Topic Archives: Life Issues

The translator’s ‘Introduction’ to Faith Unfeigned – Four Sermons concerning Matters Most Useful for the Present Time with A Brief Exposition of Psalm 871 by John Calvin. The last half-century has seen a steady growth of interest in Calvin’s work as preacher. The Reformer’s sermons place us at the centre of his pastoral and theological […]

One of the most striking characteristics of our era is our unassailable belief that we are better and more civilised than those who lived before us. No other age has been as enlightened, as clever, as wise, as good, as ours. We Know Better. The characteristic insult of our age is to be described as […]

This book is a reprint of a book first published in the USA in 1882. It was written to comfort Christians who are suffering. Pastor Cuyler’s daughter had just died so he wrote from experience. There are 23 very short chapters each based on a scripture phrase. Some of the texts chosen are most unusual […]

When Paul was in prison in Rome, he presumably had many needs. The Church in Philippi, now an organised body with ‘bishops and deacons’, took a special interest in him and sent to him ‘once and again’ what they felt would be useful. In his present circumstances, Paul was not able to repay them; he […]

The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground. (Genesis 4:10) ‘An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule on their own authority, and my people love it so. But what will you do at the end of it?’ (Jer. 5:30-31). […]

By the sweat of your face you will eat bread. (Genesis 3:19) In 1776 Adam Smith, a Scottish economist and Deist, a good friend of David Hume the sceptic, wrote his famous book Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations that has profoundly affected the capitalist system in our world. Smith […]

God created man in his own image. (Genesis 1:27) On the sixth day of creation, after making cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts, Elohim, in a marvellous intra-Triune council decided to create man in his own image. The word ‘image’ in Hebrew literally means to cut from a stone, much like what Michelangelo did when […]

1. Jesus Claim: Jesus had no interest in maintaining a male-female requirement for sexual relations. What the evidence really shows: Jesus believed that a male-female requirement for sexual relations was foundational, a core value of Scripture’s sexual ethics on which other sexual standards should be based, including the ‘twoness’ of a sexual union. Jesus predicated […]

Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, but the one who gathers by labour increases it. (Proverbs 13:11) Because the Bible is written by God the Holy Spirit through men whom he raised up for that purpose, it does not lie. It is infallible. It speaks truth on every issue. Ill-gotten wealth is a good case in […]

During my seven years as a campus minister, there were two different women in our ministry who became pregnant out of wedlock. In these cases, since they were associated with a group of students, it was among those students that they had most of their relationships. Of course, a campus ministry group is not a […]

I had the privilege of teaching the Lifelearners Sunday School Class last week, and talked about the way that technology is challenging our parenting, particularly in the area of purity (and the exposure to readily available pornography). It brought to mind a good article on this subject written by my friend (and web guru) Tim […]

At the annual assembly of the Associating Evangelical Churches of Wales in Newtown, Peter Milsom spoke on the deficiencies of the Pharisees from Matthew 23. They began well concerned for the purity of God’s people but by Jesus’ time this had declined into a legalistic joyless form of religion without power, opposed to the gospel […]

A moral outrage is being perpetrated in this country and it seems that hardly anyone is interested. Under new legislation, human embryos will be created for the sole purpose of being used in scientific experiments. These embryos will have no chance of growing and developing into normal life. Some Roman Catholic bishops have protested. But […]

Let him who steals steal no longer, but rather let him work with his hands, performing what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who had need. [Ephesians 4:28] Max Weber, the German sociologist and scholar, in his 1904 classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, noted […]

The life of faith is not immune from the disappointments and heartaches of what Paul calls ‘the sufferings of this present age’ (Romans 8:18). God does not exempt his children from unexpected, sorely wounding providences. In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul tells us that the hardships and pressures he and his friends were experiencing were so […]