God is calling each disciple of the Christ to be increasingly transformed into his Son's likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). It is one thing to be in Christ, it is another to live out the implications of Christ living in us. The Lord Jesus Christ indwells every believer in the person of the Holy Spirit, and as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, every disciple reflects more and more of Christ and less and less of self-by the power of the Holy Spirit. The following chapters first appeared as individual articles in Life in the Spirit journal over a period of some twenty years. Each chapter addresses some aspect of the Christ-life, and is based on what God in Christ has done for us through the salvation events (the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ). The emphasis in this book is primarily about what the Lord Jesus Christ is presently doing in us, through the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit. I pray this volume will be used by the Holy Spirit to encourage each reader to live the Christ-life-to the glory of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

While there are many devotionals available for today's Christian, and many good ones at that, sometimes it is helpful to read a new one-from a different perspective. Thirsty-hearted believers will be fed by the Spirit through John R. MacDuff's thirty-one devotionals on The Mind of Christ. You will be repeatedly impressed with MacDuff's saintliness, breadth of biblical knowledge, and his spiritual discernment and warmth-and his flaming passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was a man of God who was spiritually alive and possessed a keen mind. His ministry to the Church was spent in stimulating believers-through voice and pen-to aspire to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. Read this classic and be challenged-and changed-by the Holy Spirit John R. MacDuff (1818-1895) was a pastor and prolific devotional and hymn writer in the Scottish tradition. Multiplied thousands of Christians have profited greatly by his writings over the past century. Ralph I. Tilley is a retired pastor, who also served as editor of Life in the Spirit journal for 20 years; he has taught at the Bible college, university, and seminary levels.

"And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud" (Gen. 9:14). John R. MacDuff uses God's promise to Noah-and to all humankind-as a metaphor for His suffering saints. There will be clouds (trials) in every life; but God promises to provide with the clouds a rainbow (His reassuring presence and promises). The author continually encourages the Christian to look to the sovereign God, who desires to use our severe trials to bring glory to himself, deepen our faith, and to produce a greater maturity in our understanding and walk with him. MacDuff demonstrates godly wisdom as he comes alongside the suffering believer, pointing him and her always to the unchanging and compassionate Father of mercies. He was clear about who his target audience was in writing these thirty-one devotionals: "This little book is intended to be seen by no eyes but weeping ones. It addresses no hearts but broken ones. It is to speak of sorrows with which a stranger cannot intermeddle." Read this book and be encouraged in the Lord

A praying person is an awful weapon in the hands of God. Prayer-believing, Spirit-directed, truth-based prayer-glorifies God, exalts the Lord Jesus Christ, honors the blessed Holy Spirit, and builds the church up the way Christ intends it to be built. True praying is as necessary to the growth of the Christian and the church as breathing is to the life and health of the human body. Because this is so, Scottish Moravian hymn writer, James Montgomery (1771-1854), wrote, Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, the Christian's native air . . . God's authentic people have always been praying people, following the supreme example of the Lord Jesus. Great works of God have been built through the intercessions of God's servants. God's work always moves forward most effectively when the people of God are on their knees as much as they are in business meetings. The church's wise men have always known the importance of prayer: "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much" (James 5:16 NASB). Most of the following chapters originally appeared in Life in the Spirit Journal. They are written by a variety of authors, including this editor. How I thank God that the Lord Jesus has shown us the way of prayer, as well as many noble saints who have walked in his footsteps.

Riverby Memorial Church was both imposing and important, with a liberal sprinkling of lawyers, doctors, retailers and politicians. Its pastor was highly educated, an excellent speaker, and surpassed every area minister in the art of pleasing all the church members. Everyone spoke well of their pastor. Memorial Church was a peaceful place to be-but it was the peace of a cemetery All that changed when Stephen Lynn came to town. Lynn was not a pastor, but he was a Christian through and through. He took Christ and his words seriously. He not only talked the talk; he walked the walk. Through Lynn's influence, the pastor was renewed as well as several others. The "old guard" resisted this fresh move of the Spirit. The devout soon discovered that the way of Christ was a way of "not peace but a sword." This refreshing fictional account of revival coming to a local church, should whet the spiritual appetite of every believer who thirsts for reality-in their own life and the life of the church.

"How Christ Came to Church" is an anthology of many of Adoniram Judson Gordon's (1836-1895) works. This new edition is edited by Ralph I. Tilley. A. J. Gordon is mostly known in contemporary Evangelical circles by two Christian institutions bearing his name: Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Both schools are located in Massachusetts. However, long before these schools were launched, Dr. Gordon became widely known as the pastor of Clarendon Street Baptist Church, Boston. It was in the early years of his ministry at the church, when Gordon experienced both a remarkable dream and special anointing of the Holy Spirit. These events precipitated a change in his life and ministry, that would eventually impact thousands around the world. Through the Holy Spirit's personal dealings with him, Gordon became convinced that most ministers and Christians were living beneath their gospel privileges. In reviewing his own walk with Christ and ministerial labors, he came to realize that so much of what he had been engaged in as a minister was done through human effort instead of in the strength and wisdom of the Spirit. He longed for a greater sense of reality in his walk with Christ; he craved a holy heart and a crucified ego; he wanted to be a truly fruitful branch on the Vine. Gordon learned, that when Christ is truly welcomed into the lives of individual Christians and churches, his unhindered presence makes all the difference.

"Thirsting for God" is a compilation of the author's Christian poetry, mediations and prayers.