Topic Archives: Christian Living

September 12, 2001 Someone asked me after our Tuesday prayer service in response to the terrorist attack, ‘Can we pray for justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time?’ The answer is yes. But let’s start with or own guilt. Christians know that if God dealt with us only according to justice, we […]

How many of us have ever heard of The Prayer of Jabez? Had we asked this question a year or so ago most people would have answered with an embarrassed shrug of ignorance. Bruce Wilkinson, however, the author of a popular little book of the same title, has set out to rectify that situation and […]

O Lord, revive thy work. — Habakkuk 3:2 All true religion is the work of God: it is pre-eminently so. If he should select out of his works that which he esteems most of all, he would select true religion. He regards the work of grace as being even more glorious than the works of […]

‘Grace [is] “the last best word,” the only unsullied theological word remaining in our language’ (p. 232). So writes Philip Yancey in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Other words, like love and charity, for instance, have all but lost their original theological meaning, but grace has managed even through years of usage in […]

In a recent edition of the Spectator (28 July 2001) Anne Applebaum describes a visit to Vortuka, north of the Arctic Circle where roses do not grow. There are no daisies or lilies; no sunflowers or geraniums, just a few wild flowers which spring up in the very short, very hot northern summer. The grow […]

A personal testimony. For over twenty years Neil Richards has had a most blessed ministry in Wheelock Heath Baptist Church in Cheshire. He has finally retired from the pastorate, and this is the letter he wrote to his beloved congregation at the end of July 2001. * * * In the Evangelical Magazine of Wales, […]

ONE While the true greatness of a preacher will only be revealed at Christ’s tribunal, I would join my opinion with those of many others who make the earthly judgment that Charles Spurgeon was the most effective and useful of preachers since the days of the Apostles. Yes, as highly as I regard Augustine, Luther, […]

Should women serve in military combat? Does the church have Scriptural warrant to claim that women should not? The Orthodox Presbyterian Church officially thinks so, but delegates to the OPC’s 68th General Assembly in Grand Rapids in June were hardly unanimous in their decision. Instead, a study committee commissioned to examine the issue split evenly […]

The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded Declared and Practically Improved To be spiritually minded is life and peace. –Romans 8:6 Set your affection on things above. –Colossians 3:2. LONDON: 1681. Prefatory Note An Outline:– Preface Part One CHAPTER 1. The Words of the Text Explained: To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans […]

‘Wise men store up knowledge…’ — Proverbs 10:14a One of the immense edifices on the skyline of Christian history over the last hundred years was the eminent leader, Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones (1899-1981). He is noteworthy not only because he was a great preacher and the pastor of Westminster Chapel of London, but also because […]

One of the most staggering verses in the Bible is surely Romans 8:28, ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are the called according to his purpose.’ What is so breath-taking is the scope of Paul’s conviction, ‘in all things,’ and the unbounded assurance […]

For years before the Second World War and for another 15 years afterwards the one shop in the United Kingdom which stocked and distributed Reformed literature from the USA was the Evangelical Book Shop of Belfast. This was through the energy and vision of W. J. Grier, that holy happy pastor and one of the […]

A member of my congregation, a young man who was an apprentice, became attentive to the subject of religion; and, finally, his convictions became very distressing. I had many conversations with him. It all appeared to be in vain. He continued in his distress, without hope, and almost in despair. One day he said to […]

A Sermon preached at the Burial service of the Reverend John Herbert Algar, vicar of St Martin and St. Paul, Tipton, at St Paul’s church, on 19th February 2001 * * * My text is the concluding verse of the lesson just read in the Prayer Book Burial Service, 1 Corinthians 15:58: ‘Therefore, my beloved […]

An elder preceded the minister into the pulpit and then came to the front and addressed the congregation. ‘Last week…a child was bored in the service.’ A gasp went through the congregation. Men looked at their feet, women cried quietly, and children went white. ‘The church officers are meeting with the minister during the week […]