Yearly Archives: 2004
Gospel Reading and Text: Mark 3:22-30Epistle Reading: Hebrews 6:1-9If you blaspheme my name, you may irritate me or may make me depressed. But you probably wont provoke a full-fledged counterattack to defend myself. If you slander my friend, or my relatives, or my children, you will probably get a somewhat stronger reaction from me. When […]
ReadDuring Samuel Rutherfords time in London, where he was a delegate from the Church of Scotland at the Westminster Assembly, two children from his second marriage died. He wrote sorrowfully of this to another bereaved parent: "I was in your condition; I had but two children, and both are dead since I came hither … […]
ReadGospel Reading: Mark 2:23 – 3:6 I read this past week about an interesting decision of an Appeals Court in Mississippi. A man, his girlfriend, and family members were having a barbeque at a cabin in the woods. All were drinking alcoholic beverages. The mans girlfriend became violently ill. They called 911, but after waiting […]
ReadLove Is A Duty We had been counselling with them for three months, meeting every other week, praying and conversing with them, giving them homework to do together. Baruch was doing the counselling, with Sasha sitting in as an intern and learning from what he saw. The husband was the one who initiated the process: […]
ReadI join the many who are thanking God and congratulating you on eightieth birthday. Our Lord has been most gracious to you and to His Church in sparing you these many years. Your service as Professor of Theology in two seminaries, as Stated Clerk and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in […]
ReadGospel Reading: Mark 3: 7-21There are three groups of people who can make a great impact on our lives. There are our foes. Not everyone has an enemy, or enemies, but if you do, you know that your enemy is against you. He does not wish you well, but will, if he has the chance, […]
ReadThe recent post on the Presbyterian Church of America News.com regarding a preacher who got into trouble for the length of his hair and the Hawaiian shirts he wore in the pulpit, brought to mind a story that has been circulating on the Internet for awhile. I think I have a little credibility to speak […]
ReadA review of R. T. Kendall, In Pursuit of His Glory: My 25 Years at Westminster Chapel (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2002). Iain H. Murray In the past quarter-century, Westminster Chapel, London, has been through seismic change. Either from personal experience of what it was, or from the reading of Lloyd-Jones’ literature, there are many […]
Readby James C. Goodloe IV and Robert W. Patterson You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for […]
ReadEvery conceivable grace and virtue can be found this very moment in a limitless supply in the Son of God. All fullness dwells in the God-man. The believer will find in him love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control and every other virtue you can imagine, and many we can’t. You will find […]
ReadMany things that are not wrong, but, in fact, good in themselves are inappropriate at some times and in certain circumstances. You dont wear a white dress to a funeral or a black one to a wedding. You dont act rowdy at church and you dont act reverent at a football game. You dont give […]
ReadOn February 25, 2004 Icon films, will be releasing Mel Gibson’s much anticipated film The Passion of the Christ. The date of the release was deliberately chosen to coincide with the Roman Catholic holy day of Ash Wednesday, and is indicative of the fact that for Gibson, his film was more of a work of […]
ReadAs Christian believers we face all the challenges of this life in Christ, that is, as joined to him and his illimitable resources. It is as those plugged into the Son of God that we face every obligation God lays upon us. We must endure the sufferings of this present time. We must resist the […]
ReadAt a recent Wednesday night adult Christian Education Class, the elder leading the study played for us a recorded sermon on Romans 6:11 preached on a Friday night in December 1958 by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. We were surprised and amused to hear at one point Dr. Lloyd-Jones mention that their Friday night series would be suspended […]
ReadWhen I was in my first months of campus ministry, two young men came to my house one night to tell me that a student was pregnant and was going the next morning with her boyfriend to New Orleans for an abortion. To make a long story short she ended up not having the abortion. […]
ReadBrian Robinson Pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Scarborough, Ontario I was having a cup of coffee, and an early morning read of the national newspaper, before heading for the study, when I happened to glance out of our kitchen window. ‘What is this?’, I thought, a sign on my neighbour’s lawn bearing happy smiling faces? […]
ReadWilliam Beveridge, a theologian from the 19th century, said these words near the end of his life: “The older I grow – and I now stand upon the brink of eternity – the more comes back to me the first sentence in the Catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper […]
ReadPauls farewell message to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:18-35) is warmly affectionate, yet full of solemn warning. Acts 20:28 is the heart of that message, and shows how we ministers must overcome wrong attitudes toward ministry with regard to ourselves and to our work. Acts 20:28 says, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all […]
ReadContinued from Part I of this article. So ask yourself, What are the critics saying that might help me improve myself and my ministry? Is there a kernel of truth in this particular criticism that, if changes are made, will make me a better minister? If critics say something constructive, absorb it, confess your fault, […]
ReadMalcolm H. Watts of Emmanuel Church, Salisbury Chairman of the General Committee of the Trinitarian Bible Society According to Acts 11.26 ‘the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch’ and this would have been about AD 43, some ten years or so after the Lord Jesus left this world. What the Bible does not tell […]
ReadWhen our Lord Jesus came to the tomb where Lazarus lay dead, he wept. Our Lord knew better than anyone that God is sovereign. He knew that Lazarus’ death was not an unfortunate happenstance, but part of God’s sovereign plan. He knew that everything God does is good and right. But when he came to […]
ReadThis sounds so simple. In principle it is. But in practice we sinners are wired to trust in means, not God. Over and over I devise plans, and then find my initial enthusiasm rise or fall as the plan seems smart or not. This is trust in plans, not trust in God. There is no […]
ReadMark 8:36&37 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? There was an occasion on which John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrims Progress, was preaching at Pinners Hall, London. Whenever it was announced that Bunyan was […]
ReadContinued from Part I Others destroy their souls with false religions, humanism, New Age philosophies, evolutionism, the cults, and all the inventions of men that exalt man and have no place for the saving work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They are all soul-killers. It is not enough that you are sincere. It […]
ReadLast week on Monday through Wednesday, we took a trip to Upper and Lower Galilee with Baruch and Bracha Maoz. We began early Monday morning by driving up the easternmost four-lane highway, (highway 6) in Israel. This highway is actually just inside the territory of Israel. To our right were the Palestinian territories and communities […]
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