The Morning Meditation

SOME OF THE RICH BLESSINGS OF GOD IN EPHESIANS Ephesians 1:6 "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Each of these gold mines of blessing are connected with the Greek preposition “in.” The first that we will look at is, OUR ACCEPTANCE "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." “The uttermost and ch...

THE SERVANT Mark 10:44 "And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." I think many Christians want an elevated position in the Lord's spiritual kingdom in this life.  Jesus made it clear that the servant is not one who gets...

QUIETNESS BEFORE GOD Psalms 37:1-7 “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shal...

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE SAINTS Romans 8:9 "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Man by his human nature was so damaged by the fall that it is impossible for him to please God by what he does.  This leaves him helplessly lost and without the slightest chance of being...

A FOURFOLD FELLOWSHIP The little book of Philemon is packed with great truths. Philemon was a resident of Colossae. This is a prison epistle. Onesimus was  a runaway slave and had robbed his master in his departure. He wound up in prison with Paul. ...

THE MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST - Part 4 Matt. 3:13-17 “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up stra...

THE MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST - Part 3 Matt. 3:11-12 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable f...

THE MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST - Part 2 Matt. 3:3 “For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” John’s ministry was a part ...

THE MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST – Part 1 Matt. 3:1 “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John Gill says in his introduction to this chapter: “The Evangelist having given an account of the genealogy and birth of Christ; of the coming of the wise men from the east to him; of his preservation from He...

PAUL’S PRAYER-DESIRE FOR THE PHILIPPIANS Phil. 1:9-11 “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” We come now to the seventh...

SIN 1 John 3:4 "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." IT’S CHARACTER Sin is sin because God says it is sin. Sin originated with Satan. The description of what happened is found in Ezekiel 28:13 15, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and t...

PRAYER AND PRAYER REQUESTS Col.  4:2-4 "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;  Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:  That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak." There are several things I want us to look at in these verses about prayer. THE INTENSITY OF PRAYER We see...

WE HEARD OF YOUR FAITH Colossians 1:1-4 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,  To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,  Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus...

CHRIST IS PERSONAL REVIVAL Col. 2:10  “And ye are complete in him, which the head of all principality and power.” This verse has impressed me over the years. I always felt that there were truths in that verse I needed to see and I wasn’t seeing them. The answer to understand the Scriptures is not always in being able to find the definition of words and understanding the grammatical structure of th...

EPAPHRAS, A SERVANT OF CHRIST Colossians 4:12-13, "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.  For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis." This meditation will be to explore the life of Epaphras who...

THE BELIEVER'S WALK TOWARD THEM THAT ARE WITHOUT Colossians 4:5 6, "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.  Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." We are in the world but not of the world.  The statement I am about to make is not an easy one but it serves as an ideal illustration of the saving power and...

ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS Jer.  6:16 “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” The image is  from travelers who have lost their road, stopping and inquiring which is the right way on which they once had been, but from which they have wandered. ...

FIVE LOOKS FOR THE BELIEVER Isa. 45:22 "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." I understand that this verse is the one that the Holy Spirit used to arrest Charles Spurgeon.  Spurgeon answered the invitation by going to the Lord in prayer and trusting Him alone for salvation. I will not go into detail concerning Spurgeon’s search for the Lor...

SOME THINGS THE BELIEVER CAN KEEP John 8:51-52 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.  Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death." WE ARE TO KEEP HIS SAYINGS Jesus said, “If a man keep my sayings . . .” The word “keep” transl...

JEREMIAH TESTIFIES IN HARD TIMES Jer. 16:19 “O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, a...

DECIDE IN THE FAVOR OF HOLINESS 2 Cor. 7:1 “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Paul says, “Having therefore these promises . . .” The word “Having” means “to have or hold in the hand.” It is a present active participle. The present tense means that we have these promises rig...

SUNDRY TIMES AND DIVERS MANNERS Hebrews 1:1 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.” The Book of Hebrews starts with God. My Cambridge Bible and my Online Bible has a note at the end of the book that says, “Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy.” The  notes like this were put there by man and are not inspired. Unger in his Bible d...

THE BELIEVER’S PRESENT PRIVILEGES John 14:1 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." This meditation will cover several verses in John 14, but rather than print all of them as the text, I have printed the first verse and will print the others as we go. These words of our Lord were spoken at His last Passover and contains a revelation of the precious privileges confe...

SELF-EXALTATION FORBIDDEN Luke 14:11 “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Someone has said that God created man to be a king, i.e., the ruler of the earth and the ruler of his home. That...

GOD’S FINAL WORD Heb. 1:2  “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” We are living in the Church age. Paul says in  Ephesians 3:2: “If ye have heard of the dis...