Posts from 2023 (Page 10)

I have wondered from time to time what we would do differently at church if our country’s leader attended worship with us. Would we fawn over him/her as I saw some Christians do for a politician who attended a Christian funeral? Or would we be stoically polite?—All the while restraining ourselves from asking why laws are passed encouraging the worst of sins. It is my prayer that all Christians take a giant step away from the affairs of government. The…

The Trinity—The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit—has always worked in perfect unity to secure the souls of man. There is so much we will never understand about God this side of heaven, but what the Holy Spirit has revealed in His Word is enough to bring us into unity with Him and His divine plan. The gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism makes us, individually and collectively, a holy dwelling place where God resides. This was, of…

Till Moses’ dying day he blamed his fellow Israelites for not being able to enter the Promised Land. Moses was unique before God. When God communicated with other prophets he spoke in dreams and visions, but with Moses He spoke face to face (Numbers 12:6-8). Moses loved God and Israel with all his being. When God wanted to abandon Israel because of their sins, Moses interceded for them and changed God’s mind. The Psalmist shows the heart of Moses: “Therefore…

I met Gerry in 1977. He told me that he was a little boy when the worldwide depression began in 1929. He said, “If it wasn’t for the Jewish man who owned the corner shop we may have starved to death. But somehow, he extended credit long enough for us to get through the worst of it. I don’t know how he did it, no one around us had any money.” The appreciation in his heart was as bright that…

I appreciated the old days when the preachers would preach about the sinfulness of sin. They left you in no doubt that sin left you in peril of hell fire and that the only cure was repentance in the name of Jesus. With rare exception these sermons started in quiet solemnities and built up into a fever pitch with deliberate sharp movements. Some of those men were impressive in every way. Though I do believe that hell fire and brimstone…

If your church has weathered the last few years well, it is probably because all of you did a lot of things right in the preceding years. If the Bible, fellowship, prayer, and good works were up front and central, it shoIuld come as no surprise that Satan struggled to get a foothold. However, the disruptions to face-to-face fellowship have taken their toll on many churches. Satan found their pre-existing weaknesses and capitalised on them. Strain was put on already…

Be careful that that nagging voice in your head isn’t fear dressed up as wisdom. If there is one thing that the Lord takes off the table is our need to fear for the necessaries of this life and the next. But as much as Jesus tells his followers not to worry about food, shelter and clothing, believers ignore his word as much as anyone else. Tragically, much time and worry are constantly being ploughed into efforts to keep up…

We all know people who consider themselves to be Expert Detectives. And given that some do seem to have built in radars that pick up out-of-place things or verbal inconsistences, they may be seeing things that the rest of us are missing. These self-proclaimed super-sleuths are not hard to miss. They are the ones who often exclaim, “I told you there was something wrong with that person.” In fact, you and I have probably said this ourselves. However, sometimes lies…

More than one man has suggested that Paul went off to some sort of Arabian Desert School of Preaching shortly after his conversion. What exactly happened during that wilderness sojourn, we don’t know. But as much as I doubt that Paul went away to collect a Preaching Diploma, I am willing to concede that he probably needed time with the Lord to perfect his transformation from Pharisee to Preacher. Afterall, the other apostles spent three years with Jesus, why not…

The man who was the golden head of the statue didn’t care about the rest of the image. Future kingdoms didn’t exist in his mind. In fact, he went out and built his own 90-foot statue. However, if he had sat down and thought about that “Rock,” he would have realised that something greater than the power of any and all the kingdoms of this world was going to bring it all down. Nebuchadnezzar did acknowledge the glory of the…