of spiritual values. They failed to be spiritually minded and led by the Spirit. Miserable and pitiful is the ... Read more

"wash away your sins". Ananias encouraged Saul of Tarsus to be baptised and declare publicly what had happened to him. You begin by trusting in the secret of your own heart, but what you have done must be evidenced. Not to 'nail your colours to the mast' makes it easier to fall away when temptation, ... Read more

"a fountain opened ... for sin and for uncleanness". This prophecy and promise was given to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This was the chosen people of God that the prophet knew. We now look back to the fulfilment of these words when Jesus died on the cross. His shed ... Read more

"But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven". The Holy Spirit did not merely enable Stephen to bravely face the mob that was about to stone him. The indwelling Holy Spirit gave Stephen a vision of heaven. The Holy Spirit will give that same vision to all who look with the eye ... Read more

"a great multitude, which no man could number". The multitude in heaven praising the Lord will be too great to number. 'The Father's house will be filled,' is what Jesus said. I recall preaching on that text to a small congregation in a Greek village many years ago. After the service a lady came to ... Read more

"I have compassion on the multitude". Jesus came not to judge the world but to save it, and as He mingled with men and women compassion for the multitudes was engendered in His heart. Compassion is something the world needs more than sympathy. Sympathy is being sorry for: compassion is the same and doing something ... Read more

"The Lord is my shepherd". Not the testimony of those who do not recognise themselves to be as sheep needing a shepherd. But to those who know themselves to be wandering and to all who find it impossible to return to the fold unaided, it is the blessed description of One Who says, 'I am ... Read more