Posts by John Staiger (Page 42)

Lot lost the lot. Sodom was sin city. And where sin is bought and sold, money abounds. When Lot, the nephew of Abraham, “pitched his tent towards Sodom (Gen.13:12), he thought himself set for life. In his mind, Uncle Abraham had given him the Market Edge by letting him choose his place of business. The future was never brighter. Abraham’s three visitors told him that God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.18:20-21). It is likely that Lot never…

An old missionary told me of a road trip that he and his fellow missionaries went on in a foreign country in the 1960s. Youthful boredom had set in, and they started to ‘show off’ to each other. They began to pass one another while hanging out the windows of their cars, waving and yelling back and forth. He said, “This went on for a few miles, but not to be outdone, one of the guys climbed on to the…

The last thing Satan wants to do is to frighten Christians into a united force. A more effective strategy is to get Christians to become annoyed with one another over things that should not matter. It is not hard to get people to attribute bad motives to things, and sometimes a couple of irritating incidences is enough to create a petty Mexican standoff. There must be nothing more exasperating for our angelic counterparts than to listen to Christians obsess over…

David, the boy who would be king, knew no fear. “When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock,” he told King Saul, “I went out after him and attacked him…and when he rose up against me…I killed him” (1Sam.17:35-35). The desperate King Saul and his petrified commanders probably concluded that David’s courage would melt when facing Goliath and that he would run home to his sheep—no harm done. Instead, his lethal projectile that brought…

If I have ever given the impression that President Putin is anything other than a glorified Mafia thug, I have been misunderstood. May God stop Putin in his tracks as he seeks to spread his murderous influence. Snake Island is a tiny Ukrainian island in the Black Sea. Two days ago, 13 Ukrainian soldiers were ordered to surrender their base by the Russians. They chose death over tyranny. I cannot say what I would do in a similar circumstance. It…

I do not pretend to understand the details of what is happening in Ukraine as I write this. The foreign occupation is causing some to flee to neighbouring countries, while others are either welcoming the Russians or defending their country. But what is clear is that many are fearing for their futures. Tragically, war multiplies the evils of hate, death, and privation. We must pray for peace. Jesus was born into an occupied country. The Romans and their puppet governments…

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). The future has this advantage over the past…you can change it! If our conversations with God are indicative of our expectations for tomorrow, then we have reason to rejoice. The joy resides in the fact that scripture promises that all serious thought given in that direction will produce tremendous blessings. Jesus made this staggering promise: “Therefore I say…

We are not the only ones to ponder the thought: “If I had yesterday to do over again…today would be different.” Some days it goes beyond ponderance. Things hit home, and we adjust today to assure that the events of yesterday do not impact tomorrow; that, of course, is wisdom. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses brought all of Israel’s yesterdays into their today. The future, he warned, must not be a repeat of the past. Israel had spent 40…

My first experience with Chinese Whispers was in primary school. The experiment went exactly as predicted. The initial three-sentence message whispered into the first student’s ear (about the teacher’s trip to the shop to buy groceries), after being passed from student to student, was reduced to a few literally unintelligible sounds. Gary Taylor, in a recent sermon, suggested that God’s word is passed around in like manner. But making things worse, the false teachers “add their own spin to the…

To suggest that James’ discourse on “Faith and Works” begins at chapter two verse fourteen is to demonstrate a skewed view of the Christian Experience. From the very beginning of his book, James prepares the church for action. He starts with the reality of trials—those unrelenting everyday circumstances that have moved many a Christian to doubt his faith and fall away. While some resolve themselves to a miserable existence under the weight of these trials, James’ war cry is “Consider…