Other
On Prayer and Preaching
In my opinion, prayer undertaken before, during, and after the public ministry of the word affects the quality and power of the word that goes forth, without which we miss the fullness of God’s intention.
Opposing Views on the Death of Jesus
Are they aware that in the process of denial in dismissing the veracity of the gospels, they are in one fell swoop negating the creed of hundreds of millions who have predicated their faith [its suffering, sacrifice, and martyrdom] on just that basis?
Paul’s Vehement Opposition to Legalism
The Apostle Paul said that the Law was holy and good, but he spoke strongly to the Galatian believers who were including some aspects of the Law to their faith in Jesus.
Peace Be Unto You
I have to say that the most positive benefit of my Seminary experience was the discipline of being required to remain within a text. It made me realize that up until that time, I had conducted myself with a certain kind of charismatic and prophetic liberty, finding a scripture here and there to make my point, but something of a very remarkable kind happens when you confine yourself within a text, and don’t go unnecessarily outside of it to make your point, and let the Lord speak to us about that text.
Princess Diana’s Funeral: A Prophetic Comment
I think that it behooves the Church to attempt some evaluation or critique of the remarkable and unprecedented world-wide response to the untimely passing of this lady. No figure of international prominence has known such adoration or received such tribute and evoked such sorrow in passing as she.
Psalms 56 and 57: The Heart of Davidic Worship
Both of these psalms are psalms of persecution; one is about persecution from the Philistines, and the other is about persecution from Saul.
Reclaiming the Gospel
The very reduction of Paul’s glorious gospel to a formula for salvation to those who “accept” the Lord almost assures that what will follow will itself be nominal and fall short of the light of the glory which Paul proclaims.
Reconsidering John 11 in the Context of Isaiah 49
They wept for what they thought was irretrievable loss; He wept for their weeping—not understanding the sovereignty and purpose of God in the death of their brother. Should they not have suspected by His inexplicable but calculated delay a purpose in that death in keeping with His previous words to them of His role in Israel’s eschatological destiny?
Righteousness Exalts a Nation:
How prohibitive of any faith and hope for change is there in the oppressive realities that prevail in Africa. Yet our encouragement to the saints there was that the gospel is God’s answer in the otherwise foreboding conditions of poverty and the omnipresent struggle for subsistence everywhere visible.
Running the Race: ‘Smarty Jones’ and the Defeat at the Belmont Stakes
“Let us run the race that is set before us” in all patience and endurance, having something in reserve, not prematurely expending our necessary resources, keeping a wary eye out for the unforeseen and unsuspecting on our blind side, considering the entire distance always longer than we had at first thought, however a fraction physically, much more, infinitely longer when spent! Let us not be drawn into competitive bursts to assure our primacy, considering Him whose ‘mount’ we are in whose nail-pierced hands our reins are held. Let Him fully control our head and mouth, sensitive to His restraint, however light His touch. The race is His not ours. Putting aside the sin that so easily besets us, let us run so as to win.
Some Comments on the Tragedy of September 11, 2001
The Shaking of All Things That Can Be Shaken There has been a great fall. More has come down than the great towers of the world’s financial center; it is the world itself that can never again be the same. What security, confidence or trust can mankind be assured when even its impenetrable symbol of […]
Some Pithy Statements
Idolatry is any religious practice that gives mankind a measure of religious and emotional satisfaction, and that alleviates their conscience and requires nothing from them. Religion is the propensity of men to take the holiest things of God in all of their well-meaning intention, and so to transfigure them as to rob them of their […]
Some Thoughts on the Law and Grace
In my conversations with my unsaved rabbi friends, we frequently reach a snag. Though we are totally dedicated in our pursuit of the same God—I by grace, and he by Law—it is difficult for me to express why I am unable to “keep the commandments” he thinks incumbent upon any who profess to believe in God.
Star Wars ‘The Phantom Menace’: An Ultimate Idolatry?
I wonder how many share with me the irritation of entering a public place to be confronted with life-size cut-out grotesques publicizing Star Wars and products linked to its promotion? This omnipresent mass-market overkill inundates the community, invades our privacy and gives no relief to those of us who despise the whole unsolicited entertainment-marketing blitz!
The Fire of God’s Judgment
A powerful cry of God to sound the trumpet call of repentance in the light of His soon coming judgment with a fire that cannot be quenched.
The Gifts of the Spirit
In 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, the prophet Jehaziel is moved by the Spirit to prophesy (v.14-17). In this incisive event in the history of Judah, we catch a glimpse of the utter, life-saving consequences of the gifts of the Spirit.
The Gospel in its Cosmic Setting
When you hear the word gospel, you need to think in terms of a cosmic overview of God’s supreme wisdom of a redemptive kind for the whole of mankind. The gospel is more than a little truncated formula. Paul speaks of “my Gospel.” There is a sense of affectionate, personal devotion to the great message […]
The Ministerial Mystique
One of the greatest dangers facing anyone in ministry for the Lord, be it a worship leader, a pastor, a missionary, a Sunday school teacher, is that an unconscious affectation can creep in unnoticed. It is where a person takes on a style or role that they have adopted for themselves over a course of time.
The Mystery of Marriage
INTRODUCTION For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and […]
The Radical Kingdom of God: Conventional Christianity or Biblical Faith?
There is a remarkable indifference in the earth to the fact that this planet was visited by God. I think we just have to recognize that we are in a kind of sleepwalk, a stupor; the god of this world has blinded the minds, not only of those who do not believe, but also of those who only nominally believe.