Topic Archives: Christian Living

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 140-141).1 1. When we come to be religious, we lose not our pleasure, but translate it. Before we fed on common notions, but now we live on holy truths. 2. The whole life of a Christian should be nothing […]

How blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. (Psalm 84:5) In the summer of 2008 our staff and wives enjoyed a two day retreat at a house in upstate New York. On our first afternoon there we all drifted peacefully down the Batten Kill, a […]

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 137-139).1 1. In justification we are liberated from the chains of our sins, so far as they bound us for condemnation, yea, even so far as they held us under the dominion of Satan; and this suffices for its […]

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 90-91).1 1. What is glory in this world but shame? Why art thou afraid to carry Christ’s cross? Wilt thou come into his kingdom, and not drink of his cup? 2. Dost thou not know Rome to be Babylon? […]

But someone may well say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ (James 2:18) With some fifty percent of Americans claiming to have had a born again experience, and with thirty percent saying they are evangelicals1 should we not expect a mighty societal impact resulting in a more just society, the abolition of abortion, the […]

Jeremiah’s was a very difficult situation. He had watched the spiritual situation in his country deteriorate further and further. As a prophet of the Lord, he had to declare what was revealed to him about future judgement against his people. No wonder he wished ‘that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of […]

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 82-83).1 1. The law sheweth us our sin; the gospel sheweth us a remedy for it. The law sheweth us our condemnation; the gospel sheweth us our redemption. The law is the word of wrath; the gospel is the […]

We live in a mad, as well as a bad, world. The pace of life is simply frenetic, and shows few if any signs of slowing down. One danger facing the Christian in this mad, bad world is that we become swept along in the rush and never really take, and make, the time to […]

You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22) One of the more relevant issues on the college campus today is gender identification. A growing number of young men and women are wrestling with their gender. The recent repeal by Congress of the ‘Don’t Ask, […]

Cremation has become an increasingly popular practice today, not only in other nations, but in America as well. The general attitude is, ‘It doesn’t matter how you are buried or if you are buried or what happens to your body.’ Increasingly, professing evangelical Christians are supportive of the practice of cremation, saying, ‘It doesn’t really […]

Europeans should not forget their most pressing moral issue: abortion At the close of the last century, as the reckoning was drawn up in Europe for the actions and reactions of the twentieth century, could we not have been forgiven for tending a little toward the view that we had, after everything, acquitted ourselves rather […]

Watch over your own heart with diligence, for from it flows the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23) I have known men who began well, who began their careers and families with a steadfast commitment to honour God, to be faithful to their wives and children, and to keep a lid on their fleshly desires. Sadly, […]

A little book (95 x 130mm) but a treasure if you are comfortable praying in the language of yesteryear. Although taken from the Scottish Psalter of 1595, the introduction (well worth reading) explains that these prayers based on the Psalms date back even earlier, to a French Psalter of 1567 with ‘a prayer at the […]

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8) Things began unravelling with frightening […]

Do you struggle with what to say in your prayers? Do you find that you use the same phrases over and over again? Would you like to pray more in line with scripture? Then this wonderful book is for you. Originally published in 1710, it was written by Matthew Henry, who is best known for […]

Dementia is one of the hardest afflictions of old age, both for the sufferer and their carers. When our bodies are sick, we can call upon mental resources to help us cope. The essential person remains the same. But when the mind is lost, it is our very self that is decaying. When Ronald Reagan […]

Perhaps the highest and loftiest acts a Christian can have toward God are worship and prayer. These two acts are uniquely vertical – they are the only things a believer does that are directly toward God and that directly bring him or her into relationship and communion with God. The one exception is the reading […]

One of the most sobering verses in the Bible is Hebrews 2:3 – ‘How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?’ The Letter to the Hebrews was written to Christians who were being tempted to turn back to some form of Judaism. Perhaps the pressure and cost of ‘being different’ was beginning […]

In Deuteronomy 13:8 God tells Israel to show no pity. The situation is this: a dear one, whether father, mother, brother or sister is enticing other family members ‘to go and worship other gods’. God tells Israel, ‘. . . do not yield to him or listen to him – show him no pity.’ We […]

‘But, Mum, you don’t know how hard it is to be a Christian today.’ ‘Oh, Dad, things were much simpler in your day.’ Every generation of Christians thinks it is more difficult to be a Christian in their day than in the past. Well, the present generation now has the New York Times on their […]

Luke 12:16-21: ‘And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there […]

Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he who will bear the honour and sit and rule on his throne. Thus, he will be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices. (Zechariah 6:13) One of my favorite books is entitled […]

You know what Christmas is about. A very special baby was born. That special baby is God himself, the Son of the Father. It’s not about Santa is coming to town, it’s about God is coming to town. Sometimes God seems far off, but he came down to be with us. Isn’t he kind? But […]

This book is a series of sermons preached by R. B. Kuiper in 1919. His aim is to encourage Christians to be ready for the return of the Lord Jesus. He looks at eight signs that the Bible says will take place before the Lord’s return and asks “are we seeing this sign fulfilled in […]

2 Corinthians 13:5: ‘Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?’ It is much easier and it is certainly more pleasant to judge other people than ourselves. The so-called ‘super-apostles’ were demanding proof […]