Showing results by narrator "Mark Christensen" in All Categories

To have found God and still to pursue Him is a paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religious person, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux stated this holy paradox in a musical four-line poem.

Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer; but we must use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do, and since God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the person who knows how to pray, who meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer, and who really prays, and if they are willing to pay the price. The price is prayer, much prayer, much real prayer, prayer in the Holy Spirit.

He who wants a correct understanding of holiness must first begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very deep if he wants to build high. Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption. Practical holiness and entire self-consecration to God are not given adequate attention by modern Christians. The unsaved sometimes rightly complain that Christians are not as kind and unselfish and good-natured as those who make no profession of faith.

Often disguised as something that would help him, evil accompanies Christian on his journey to the Celestial City. As you walk with him, you'll begin to identify today's many religious pitfalls. These are presented by men such as Pliable, who turns back at the Slough of Despond; and Ignorance, who believes he's a true follower of Christ when he's really only trusting in himself.

This is a short and honest account of how God demonstrated his exceeding great mercy to his unworthy servant John Bunyan. This story specifically tells how Bunyan was converted. John Bunyan was a companion of sin and was troubled by sin. He fought temptation and sin in his own strength and lost, and in despair, he gave up hope of ever finding God’s mercy; but the Lord Jesus Christ at last delivered him from the guilt and terror that so often and so viciously troubled him.

If the answer to prayer is so positively promised in scripture, why are there so many unanswered prayers today (often misinterpreted as a "no")? Scripture teaches us that answer to prayer depends upon certain conditions. Christ spoke of faith, of perseverance, of praying in his name, of praying in the will of God. But all these conditions were summed up in the one central statement: "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

Written four years after The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan followed up with this second allegorical classic, which has touched hearts and minds of people for generations. The epicenter of this book is the town of Mansoul, its people (such as Conscience, Self-Denial, and Do-Right), and its gates (Eye-gate, Ear-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate, and Feel-gate).

I want to tell you what perhaps the greatest Christian who ever lived (the apostle Paul) thought of the cross of Christ. Believe me, the cross is of deepest importance. This is no mere question of controversy; this is not one of those points on which people may agree to differ and feel that differences will not shut them out of heaven. A person must be right on this subject, or he is lost forever. Heaven or hell, happiness or misery, life or death, blessing or cursing in the last day - all hinges on the answer to this question: What do you think about the cross of Christ?

The life of Mr. Badman forms a third part to The Pilgrim’s Progress, but it is not a delightful pilgrimage to heaven. On the contrary, it is a wretched downward journey to the infernal realms. The author’s goal is to warn poor, thoughtless sinners, not with smooth words they can ignore, but with words that thunder against their consciences regarding the danger of their souls and the increasing wretchedness into which they are madly hurrying.

God will exalt us when the time is right. We needn't try to promote ourselves; we needn't struggle for position. Let God put us where he wants us and let us be true to God. It is better for a man to be right with God, even if he holds no great earthly position. This study illustrates what Daniel did, and also what Daniel didn't do, which caught the attention of God and kings alike. Few are the men in history of Daniel's caliber, even though the principles he followed can be implemented by all. Are you ready to be a truly great man, one that will cause God and men to take notice?

Franz Liszt lived on Lake Como. Pliny and Virgil lived here in Roman times, and they called it the most beautiful place in the world. It hasn't changed. From the hills above the lake, you can see the Matterhorn in the distance. This is based on our larger book, Milan and the Italian Lakes. Here we zero in on the most popular of them.

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it.

Richard Baxter (1615–1691) preached “as a dying man to dying men.” He was devoted to God and was a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. Best known as the minister of Kidderminster in England, his love for God and others resulted in practically the entire town of Kidderminster turning to Jesus during Baxter’s ministry there.

From many hearts, there is rising a cry for more power - more power in our personal conflicts with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and more power in our work for others. The Bible makes the way to obtain this longed-for power very plain. The Bible tells us how, and the Bible was intended to be understood.

We can't get away from the principle of reaping what we sow. If we sow good seed, we anticipate a great harvest. But if we sow weeds, we'll harvest no more than we sowed. The same is true spiritually and practically. If we want a reward in heaven, we must live for Christ. On the other hand, if we lie, cheat, swear, steal, get drunk, use drugs, or otherwise fulfill the lusts of the flesh, the reality is we'll pay the consequences both now and in eternity. No matter how much society tries to convince us otherwise, this law has proven to be true without fail.

Although this is a small book, yet it presents you with matters of the greatest and most weighty concern, even with a discourse of life and death to eternity. It reveals and clarifies, by the Scriptures of God, that the time is at hand when there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust – even of the bodies of both, from the graves where they are, or will be, at the start of that day.

How to Bring Men to Christ sheds light on how to reach the lost with the gospel - not new light, but tested and true light. Reuben A. Torrey will show you how to use appropriate, applicable Bible passages to reach every kind of lost individual. Regardless of the angle the lost may use to try to justify why they remain in their sad condition, Torrey offers scripture passages and biblical principles that have proven to reach even the most stubborn of the unsaved. This is an excellent resource and training manual to equip individuals and groups to share the gospel with the lost.

A bold leader decided to follow Jesus' teachings, resulting in a powerful ministry that has his entire congregation serving the desolate, the hungry, and the sick. Through this obedience to scripture, his church grew from a small 250-member congregation to a thriving, life-filled body of Christ-followers that is active in an astounding 70 ministries today.

This life will not last forever. The trumpet will one day sound and call you forth from your narrow bed. The graves will be opened, and you will be summoned forth to meet your God. The proud heart that rejects or mocks Christianity down here will be compelled to listen to the judgment sentence of God. The ears that will not obey the sound of the church-going bell will be compelled to obey the sound of the last trumpet. The eyes that behold evil here will one day gaze upon the spotless throne of God.

Marxists guerillas, right-wing paramilitary, and the Colombian government each have their own agenda. Who would have guessed a meeting of the minds would take place under the helpful auspices of communist Cuba? And that these battle-scarred leaders would give reporters and missionaries the opportunity to challenge some of their core philosophies and even pray with them?