Posts from 2022 (Page 12)

An elder from a local denomination visited Morningside one Sunday. After worship he stayed to chat with me and asked me to consider being the preacher of his church. Of course, I thanked him for his kind offer, but told him that I was happy in my present ministry. The strange thing was that he knew that I had convictions that many in his congregation would not have tolerated being preached. They had long since joined the World Council of…

A university administrator found himself in front of a judge being charged with littering. Apparently, his department had switched over to electronic textbooks and he suddenly had a mountain of hardcopies in his possession. He couldn’t be seen dumping them in the university’s bins, so he began throwing them out of his car window as he drove home. Eventually, someone reported him, and he was arrested. As a (casual) minimalist my goal has never been to have as few things…

You have probably heard people say something like: “Jesus was one of the great teachers.” Of course, this is how they place him among the many religious teachers of the ages. They give him credit for whatever sayings of his they like, but neither he nor his sayings are exalted above the others. Just as every church thinks that they are the most likely way to heaven, every man believes that his spiritual teacher is the most likely guide. Two…

At High School there was a boy well known for having come from a dysfunctional home. One day his parents joined a church, and the affect was immediate and obvious. Rubbish was removed from their yard, the lawn was mowed, and the house cleaned. Also, and most notably, the boy lost his aggressive stance and literally pulled up his socks. Life at that point took a turn for the better. Without a doubt, Christianity will set you on the path…

I knew a man who achieved everything he had ever dreamed of achieving—but for one thing—God took it all off him. Like Moses he had looked back on a life given to God, and like Moses he watched as his work was handed over to another. Christians do well to hold on to all things with an open hand. With Job we must say, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD”…

The Lord’s church as we know it is a small place. The degrees of separation between us all are fewer than you might think. I once visited a congregation in a remote place and was surprised to find brethren who knew well brethren that I knew well. This, of course, made me feel at home very quickly—as it should. Every congregation has its own personality. In my experience I have found most to be warm and inviting. Those that were…

In my mid-twenties I took an extended holiday to a foreign city. I have since been heard to say about the congregation I attended, “That congregation treated me so well that I have no idea why I ever left.” These words will be ever true, and for their kindnesses I will ever be grateful, but I am reminded that I was but a resident tourist. I had no real intentions of putting down roots, and I knew I had work…

The godliest people you know are probably invisible to the greater world. Ordinary souls who are generous beyond their means and encouraging beyond that which most deserve. These are the workers who labour in our congregations wanting neither recognition nor reward. By contrast, those selling their “success” to the world place themselves at the centre of their messages. They teach a philosophy of Submission to Personal Desires. Therefore, with so many making ‘Self’ their religion, it is little wonder the…

Somebody said that the most requested hymn on Father’s Day is, “Farther Along.” It probably isn’t, but it makes a good Dad Joke. Today is Father’s Day in New Zealand. The three greatest things that ever happened to me were: Becoming a Christian, becoming a husband, and becoming a father. Though progress was made toward maturity at baptism and marriage, I believe that I grew up on the day I became a father; I found out what it really meant…

Being eaten by worms is an ignominious end in any language. That was the punishment that God meted out to Herod for taking glory upon himself. When the people of Tyre and Sidon kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Herod drank in the praise, having no thought for Whom it belonged (Acts 12:22-23). Herod had recently had the apostle James put to death and Peter imprisoned with the same fate in mind (Acts…