Topic Archives: Life Issues

The other week I came across one of those sayings that sticks in your mind and makes you think: ‘An expert hits a target no-one else can hit; a genius hits a target no-one else can see.’ It struck me that there is a third level we could add: ‘the Lord hits a target no-one […]

If you would strengthen your faith to suffer great and hard things, study much the book of the Revelation, which is a standing cordial for the relief of the saints, in anti-christian times; and study and read and commend to your children, the Book of Martyrs, where you have examples to the life of the […]

The Beginning Job’s three friends could not have been more wrong. They looked at this profoundly afflicted man and concluded that by his sin he had brought all this suffering upon himself. What other explanation could there be? But there was another explanation, one that lay at the opposite pole to the one these men […]

I am very grateful to two very old and dear friends of my family. Firstly, to Iain Murray for agreeing to the publication of his address, which as far as I know has never been published before, though some elements of it are in his biography of the Doctor. Below is the transcription of a […]

The second Epistle to the Corinthians is the most personal of all Paul’s epistles. In it he tells us more of his sufferings and his anxieties than in any other. In Chapter 1 he mentions his deliverance from ‘so great a death’, which is taken by Dr B. B. Warfield to refer to his being […]

Many of us have struggled with temptations and trials in this fallen world. Some of us have been laid low, and have lost a sense of God’s love and our purpose in this life. Sinclair Ferguson discusses this sad reality and gives a couple pointers on how we can encourage believers to remember God’s love, […]

What makes you afraid? Isn’t it the sense that you are not in control? You cannot determine the outcome of an important election. Or manage the economy. Or keep politicians from making horribly bad decisions. Or guarantee your health. Or prevent terrorist attacks. Or be with your children 24/7 to make sure they’re always safe. […]

One day in mid January I was reading the newspaper that reported that a request from the late Scottish author Iain Banks had been finally rejected by the local government. He had died at 59 years of age six years ago and had wanted his ashes to be scattered in various places in the world, […]

The following article is taken from chapter eight of Rhett P. Dodson‘s new book, Marching to Zion. * * * Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and […]

A few years ago, a Christian I knew ended his life prematurely. It was sudden, tragic, and devastating to all of us—but especially to his family. Sometimes it’s hard for any of us to believe that people could do this to themselves and to their families, but the reality is that any of us could […]

Of the many video clips I watched of Billy Graham in the week of his death, one in particular has stuck with me. Preaching in Southern Seminary Chapel in 1982, Graham said that at sixty-four years old his greatest surprise in life was the brevity of life: ‘If someone had told me when I was […]

It’s exam-time. Over the next few weeks most of the youngsters who attend the church will be sitting exams of one sort or another. SATS, GCSEs, A levels, university assessments, music exams. . . From early childhood into our twenties, we face one daunting educational hurdle after another and some of us then go back […]

At the time of the Roe v. Wade decision, I was a college student , an anti-war, mother-earth, feminist, hippie college student. That particular January, I was taking a semester off, living in the D.C. area and volunteering at the feminist ‘underground newspaper’, Off Our Backs. As you’d guess, I was strongly in favor of legalizing abortion. […]

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act in the UK. Although this article was written with the UK in mind, much of its content remains relevant to any country in which abortion is considering being legalized or is already legal. * * * Anniversaries are how we mark out our history , some […]

Grieving, Hope and Solace is the title of a book written by Al Martin (cruciformpress.com, 116 pages, 2011). It comprises a series of sermons preached after the death of his wife Marilyn after 42 years of marriage. The author sent me a copy when I experienced a similar loss last year and I found it […]

The Banner publishes a number of small booklets that focus specifically on life issues and important questions. These booklets are designed to be read quickly, given away to friends or inquirers, and used to stock church bookstalls. You will find that they are relevant for readers today and can help facilitate edifying discussion. This week, […]

You might, having read the title of this, wonder what is about to follow. Those of you who know even a little about a remarkable eighteenth century Scottish minister called Thomas Boston, will, however, have immediately recognised the source of my title. Boston’s Works run to twelve volumes and contain some lengthy theological treatises.1 When […]

Percy John Henry Topping: Born 26 March 2015; died 4 April 2015. Aged 9 days An address given at Bethel Chapel, Luton by Mr. Ben A. Ramsbottom, on Wednesday, 22 April 2015 at the funeral service. Readings: Mark 10:14; Job 19:25-27; Job 1:21; Psalm 23; Jeremiah 31:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 5l-57. Hymns: ‘Sovereign Ruler of […]

Rosaria’s Message to the Church Dr. Rosaria Butterfield said it was difficult to describe her unlikely conversion to Christianity, but settled on defining it as a mix of an alien abduction and a train wreck. ‘I lost everything but the dog,’ she said. Butterfield was speaking September 3, 2015 at Central Avenue CRC in Holland, […]

Christians across the world are suffering. The media, both secular and Christian, report appalling cases of persecution on a daily basis – situations where Christians are tortured, raped, imprisoned, killed. Researchers list at least fifty countries where Christians are known to be suffering in such obvious ways. There are many others where it is officially […]

Conflict and Triumph was first published in 1874. With a pastor’s heart, the author, William Henry Green, opens up the meaning of the Book of Job. He explains the structure of the book, the role played by each of the participants, the significance of their speeches and the bearing of each part on the overall […]

God gave them over (Romans 1:28). The recent Supreme Court decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges, which redefines 3500 hundred years of legal and biblical precedent, and which mandates that all fifty states must uphold same sex unions, is a shock to the sensibilities of most Christians. Forty-eight percent of Americans now approve of same sex […]

A Response to the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage Peter said in the passage just before this one (i. e. verses 11, 12) that the good lives of believers help to win over the unbelieving world. Then he shows us exactly how this works as we do our duty to the civil government. 1 […]

The Christian church on earth is always, in a sense, in exile. Whatever the incidental identities of her members may be — whether of nationality, race, class, or gender — their ultimate identity is that they are in Christ and belong to him. Compared to the ephemeral categories that human cultures have created for distinguishing […]

What daily anxieties of spirit are there in some because of the lack of children. They have many other comforts, but the not having of this embitters all. Abraham himself was much troubled about it: Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer […]