Topic Archives: Encouragement

To be casual today is usually regarded as a good thing; it is cool. To be ‘non-casual’ (stiff? formal? intense?) is not good. You need to chill. One of the first books I read as a Christian was The Best That I Can Be by J. Oswald Sanders. On the front cover is a photo […]

We look at one verse, Matthew 2:15, in three tenses. ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’. With due deference to Mr Charles Dickens, and especial apologies to Mr Ebenezer Scrooge, we will vary a certain well-known Christmas story by entitling our three points ‘The Quote of Scripture Past’, ‘The Quote of Scripture Present’, and […]

It is only too easy for Christians to become daunted and deeply pessimistic. The world we live in is a dark and presently an ever-darkening, place. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is increasingly and publicly mocked and marginalized throughout society, particularly in the media. Our Government passes legislation that defies the living God. […]

Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. Psalm 73:25 After John Wesley’s ‘heart was strangely warmed’ at Aldersgate in 1738, he preached and laboured for the gospel, unabated, until his death in 1791. In that fifty-three year period he wrote over two hundred books, compiled dictionaries in […]

Graham Miller was a friend and mentor to many – not least to me – and ‘I thank my God in every remembrance of [him].’ Many will echo this sentiment as they read A Day’s March Nearer Home, compiled from his journals, formed into an autobiography by the Rev Iain Murray, and published by the […]

Let no one look down on your youthfulness. 1 Timothy 4:12a Jesus was thirty when he began his public ministry (Luke 3:23), and Peter must have been close to Jesus’ age when he began to follow him. Some say Saul of Tarsus was in his twenties when he was converted on the road to Damascus. […]

The Christian life is lived at the intersection of the ages, this present age and the age of the world to come that has already, in Christ, punctuated this present age. In Christ, believers are a ‘new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17). Paul does not mean here that believers are inwardly renewed men and women, but […]

The Christian life is full of extraordinary ‘highs’ and unsettling ‘lows’. This is something young Christians are often unprepared for. And yet God’s Word could not be clearer that our spiritual good requires that the Lord lead us through dark valleys as well as lifting us up to expansive mountain tops. This is why reading […]

How do we deal with doubts that arise against our faith? My question does not directly include how we answer the doubts of others. Our attempt to answer others’ doubts and objections has its place in the realm of what is called apologetics, but while it is legitimate and necessary at times for us to […]

Raymond Oakley, esteemed former pastor of the church at Hope Chapel, Arcal Street, Sedgley (1980-2007), and an acceptable supply minister for many years, passed to his eternal rest on December 3rd, 2011, aged 84 years. Our friend was a faithful minister of the gospel for sixty-two years and served the churches as a supply minister […]

I do not ask thee to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one. (John 17:15) You daily face untold danger, opposition, and sorrow. The danger takes many forms. You could be killed on the way to work this morning by a third shift worker on his way home […]

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? (Hebrews 2:3) Are you straying from the strong, church-going lifestyle instilled in you by your parents? Perhaps you slowly drifted away from Christianity as you married, had children, and got into the fast-paced life of work, rearing children, and being part of your community. […]

By Brian Ellis, Manila, Philippines. What do I mean? I must start with some personal testimony so that I can explain. My interest in religion began when I was in the 6th form at Grammar School and I began to attend the Student Christian Movement meetings each week. There we discussed all manner of matters […]

In John 15 the Lord Jesus Christ explains to us that Christians are united to him in a spiritual union. Our Lord uses the illustration of a vine and its branches. The Lord supplies to all believers the grace of his Holy Spirit. This, like the sap, is the source of all the ‘fruit’ which […]

Cursed be the one who does the Lord’s work negligently, and cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood (Jeremiah 48:10). Jehovah speaks through Jeremiah the prophet to Moab, a wicked idolatrous nation to the east of Israel, which had a long history of causing God’s people trouble. He pronounces woes upon them, […]