Topic Archives: Christian Living

WINDOWS ON SIBERIA ALCOHOLISM AND DRUG ABUSE HAVE REACHED EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS During September I visited Siberia again and attended the official opening of the big church in Tobolsk. I give below the latest news from the churches we are seeking to support. TOBOLSK a) During the past three months nine people were baptised and fifteen […]

WOODROW NEWSLETTER Dear Friends: This letter comes one year after the last update many of you have had from Nampula. Much has happened for which we rejoice – the arrival of two missionary interns from Malawi who have helped and encouraged us since last October, the coming of the Chiorino’s in February to assist in […]

THE NOVELS OF JAN KARON WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU READ A NOVEL WITH PAGES PEPPERED WITH PRAYERS BY THE PROTAGONIST? Many American Christians are enthusiastic about the novels of Jan Karon, and it was in the USA that we first came across them, but we obtained the Penguin boxed set of the best-selling […]

IN THE MIDDLE OF WONDERFUL, YET CONFUSING TIMES A total of 811 persons attended the XVII Annual FIEL Leadership conference in Brazil. Adhering to the theme “Grace, marvelous grace” pastor Jim Orrick from Kansas City and author and pastor Brian Edwards of London brought sixteen challenging messages directed to the hearts of hearers who had […]

‘THOU’ SHOULD BE PRESERVED IN HYMNS If some hymn-writers today are more at peace and more conscious of God’s glory using the pronoun ‘you’ in hymns then we have few objections to their doing so and can sincerely sing good modern hymns and metrical versions of the psalms and paraphrases referring to God as ‘you’, […]

WHY I DO NOT SAY, “GOD DID NOT CAUSE THE CALAMITY, BUT HE CAN USE IT FOR GOOD.” Many Christians are speaking this way about the murderous destruction of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, “God did not cause it, but he can use it for good.” There are two reasons I do […]

JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS Charles Spurgeon July 12, 1885 There is a judgment also passing upon nations, for as nations will not exist as nations in another world, they have to be judged and punished in this present state. The thoughtful reader of history will not fail to observe, how sternly this justice had dealt […]

PRIDE AND THE REFORMED CHURCHES Of all the dangers that can overtake a Reformed church pride is surely the worst and most serious. There is, of course, a right kind of pride, a thankfulness to God for our history or heritage. But the pride I am thinking of is that ugly, self-righteous, self-preening brute that […]

GOD BLESS AMERICA Forty years ago this month, on Labor Day 1961, the German cargo boat Carl Fritzen, which I had boarded at the Liverpool docks 11 days earlier, began its entry into Chesapeake Bay. We sailed past the beach where the Jamestown settlers had landed in 1607 where they gave thanks to God on […]

TERRORISM, JUSTICE AND LOVING OUR ENEMIES September 12, 2001 Someone asked me after our Tuesday prayer service in response to the terrorist attack, “Can we pray for justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time?” The answer is yes. But let’s start with or own guilt. Christians know that if God dealt with […]

SPIRITUAL REVIVAL THE WANT OF THE CHURCH Charles Haddon Spurgeon “O Lord, revive thy work.”Hab., iii. 2 ALL true religion is the work of God: it is pre-eminently so. If he should select out of his works that which he esteems most of all, he would select true religion. He regards the work of grace […]

BOOK REVIEW THE PRAYER OF JABEZ: BREAKING THROUGH TO THE BLESSED LIFE By Bruce Wilkinson (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2000, hardcover, 93 pages). How many of us have ever heard of The Prayer of Jabez? Had we asked this question a year or so ago most people would have answered with an embarrassed shrug […]

THE CHURCH IN NORTHERN RUSSIA In a recent edition of the Spectator (28 July 2001) Anne Applebaum describes a visit to Vortuka, north of the Arctic Circle where roses do not grow. There are no daisies or lilies; no sunflowers or geraniums, just a few wild flowers which spring up in the very short, very […]

KNOWING AND SERVING GOD A personal testimony (For over twenty years Neil Richards has had a most blessed ministry in Wheelock Heath Baptist Church in Cheshire. He has finally retired from the pastorate, and this is the letter he wrote to his beloved congregation at the end of July 2001). In the Evangelical Magazine of […]

BOOK REVIEW WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE? by Philip Yancey, (Zondervan, 1997) “Grace [is] ‘the last best word,’ the only unsullied theological word remaining in our language.” (p.232) So writes Philip Yancey in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Other words, like love and charity, for instance, have all but lost their original theological […]

THE RICHES OF SPURGEON ONE While the true greatness of a preacher will only be revealed at Christ’s tribunal, I would join my opinion with those of many others who make the earthly judgment that Charles Spurgeon was the most effective and useful of preachers since the days of the Apostles. Yes, as highly as […]

SHOULD WOMEN SERVE IN MILITARY COMBAT? Does the church have Scriptural warrant to claim that women should not serve in military combat? The Orthodox Presbyterian Church officially thinks so, but delegates to the OPC’s 68th General Assembly in Grand Rapids in June were hardly unanimous in their decision. Instead, a study committee commissioned to examine […]

THE GRACE AND DUTY OF BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED DECLARED AND PRACTICALLY IMPROVED. by John Owen Found in Volume 7 of the Works, and published by the Banner of Truth Trust. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 Set your affection on things above. Colossians 3:2. LONDON: 1681. Prefatory Note An Outline:- Preface […]

AN ARGUMENT FOR LEARNING By Pastor Jim Elliff Wise men store up knowledge…Proverbs 10:14a One of the immense edifices on the skyline of Christian history over the last hundred years was the eminent leader, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (1899-1981). He is noteworthy not only because he was a great preacher and the pastor of Westminster […]

One of the most staggering verses in the Bible is surely Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are the called according to his purpose.” What is so breath-taking is the scope of Paul’s conviction, “in all things,” and the unbounded assurance […]

For years before the Second World War and for another 15 years afterwards the one shop in the United Kingdom which stocked and distributed Reformed literautre from the USA was the Evangelical Book Shop of Belfast. This was through the energy and vision of W.J.Grier, that holy happy pastor and one of the first trustees […]

BUSINESS HINDRANCE A MEMBER of my congregation, a young man who was an apprentice, became attentive to the subject of religion; and, finally, his convictions became very distressing. I had many conversations with him. It all appeared to be in vain. He continued in his distress, without hope, and almost in despair. One day he […]

by Dr Mary Haynes A few years ago, I was working on a mobile clinic in western Kenya. Returning from one of our many tours, we found a desperately sick woman lying across the road. Her condition was critical so we drove her to the nearest government hospital, five hours away. When we arrived she […]

Roger Beckwith A Sermon preached at the Burial service of the Reverend John Herbert Algar, vicar of St Martin and St. Paul, Tipton, at St Paul’s church, on 19th February 2001 My text is the concluding verse of the lesson just read in the Prayer Book Burial service, 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, […]

An elder preceded the minister into the pulpit and then came to the front and addressed the congregation. “Last week…a child was bored in the service.” A gasp went through the congregation. Men looked at their feet, women cried quietly, and children went white. “The church officers are meeting with the minister during the week […]