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JOHN BUNYAN AT THE FUNERAL OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER There could be no greater contrast then the funeral services of the Queen Mother and that of her grand-daughter-in-law, Lady Diana the Princess of Wales. The Order of Service for Tuesday 9 April 2002 at 11.30 in Westminster Abbey has just been […]

WINDOWS ON SIBERIA Nizhnivartovsk Vladimir Radzihovski (31) and his wife Oksana (30) came to this oil rich city of NIZHNIVARTOVSK in 1993 at the invitation of Joseph Bondarenko, the leader of the original mission to western Siberia in 1991. The city now has 300,000 inhabitants and was founded in 1972 following the discovery of huge […]

PAY FULL ATTENTION! ‘If no sin was unpunished in the Old Testament, how can any be in the New?’ Every good preacher should be able to state things as succinctly as the writer to the Hebrews has done; but no preacher worth his salt is content with doing only that. He knows that things have […]

WHY DO WE DO CONTINUE IN OUR MINISTRIES? “The ministerial work must be carried on purely for God and the salvation of souls, not for any private ends of our own. A wrong end makes all the work bad as from us, how good whatsoever it may be in its own nature. It is not […]

KEEPING THE SABBATH DAY Doing the Day “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work…” What do you do with the day the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8-11) calls us to keep holy? It would seem that many Christians would prefer not to think about it, […]

THE ORIGIN OF THE CLERICAL COLLAR When did Anglican ministers start to wear “dog collars” on a regular basis? In 1976 the Church of England’s Enquiry Centre produced an A4 sheet concerning the use of the “dog collar” among the clergy. Apparently, it had been invented, they said, quoting the Glasgow Herald of December 6,1894, […]

MEDIEVAL MISTAKES We could well do with a Luther redivivus today Sinclair Ferguson Althought provoked by the indulgences peddled by Johannes Tetzel, the very first proposition which Luther offered for public debate in his Ninety Five Theses put the axe to the root of the tree of medieval theology: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus […]

A WARNING AND A CHALLENGE Never, never he afraid to hold decided doctrinal opinions We cannot withhold our conviction that the professing Church is as much damaged by laxity and indistinctness about matters of doctrine within, as it is by sceptics and unbelievers without. Myriads of professing Christians nowadays seem utterly unable to distinguish things […]

ON READING BOOKS I thought it might be advantageous to delineate how I myself read books. I don’t presume to be a reader or bibliophile superior to all of our readers (I am certain that a number are quite superior to me!), but I believe it will be helpful to some who are perhaps looking […]

LITERATURE IN TAMIL The 1689 Confession of Faith (3000 copies) and the Children’s Catechism (2000 copies) was printed in South India two weeks ago. Already, 200 copies have been sold and more orders keep coming. 200 copies will be sent to Sri Lanka as well. We are in the process of informing the churches and […]

THE REFORMED CONFERENCE IN MANILA Over the years the conference has proved a tremendous catalyst for change, introducing men who would otherwise never have heard them to the doctrines of grace I am only now beginning to feel human again, having left Manila at 11p.m. local time on Sunday. I was already tired after preaching […]

TRUTH IS THE CURRENCY OF OUR LIVES Whatever else Christians are to be, they are to be men and women of integrity I recently heard the following cynical quip: How can you tell when a politician is lying? When he opens his mouth. People are increasingly disillusioned with politicians and the whole political system. The […]

ENCOURAGING YOUNG MEN FOR MINISTRY Can we speak a word to a young man who is walking with Christ and has enough of an overflow to give to others? Probably each of our churches has at least one young man who has shown some interest in the gospel ministry. How can we encourage them? How […]

A REFORMED CONFERENCE IN CUBA It’s the second week of February and we’ve just returned from beautiful Cuba, hearts bursting with gratitude and praise to the Lord for His faithfulness throughout the trip. We left the Valley of the Sun in Arizona several hours late on January 31, due to a snowstorm in Toronto, the […]

AN OPEN LETTER TO REFORMED BAPTIST PASTORS AND CHURCHES by Ted Christman [The following letter was sent out to pastors and churches who have been primarily involved with the independent, Reformed Baptist movement in the United States. Its sad occasion was the serious moral failure of a very visible and deeply respected leader of that […]

GOD-CENTRED WORSHIP Where worship is focused upon the eternal God, and not man and his fading fashions, the numbers drawn to participate tend to remain relatively small The topic of contemporary worship continues to arise for discussion, if not debate, amongst pastors and people. One finds articles and books being written now in defence of […]

THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF THE WORD More Thoughts On Reading And Writing I’ve been thinking again about the importance of reading and writing. There are several reasons I write. One of the most personally compelling is that I read. I mean, my main spiritual sustenance comes by the Holy Spirit from reading. Therefore reading is […]

HOW TO KILL SIN A Sermon on the Mortification of Sin “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the […]

The Church of Jesus Christ has been entrusted by God with the very words of Scripure, and all those who disseminate that Word, whether from pulpits or printing presses, hold a sacred trust. On May 27, 1997, twelve men meeting at the headquarters of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs issued a statement that […]

FIRST REFORMED CONFERENCE IN LATVIA Malcolm Firth gave two lectures on Charles Spurgeon – a man read and admired by many Christians here. Just over 100 people gathered on 1st and 2nd February this year for the first Reformed Conference to take place in Riga, Latvia. Most were non-Reformed Russian Baptists from Latvia, but there […]

CREATION IN THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON It is not uncommon for Christians to feel oppressed by the heavy emphasis on evolution and naturalistic, anti-Christian sentiment in science museums. From the commentary and interpretation in many museum displays one would think that all legitimate scientists agree with Darwin, and that creation is a concept accepted […]

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD – OUR HIGHEST PRIVILEGE In our communion with God we are so prone to look first into our own hearts to see what love to Christ is there The highest privilege a Christian can enjoy this side of eternity is fellowship or communion with God. John holds out the prospect of communion […]

FEEDING SHEEP OR AMUSING GOATS The mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired. An evil resides in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its impudence that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate evil for evil. […]

ALLEN GARDINER COMMEMORATED They were the first Protestant missionaries to attempt to make Christ known to the indigenous people of South America. In Faith Cook’s “Singing in the Fire” (Banner of Truth) the heroic story of Captain Allen Gardiner is recorded, as one of fourteen biographical sketches. It is the most accessible record of that […]

OTHERS LABOURED: WE ENTERED INTO THEIR LABOURS As a congregation we inherited a living tradition of historic Christian teaching enfleshed in the lives of hundreds of people across the Principality. When I returned to Wales from three years’ study in America in 1964 I did not come into a wilderness. I came into a prepared […]