Archive for August 2015
Preaching the Gospel
Matt Recker It seems strange to say that a missing element in much preaching is Jesus Christ and His gospel of grace, but I believe it is so. Even in my own experience, I have found that I can preach on Christian living, worldliness, the decaying culture, church growth, or a host of other topics…
Read MoreThe Evangelist and His Ministry
Phil Shuler Enough books have been written about the earthly ministry of our Lord to fill the average library, but the ministry of Christ beyond His death, burial, and resurrection can be pretty well summed up in John 16:7–11. In John 14:16 Christ explains why He must ascend unto His father, but he promises to…
Read MoreOut of the Will of God?
George Stiekes Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:17 How do you know when you are out of the will of God? John 13 through 17 records a very intimate relationship between Jesus and His disciples. These chapters contain the farewell discourse of Jesus just prior…
Read MoreSermon and Song: A Vital Duet
Kurt Woetzel Does your church have a “good spirit” about it? That question has a measure of Scriptural basis. Christ said, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). One of the practical functions and purposes of music in the church…
Read MoreA Good Soldier of Jesus Christ (2)
Mark Minnick [From yesterday’s introduction:] It would be hard to find any preachers of the last two centuries any more acquainted with outright warfare for Christ than Charles and his brother John. Their earliest journals are not only almost monotonously replete with references to it, but often the entries nearly spurt blood. Here are samples…
Read MoreA Good Soldier of Jesus Christ (1)
Mark Minnick We have a full thirty of them in our church’s hymnbook: songs by Charles Wesley. But it would take nearly eight hymnbooks of equal size to hold all the church songs Charles wrote. They amount to over six thousand, ten times those of Isaac Watts. So it’s understandable that we might envision that…
Read MoreOn First Seeing my Child’s Face
Joel Arnold Last week I saw the face of my third child as she came into the world. As with our two sons, we decided to wait on finding out the gender until birth. And when my wife held up our child and announced that we had a daughter, my world turned upside down.
Read MoreBe Not Deceived
D. L. Moody We have all lived long enough to know what it is to be deceived. We have been deceived by our friends, our enemies, our neighbors, our relatives. Ungodly companions have deceived us. At every turn of life we have been imposed upon in one way or another. False teachers have crossed our…
Read MoreMinistering among Illegal Immigrants
David Shumate Those with opportunities to minister to immigrant groups are often confronted with the question of illegal immigration. This social and political problem often complicates what would otherwise be a straightforward ministry response. Although the problem most often involves people from Latin America, it is an issue that applies to other groups as well.…
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