The Heidelberg Catechism - The Foundations Of Our Faith

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23  John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24  (for John had not yet been put in prison). 25               Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. 26  And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness---look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." 27  John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28  You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' 29  The one who has the  bride is the  bridegroom . The friend of the  bridegroom , who stands and hears him, rejoices g...

In this hurry- up world, waiting for anything can cause us to lose our temper and our good sense—more frequently than we care to admit! No one enjoys waiting in line. We don’t like waiting at stoplights. We don’t like waiting for dinner. We don’t even like waiting for good things, like for fish to bite. We want what we want right now. Yet the Word of God insists that we learn some of life’s greatest lessons while we wait. Waiting rooms can be hard classrooms, but God promises vast rewards to those who wait for Him. God plans to use the long pauses in our lives for our blessing . . . if we let Him. Why does God so often ask us to wait? Let’s consider five major rewards of waiting. 1. We discover God’s will. “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him” (Lam. 3:25). God does not allow delays in giving us the desire of our hearts to lead us along. Rather, we know that even as we wait, He is working all things together for our good and His glory ...

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Bishop Hugh Latimer was preaching in Westminster Abbey when King Henry VIII was in the congregation. He preached a sermon which greatly offended His royalty, so the King ordered him to preach again the following Sunday and make a public apology for the offense. The next week the bishop ascended the pulpit, read the text, then began his sermon, “Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the King’s most excellent majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest; therefore take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But then, consider well, Hugh! Dost thou not know from whom thou comest- upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present and beholdest all thy ways and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully!” And thus beginning, Latimer preached over again, with increased energy, the same sermon h...

" And the word of the LORD came unto him (Elijah), saying, Get thee hence and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee THERE . . . "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell THERE: behold, I have commanded a widow woman THERE to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was THERE. . . " (I Kings 17:2-4, 9, 10). DO not believe that the ravens would have fed Elijah anywhere else, nor would the widow woman have appeared anywhere else except "THERE." GOD did not say, "Elijah, ramble around as you please and I will provide for you." "THERE" was the place of GOD's will for Elijah-the place of His Purpose, the place of His Power and the place of His Provision. "THER...