The Cross and the World: by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

. . . greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4

What is a Christian? Paul tells the Colossians that a Christian is a person who has been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. I no longer belong to the world—I belong to the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of glory, the kingdom of God. Here I am, and the world has nothing to do with me. I am not of it. I am in this other kingdom.

Oh, I am still existing in this world, but I no longer belong to it. I have been translated. And my citizenship is now in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, and we know that we shall ever go on and be with the Lord. He, by dying on the cross, separates me from the world, puts me into His own kingdom, introduces me to God, and makes me a child of God and an heir of eternal bliss.

He delivers me from the world. He died so that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He does more—He gives me a power that is greater than the world.

Listen to John: “. . . greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” and “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith,” our faith in Him (1 John 4:4; 5:4). And thank God, He gives us occasional glimpses of that other world, that real world, that pure, holy world that is yet going to be.

This old world can never be improved and reformed. He will set up a new world: “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). A renovated cosmos, a perfected universe, with glory everywhere. The glory of the Lord shall cover everything as the waters cover the seas.

At Just That Point in History: by CS Lewis

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

We believe that the death of Christ is just that point in history at which something absolutely unimaginable from outside shows through into our own world. And if we cannot picture even the atoms of which our own world is built, of course we are not going to be able to picture this. Indeed, if we found that we could fully understand it, that very fact would show it was not what it professes to be—the inconceivable, the uncreated, the thing from beyond nature, striking down into nature like lightning. You may ask what good it will be to us if we do not understand it. But that is easily answered. A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it.

We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed.

Knowing God: The Goal of All Christian Learning: by AW Tozer

Psalm 51:1–4 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Among Christians of all ages and of varying shades of doctrinal emphasis there has been fairly full agreement on one thing: They all believed that it was important that the Christian with serious spiritual aspirations should learn to meditate long and often on God.

Let a Christian insist upon rising above the poor average of current religious experience and he will soon come up against the need to know God Himself as the ultimate goal of all Christian doctrine.

Let him seek to explore the sacred wonders of the Triune Godhead and he will discover that sustained and intelligently directed meditation on the Person of God is imperative. To know God well he must think on Him unceasingly. Nothing that man has discovered about himself or God has revealed any shortcut to pure spirituality. It is still free, but tremendously costly.

Of course this presupposes at least a fair amount of sound theological knowledge. To seek God apart from His own self-disclosure in the inspired Scriptures is not only futile but dangerous. There must be also a knowledge of and complete trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Redeemer.

Christ is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is He the best of several ways; He is the only way. ?I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me? (John 14:6).

To believe otherwise is to be something less than a Christian.

Are You Being Made Perfect? By Henry Blackaby

Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Hebrews 5:8-9

There is a positive aspect to suffering. We all endure suffering to some degree, but the good news is that through it we can become like Jesus. Are you willing to pay whatever price is necessary in order to become like Christ? There are some things that God can build into your life only through suffering. Even Jesus, the sinless Son of God, was complete only after He had endured the suffering His Father had set before Him. Once He had suffered, He was the complete, mature, and perfect Savior through whom an entire world could find salvation.

If you become bitter over your hardships, you close some parts of your life from God. If you do this, you will never be complete. Some places in your soul can be reached only by suffering. The Spirit of God has important things to teach you, but you can only learn these lessons in the midst of your trials. King Saul was made king without ever enduring hardship, but he never developed the character or maturity to handle God’s assignment. David spent years in suffering and heartache. When he finally ascended the throne, he was a man after God’s own heart.

Don’t resent the suffering God allows in your life. Don’t make all your decisions and invest everything you have into avoiding hardship. God did not spare His own Son. How can we expect Him to spare us? Learn obedience even when it hurts!

The Great Weapon: by CS Lewis

Hebrews 2:9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2:14–15 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

On the one hand Death is the triumph of Satan, the punishment of the Fall, and the last enemy. Christ shed tears at the grave of Lazarus and sweated blood in Gethsemane: the Life of Lives that was in Him detested this penal obscenity not less than we do, but more. On the other hand, only he who loses his life will save it. We are baptized into the death of Christ, and it is the remedy for the Fall. Death is, in fact, what some modern people call 'ambivalent'. It is Satan's great weapon and also God's great weapon: it is holy and unholy; our supreme disgrace and our only hope; the thing Christ came to conquer and the means by which He conquered.

Christ in Me: by Andrew Murray

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test? 2 Corinthians 13:5

The Apostle would have each Christian live in the full assurance: Christ is in me. What a difference it would make in our lives if we could take time every morning to be filled with the thought: Christ is in me. As assuredly as I am in Christ, Christ is also in me.

In the last night Christ put it clearly to His disciples, that the Spirit would teach them: "In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." First of all Ye in Me. Through the power of God all we who believe were crucified with Christ, and raised again with Him. And as a result: Christ is in us. But this knowledge does not come easily. Through faith in God's Word the Christian accepts it, and the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. Take time this very day to realize and appropriate this blessing in prayer.

How clearly Paul expresses the thought in the prayer of Ephesians iii. 16: "That the Father would grant you according to the riches of His glory." Notice that it is not the ordinary gift of grace, but a special revelation of the riches of His love and power. That he grant you to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Have you grasped it? The Christian may really have the experience of being filled with the fulness of God.

Dear Christian, Paul said: "I bow my knees unto the Father." That is the only way to obtain the blessing. Take time in the inner chamber to realize: Christ dwells in me. Too little have I experienced this in the past, but I will cry to God and wait upon Him to perfect His work in me. Even in the midst of my daily work, I must look upon my heart as the dwelling place of the Son of God, and say: "I am crucified with Christ, I live no more; Christ lives in me." Thus only will Christ's words: "Abide in Me, and I in you," become my daily experience. 

Your Greatest Need: by Sarah Young

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Never stop praying.

John 16:24 You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.

You need Me every moment. Your awareness of your constant need for Me is your greatest strength. Your neediness, properly handled, is a link to My Presence. However, there are pitfalls that you must be on guard against: self-pity, self-preoccupation, giving up. Your inadequacy presents you with a continual choice--deep dependence on Me, or despair. The emptiness you feel within will be filled either with problems or with My presence. Make Me central in your consciousness by praying continually simple, short prayers flowing out of the present moment. Use My Name liberally, to remind you of My Presence. Keep on asking and you will receive, so that your gladness may be full and complete.