J. Randal Matheny

These daily readings have been selected from various sources, chiefly from the lectures given at the Bible Training College, Clapham, during the years 1911-1915; then, from October 1915 to November 1917, from talks given night by night in the Y.M.C.A. Huts, Zeitoun, Egypt. In November 1917 my husband entered into God's presence. Since then many of the talks have been published in book form, and others from which these readings have been gathered will also be published in due course.

Oswald Chambers's wife published his devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, after his death. It has become a world favorite.

We never know what good may come from our efforts after we are gone. God is not limited to our lifespan when he wants to use our works for his kingdom.

The Journal of ETSPM,” ... The Fall 2010 (Sep) issue is heading to both our USPS and email lists. This issue focuses on “The Restoration Plea

It's from good people, at the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions. It's good price, for free. It highlights a good theme, restoration. So what are you waiting on?

the Postal Regulatory Commission, the independent panel that approves rate increases, turned down a USPS request to raise first-class postage to 46 cents from 44 and hike rates in other categories as well.

It was an economics lesson, if nothing else. Demand for postal service is shrinking (mail volume was down 13% in the Postal Service's fiscal 2009). The last thing a normal enterprise would do in such a situation is make its product more expensive. All that does is speed the flight of business to competitors.

And despite the USPS monopoly on first-class mail, it has plenty of competition. You see it every time your local electric company asks you if you want to stop getting paper bills. You see it when you start filing taxes online or send your first e-card. The shift from paper to electronic communication is inexorable.

When was the last time you wrote a letter by taking an instrument in hand and scratching ink across a piece of paper, then folding it, putting it in an envelope, sticking a 44¢ stamp on it, and inserting it into a mailbox with the flag up? I cant' remember my last snail-mail letter.

While I regret the demise of the nicely written letter, Benjamin Franklin's Post Office deserves to be thrown into the private sector, competing toe to toe with other businesses. Otherwise we'll see its demise come rain or sleet or snow.

A bookstore in Kittanning, Pa., was told its advertisement in a local restaurant's holiday menu was rejected by the ad publisher, simply because the store had the word "Christian" in its name.

WND sometimes reaches unwarranted conclusions, seems to me, but this report appears to be pretty straightforward. And sickening. America is one very sick country. Time to get busy teaching the gospel one-on-one. Forget the politics, nobody's minding the store in D.C. It's up to God's people to do their job, as always.

God’s promises do not have to be inevitable to be certain

The only thing I might add to this good topical sermon by Tom Moore is a bit more on the Holy Spirit, but that's a judgment call in terms of direction to take when preaching. The title pulls it together, a quote from 1 Pet. 1:5, "kept by the power of God through faith," and since the Petrine epistles are my favorites, I would have liked to have seen a treatment of that phrase, but hey, it's a topical sermon, so now I'm just bellyaching. Near the end, his list of seven activities that contribute toward faithfulness is good, one we need to heed often and well.

Are Pencils a Thing of the Past?

Pencils were never my friends. They smeared my left hand as I wrote. Their point dulled quickly. The lead often broke when I tried to sharpen it. Erasers did a half-way job of removing an error or bad expression.

Early in my school career I found a fine-point fountain pen whose ink would dry before my hand reached it. I've never missed a pencil since.

After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed.

The valley is the crush of the crucible, where we are proved, where faith is tested, and where we learn from our failures to discover the power of our Lord to transform failure to success, slavery into freedom, selfishness into service for His glory.

How many times do we assure our friends or loved ones, “I’m praying for you!” but our prayers for them never progress beyond, “Lord, please be with….”? 

Are we dabblers in prayer?

Paul understood that to be inwardly focused was to be outwardly blind. To be a missionary means meeting, learning and embracing those outside the family of God. Paul even likens it to becoming them; this was not a dry interpretation of an even dustier research project. This was a living, personal change based on wanting to see people become followers of Christ.

Follow the money trail, says the author, to see why a church exists. He has denominational language and examples, but is mostly spot on in terms of a church's outreach. Some saints have no idea why they were planted on this earth. Time to shake the tree!