FrontLine — September/October 2018 | VOLUME 28 | NUMBER 5 Prove It! Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22 I have a secret passion. I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and as a child of the 1970s I became a rabid Phoenix Suns fan.…
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 We know that the Spirit of God dwells within the believer. We also know that He gives us spiritual gifts for enablement to serve Christ sand produces within the believer spiritual…
The thoughtful Christian is compelled to admit that in our time there is very little true worship of the Lord. We have our so called worship services, but often even in such services, little time is given to worship in the traditional Scriptural sense. Ask the average Christian what worship is, and you will get…
We’ve discussed the fact of depression in pastoral ministry and outlined some of its causes, both from the nature of the task and from the weakness of the flesh that all men experience. Today, I want to look at ways in which God’s people can help bring encouragement to their pastors. The prayers of God’s…
It rained last night just before church. It was beautiful. The temperature dropped into the low 70’s and the cool rains fell. After a long hot Arizona summer, the feeling of a cool breeze is just wonderful. Throughout hot September summer just hangs on. It seems like the heat will never ever let go. But…
John’s six-verse letter to the Ephesian church in Revelation 2 gave several commendations to a fifty-year old congregation. They labored diligently for the cause of Christ, willingly suffered for their faith, remained steadfast despite their trials, decisively defended the truth, and separated themselves from worldly influences. The church of Ephesus looked like many of our…
My phone rang, but the call was from an unknown number. The voice on the other end was a 25-year-old man named Daniel. He had received my number from a local Christian radio station and asked if we could meet. Daniel was in the midst of some dark and lonely trials and was even contemplating…
English Standard Version Reader’s Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2018. Reviewed by Don Johnson Just about a year ago I spotted Crossway’s ESV Reader’s Bible on sale at about 33% of its list price. Who can pass up a sale? Besides, since Crossway published the ESV in this format, I’ve been curious. What would it…
Ed. Note. In the most recent installment of this series, Pastor Sweatt discussed areas of pressure unique to pastoral ministry. In this post, he describes aspects of pastoral ministry that can add to a load of worry and care. The nature of a preacher’s work opens the door to depression. What is a preacher’s work?…
Chivalry died in the 1970’s, this week’s hearings prove it. Sexual harassment, assault, and abuse have been at center stage this week. One of the little published aspects of this week’s SCOTUS hearings has been the content of the yearbooks at two private prep schools in Washington DC during the early 1980’s. Kavanaugh’s yearbook had…