Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! (2 Samuel 12:7). Pastors always hear the horror stories of the “other guy” who does this—the smaller the church, the worse it is. Someone in the church is sinning, or doing something of which the preacher does not approve. So he addresses it in a subtle…
Football season is in full swing. Players and fans of all ages are counting on exciting plays and victories. I am not much of a football fan, but I am a fan of both history and good stories. When these coalesce against the backdrop of football, I can be a fan. Take, for example, the…
I sat on a colorful straw mat and looked around at the faces of thirteen newly-baptized believers eagerly waiting for me to lead them the next step toward becoming a fully-functioning church. Life in the provincial town of Pursat in 2006 was still hard for these first-generation Cambodian Christians. Most were uneducated. Although we were…
The Old Testament book of Jonah, though written in a distant time and place, offers an important message for believers living in America today. It highlights God’s heartfelt compassion for the people of an unbelieving, hostile world. It also highlights – with sharp contrast – how his own people easily fail to share his compassion,…
In part one, “What is a Bible Worth?” Pastor Harding described a “Martyr’s Bible” and how it came to get that name. The history of Bible translation is soaked initially in martyr’s blood. The commitment of martyr’s unto death for the Word of God is testimony to the importance of the doctrine. In today’s brief…
Benny Hinn made news this week (here) renouncing the cornerstone teaching of the Prosperity Gospel—the giving for blessing concept that faith preachers use to enrich themselves at the expense of greedy or desperate followers. Hinn has come under increasing pressure, especially from elements of evangelicalism willing to call the Prosperity Gospel heresy. One of Hinn’s…
Hope—the word itself has such a positive reputation that there is no shortage of helpful quotations about it. In 1969 Hal Lindsey wrote The Late Great Planet Earth. Israel’s Six-Day War had provoked a renewed interest in prophecy, and Lindsey’s popular style made his book a sensational bestseller. Recent tensions in that region have helped…
“Never judge a book by its cover” is a warning against premature judgments. The truth of this proverb has never been reinforced more aptly than when one gazes at the cover of an English Bible printed in 1537 in Antwerp. The leather cover is discolored and torn. There is nothing attractive about it. One is…
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh… Romans 9:1-3 The statement made here…
With the opening line of John 17, John shifts abruptly from teaching to praying. Having devoted four chapters to giving us the lessons Jesus taught the night before his crucifixion (John 13-16), he then turned his attention to an extended prayer which Jesus offered to the Father on that fateful night (John 17). This prayer…