Topic Archives: Christian Living

John the Baptist, incarcerated in the prison of Machaerus east of the Dead Sea, sent some of his disciples to Jesus with a question, which Luke reports twice. So it must be a question to which Luke wants to draw our attention. It is the most momentous question that should exercise minds now as it […]

From the ‘one flesh’ teaching about marriage (Eph. 5:22-33) Paul draws out the wonder and the glory of Christ’s relationship with the church. In verse 28 Paul is exhorting husbands to love their own wives as they love their own bodies. It would hardly please a wife to hear her husband say that he loves […]

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. (Jonah 4:1) General George Patton was commanding the Seventh Army in the summer of 1943, and his objective was to overrun the Italian forces on Sicily in order to drive them from the war. He also hoped to make Hitler commit troops from the eastern front, […]

ChristianHistory.net recently published this little article of J. I. Packer. God’s Chemo for My Cancered Soul They called it the Victorious Spirit-filled life. You got into it, they said, by total surrender to Jesus Christ (they assumed no one does this at conversion), and then looking to him whenever you felt sinful impulses stirring. He […]

I shall speak a word on ejaculatory prayers [uttered suddenly]: 1. It has been the practice of the saints. Thus Jacob, when making his testament, says, ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord’ (Gen. 49:18), and when giving charge to his sons concerning Benjamin, ‘God Almighty give you mercy before the man’ (Gen. 43:14). […]

I have heard Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee; Therefore I retract, I repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:5, 6) On July 23, 2007 Dr. William Pettit of Cheshire, Connecticut experienced a man’s worst nightmare. On that evening two convicted felons, released two days earlier on parole, […]

Humility is a precious virtue that is highly commended by the Word of God. It is also a virtue too rarely possessed and practiced as well as too often misunderstood. The popular conception is one where weakness and mindless compliance characterize the attitude and actions of those who are humble. While it is true that […]

God’s will for all believers is unmistakable: ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Thessalonians 4:3). This is priority number two in God’s eternal agenda (his first priority being his own glory). Again and again in the New Testament this great priority is impressed on God’s people. It is the omega point […]

We all like to see progress being made. This is true in every sphere of life and activity in which we are involved. Parents are thrilled at the ongoing development of their children, as they master new skills and cope with the challenges of growing up. Teachers rejoice when ‘the penny drops’ and students surge […]

The apostle urges us to ‘Put all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, slander away from you, along with all malice’ (Ephesians 4:31). Richard Cameron, the Lion of the Covenant, the powerful Scottish Covenanter preacher of the 17th century, along with so many other preachers, was driven from his pulpit by Charles II of England. Cameron and […]

I had the privilege of teaching the Lifelearners Sunday School Class last week, and talked about the way that technology is challenging our parenting, particularly in the area of purity (and the exposure to readily available pornography). It brought to mind a good article on this subject written by my friend (and web guru) Tim […]

‘How Liberal Theology Infected Scotland’ is a deeply instructive short article1 written by R. A. Finlayson, the late professor of Systematic Theology in the Free Church College in Edinburgh. Finlayson attributed the nineteenth century infiltration of Liberalism into a confessional Church to wrong priorities by the leaders. He wrote: …not content with opening three colleges, […]

At the annual assembly of the Associating Evangelical Churches of Wales in Newtown, Peter Milsom spoke on the deficiencies of the Pharisees from Matthew 23. They began well concerned for the purity of God’s people but by Jesus’ time this had declined into a legalistic joyless form of religion without power, opposed to the gospel […]

Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word that is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear. [Ephesians 4:29] In January 1932, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and within seven years had plunged the world […]

A moral outrage is being perpetrated in this country and it seems that hardly anyone is interested. Under new legislation, human embryos will be created for the sole purpose of being used in scientific experiments. These embryos will have no chance of growing and developing into normal life. Some Roman Catholic bishops have protested. But […]

Let him who steals steal no longer, but rather let him work with his hands, performing what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who had need. [Ephesians 4:28] Max Weber, the German sociologist and scholar, in his 1904 classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, noted […]

The life of faith is not immune from the disappointments and heartaches of what Paul calls ‘the sufferings of this present age’ (Romans 8:18). God does not exempt his children from unexpected, sorely wounding providences. In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul tells us that the hardships and pressures he and his friends were experiencing were so […]

The pure in heart are blessed by their seeing God (Matt. 5:8), and those who see God see all things rightly in his perfect light (Psa. 36:9). It is therefore no wonder that the Word of God emphasizes the vital necessity of men having pure hearts, while those who believe the divine testimony of Scripture […]

. . . the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and your wife by covenant. [Malachi 2:14] Every Christian man knows pornography is sinful and that it will rob his soul of vitality, destroying his marriage and […]

What is the use of a prayer meeting? There are many uses. Believers are encouraged and strengthened; the cause of God is maintained; the truth of God is watered after it is sown; and prosperity is rained down through the opened windows of heaven, according to the Lord’s promise. In the beginning of the year […]

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. [Ephesians 4:25] I suggested in the previous article1 that we are prone to listen to the lie of the devil, namely that worshipping the creation rather than the Creator Redeemer brings Shalom, well being, prosperity, […]

Sin is a corrupting, spoiling, God-dishonouring disease. It manifests itself in a defiance of God’s Law, a rejection of God’s Son, and a dismissal of God’s church. Sin is multi-faceted. It betrays itself essentially by its self-oriented, earth-bound perspective on life. Its horizon is the stars, not the Creator of the stars. Its desire is […]

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. [Ephesians 4:25] I had the privilege recently of speaking with Dr. Peter Jones at the Connecticut Valley Conference on Reformed Theology and the topic was modern paganism. My job was simply to prepare the way […]

Over the past weeks I have been reading through The Letter to the Hebrews. It has, as ever, been a fascinating, sobering and richly encouraging read. The Letter, as you will know, was written to Hebrew Christians who had become influenced by false teaching and were under pressure to give up on Christ and return […]

The Apostle Paul writes, “But to each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Ephesians 4:7). William Farel became a true follower of Christ in the early 1520s, during the time the Reformation, under the leadership of Martin Luther, was raging like a wild-fire throughout Europe. Farel had a […]