Meditation Sermons

Are you turned off by religion? You're not alone. Jesus was no fan either. In his seminal sermon, Jesus addresses life in the Kingdom of God. Jesus paints a picture that looks starkly different from how many perceive today's American church. Salt and Light: Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount is a 43-day journey through Jesus' best-known sermon. It explores how the entirety of scripture shines a light on Jesus' words, and how the culture, environment, and circumstances of Christ's world reveal clues as to their meaning.

Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. Doubtless there are many other very mournful lives in Scripture, besides the three of which I propose to treat The Bible would not be the book of men and for men were it otherwise, seeing how many lives inexpressibly mournful there have been and are in this actual world—lives to which is attached exactly the same kind of mournfulness which cleaves to theirs—the lives, I mean, of men who, called to high things, have yet chosen low; who, called to a crown, have let others take that crown...

Lessons from one man’s experiences and observations will not be of value to all. But lessons from any man’s experiences and observations will be of value to some. No man stands, in his feelings and sympathies, for his entire race. But every man, in his sympathies and feelings, stands for a class. Hence it is, that whatever truths have made a profound impression on a man in the progress of his life-course are likely to make a correspondent impression on others who are like him, if he can bring those truths with any vividness before them. And when a series of related truths have excited ...

"WHAT does God do all day?" once asked a little boy. One could wish that more grown-up people would ask so very real a question. Unfortunately, most of us are not even boys in religious intelligence, but only very unthinking children. It no more occurs to us that God is engaged in any particular work in the world than it occurs to a little child that its father does anything except be its father. Its father may be a Cabinet Minister absorbed in the nation's work, or an inventor deep in schemes for the world's good; but to this master-egoist he is father, and nothing more. Childhood, whether...

This book will help you write great and effective eulogies to be used in funerals and memorial services. You will be given practical teaching on how to construct and what to include in your message so that those in the audience will leave the service with their spirits uplifted. You will know how to give a message that truly celebrates the life of the person.

THERE are seasons in life when everything seems to shaking. Old landmarks are crumbling. Venerable foundations are up-heaved in a night, and are scattered abroad as dust. Guiding buoys snap their moorings, and go drifting down the channel. Institutions which promised to outlast the hills collapse like a stricken tent. Assumptions in which everybody trusted burst like air-balloons. Everything seems to lose its base, and trembles in uncertainty and confusion. Such seasons are known in our personal life. One day our circumstances appear to share the un-shaken solidity of the planet, and our ...

Pastor, do you find yourself using the same passage for the Lord’s Supper, saying the same things, and wondering how you could do more? Maybe you try to finish the Lord’s Supper so people can move onto th save e next thing. You would like people to experience the presence of Jesus during communion, realize all Jesus did on the Cross for them, and help them connect with Jesus and see Him in a deeper, more meaningful way. Meditations on the Lord’s Supper offers you that opportunity. It is a collection of devotions, dramatizations from the eyes and experiences of the disciples, and ...

Only He who made our hearts fully understands them; and no one but the Son of man who is the Son of God can be touched with the feeling of all our infirmi¬ties, having been in all points tried as we have been tried. But whoever has had any experience of trials, suffering, sorrow, bereavement, and has been divinely helped to profit by that experience, can hope to be of service in words of sympathy to those similarly tried and troubled. It is the heart which bleeds with its own sorrows which can go out in living sympathy toward another bleeding heart; and it is the hearts that have gained ...

The words from which I wish to speak to you, you will find in i Corinthians ii. 4, 5: And my... preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The Apostle speaks of two kinds of preaching, and, as resulting from that, of two styles of religious life in the congregation. There is a preaching in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and there is a preaching in the wisdom of words. As a result of preaching in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, the...

Reader, What do you think of these words? They are short words, and soon spoken; but they contain great things. These three words are the essence and substance of Christianity. If your heart can really go along with them, it is well with your soul: if not, you may be sure you have yet much to learn. Let me try to set before you in what sense “Christ is all;” and let me ask you, as you read, to judge yourself honestly, that you may not make shipwreck in the judgment of the last day.

“CHRIST IS ALL.”—Col. iii. 6. My text is so very short that you cannot forget it; and, I am quite certain, if you are Christians at all, you will be sure to agree with it. What a multitude of religions there are in this poor wicked world of ours. Men have taken it into their heads to invent various systems of religion, and if you look round the world you will see scores of different sects; but it is a great fact, that while there are a multitude of false religions, there is but one that is true. While there are many falsehoods, there can be but one truth— real religion is therefore ...

“He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand?” Isaiah, xliv. 20. Of some diseases, and those not the least dangerous, it is a distinguishing characteristic, that the aihng fancy themselves in health, and resent, as rudeness and unkindness, an attempt to undeceive them. This is especially observable in the worst family of diseases to which our compound frame is liable, — those that affect the mind. It is proverbial, that insanity cannot know itself, and sees nothing but insanity in the pity ...

THE two little words which head this page touch a subject of vast importance in religion. That sub-ject is the great duty of separation from the world. This is the point which St. Paul had in view when he wrote to the Corin¬thians, “Come out,—be separate.” The subject is one which demands the best attention of all who profess and call themselves Christians. In every age of the Church “separa¬tion from the world” has always been one of the grand evidences of a work of grace in the heart. He that has been really born of the Spirit, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus, has ...

This book helps readers develop the discipline of coming each day before the Lord in a quiet place for the renewal of their faith, hope, and love through the Lord Jesus. Drawing its title from Psalm 95.2 (“Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving”), it contains readings for 365 days of the year, divided into 52 sections (weeks). Each day’s reading includes a scripture from the Psalms or the Sermon on the Mount, focus on a specific topic, a discussion of its meaning, and a prayer. The topics addressed include “Trusting God”, “Nations”, “Parents”, “Babies and ...

BRILLIANTS ¬ Selected from the Writings of C. H. SPURGEON *** ¬ The truest lengthening of life is to live while we live, wasting no time, but using every hour for the highest ends. *** So sweet are the comforts of the Lord, that not only the saints themselves may sing of them, but even the heavens and the earth may take up the song. It Cakes something to make a mountain sing; and yet the prophet summons quite a choir of them. Lebanon, and Sirion, and the high hills of Bashan and Moab, he would set them all singing because of Jehovah's grace to His own Zion. May we not also make mountains ...

“When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.”—ST. John viii. 10, 11. IT is a singular fact, that the authenticity of this passage, the inspiration of it, has been frequently denied. I believe it is not at the present time received among the Greek Churches, although it was usually adopted among the Latin Churches. Calvin doubted its inspiration, Beza, and many of the most eminent ...

“A RIGHTEOUS MAN REGARDETH THE LIFE OF HIS BEAST.” PROVERBS XII. 10. THE word regard is of two-fold signification, and may either apply to the moral or to the intellectual part of our nature. In the one application, the intellectual, it is the regard of attention. In the other, the moral, it is the regard of sympathy, or kindness. We do not marvel at this common term having been applied to two different things; for, in truth, they are most intimately associated; and the faculty by which a transition is accomplished from the one to the other, may be considered as the intermediate link ...

But will God so “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” that no wandering thought will find a place in the mind, even while we remain in the body? So some have vehemently maintained; yea, have affirmed that none are perfected in love unless they are so far perfected in understanding, that all wandering thoughts are done away; unless not only every affection and temper be holy and just and good, but every individual thought which arises in the mind be wise and regular. This is a question of no small importance. For how many of those who fear God, yea, and love ...

A DEEP concern for the welfare of my fellow-mortals, and an earnest desire that they may be made partakers of the joy and glory of that salvation which comes by Christ, has induced me to present to them in this form, the following Sermon, written by John Venn, late rector of Clapham — a valued and experienced Christian; as it contains hints well calculated to produce serious reflection, to lead into humble watchfulness of spirit, and the endeavour to walk so closely with God, that whatsoever is done may be done to his glory. I am best satisfied to add, that my own observation and ...

I HAVE read this little Catechism with much pleasure, and think it deserves to be extensively circulated. It is an admirable compendium of Scriptural information on the Sabbath question, well digested, and arranged in a most simple form. May He who is the Lord of the Sabbath vouchsafe to it an abundant blessing. J. C. RYLE