Posts by John Staiger (Page 20)

“He robbed from the rich to give the poor,” is that famous saying that turns our imaginations to Robin Hood and his band of merry men. But as much as this justice-seeking-outlaw has delighted the downtrodden for the best part of 700 years, there is no real evidence that he ever actually existed. However, despite being but a character from English Folklore, no one need be concerned that his legendary presence will disappear anytime soon. As much as some have…

Jesus is no ordinary leader. Unlike the self-serving unbeliever, he practiced the virtues he expects his followers to carry out. He commands his disciples to: “Do as I say AND as I do.” We are to live up to a standard of love based on his love for his enemies. Paul says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His…

My mother wanted to honour the glory and romance of Cleopatra and Mark Antony by naming her second son, Antony. It lasted all of a week. Apparently, the local Postmaster of the small Post Office in our small village phoned my father and informed him that his wife had misspelled his son’s name. My father thanked him as he (as the story goes), crammed the missing “h” into the name on the birth certificate. It seemed little consolation to my…

Reducing Jesus’ status to that of a mere man has one big advantage for those who have chosen to do so—If he is NOT God, they DON’T have to take him seriously! And, if so, that would be correct. For without Jesus’ divine authority his whole ministry falls flat. All his teachings about heaven lose any sense of eternal hope, and all his teachings about hell lose any sense of eternal punishment; So, “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow…

Given their daily exposure to Jesus’ teaching and miracles, we think it odd that the disciples were slow to understand who Jesus really is. But looking to our own track-record, we discover how many times that we have had questions and doubts – despite having just witnessed great blessings from the Lord – and understand how easy it is to forget! On the occasion that Jesus was asleep in the boat, we can safely assume that that was not the…

I recently heard a Roman Catholic Priest defend the many exorcisms that he claimed to have carried out. His critic suggested that one of the people that he cast a demon out of was not demon possessed but instead suffered mental illness and was prone to seizures. The priest was convinced that his work was essential in this world and concluded by saying: “We are in a spiritual war. When Satan comes to us, we must fight him where he…

I once stopped at one of the shops in the village in which I was raised as a kid, and was met with this odd response. After exchanging pleasantries with the shopkeeper, I introduced myself as a long-lost-local and asked him how long he had lived in the area. Strangely, he looked at me as if I were from the FBI, mumbled a few unintelligible words, handed me my change, and disappeared out the back of the shop. I guess…

A preacher once sat with a brother and sister, both in their forties, who had received news from abroad that a dear aunt’s husband had died. The sister spoke at length about the kindly nature of her uncle, while the brother sat silent. The brother, having not said a word, stood up, expressed his deepest sympathies for his absent aunt, and went home. In a subsequent conversation he apologised for his abrupt departure and explained why he had remained silent.…

How many times have you heard people on TV express surprise when “the man next door” was arrested for heinous crimes? “He was so nice,” they say. “No one would ever have thought he was capable of such things.” The thing that makes these criminals so hard to catch is that they blend in so well. Their devilish ways are masked behind the smiles, nods, and pleasantries of brief encounters. Most of these neighbours go through life asking themselves, “What…

Those loving eyes that looked upon that new-born babe never imagined that her son would go down in infamy as a thief, betrayer, and taker of his own life. She would have trembled to know that her little boy’s name would become a byword for treachery for millennia to come. However, not everything about the life of Judas Iscariot was a disaster. How many men could claim to have been handpicked by Jesus to be one of his chosen apostles?…