Posts from 2016

‘The Word was made flesh’ (John 1:14) The real difficulty lies, not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man — that the second person of the Godhead became the ‘second man’ (I Cor.…

FEED THE BODY BUT STARVE THE SOUL? “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) Jesus knew the hunger and thirst of men and women. The heart of every person in the world was created with a hunger for God. Unsaved people have ambitions. They…

THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD “I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever.” (Psalm 145:1) What do we mean when we say that there is one God? First, we are saying that God definitely exists. There are some people who do not believe in God at all. Second, we are saying that there is only one God, not two or three or one hundred. In ancient…

Praying …praying …praying … “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4) A young theological student named Prichard made an appointment with the greatly loved Rev Henry Rees of Liverpool. He recounted his interview some years later. He never forgot that time together. He was taken upstairs to the study…

Trials – a context for Joy or Sin? The notes by Joel Beeke in Reformation Heritage Bible on James 1:2-3, 12–15 are helpful. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience…” Believers are to respond to trials with joy, not because of the pain of the trials, but because of what God works…

THE HOPE OF A GRIEVING HUSBAND “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25) A UK Pastor, honouring his wife at her recent funeral, while speaking of her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, called attention to the Gospel in a simple and searching way as follows: ‘The message of the Bible challenges us to consider…

TWO SIMPLE WORDS, ONE RADICAL CHANGE “Follow Me.” (Matthew 4:19) In vv.15-16 Matthew quotes Isaiah 9:1-2 to declare that Jesus is the light of the world and the hope for all people. He then records how Jesus was “teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (v. 23). The ministry…

Reformation Sunday Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light… On October 31, 1517 Catholic priest Martin Luther posted his Disputation…on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. This act inflamed a debate that ultimately began what we now call the Protestant Reformation. Today many churches…

What value the Bible? I have a friend who collects rare Bibles. He owns a wonderful collection, with one Bible dating back to the fourth century. But my favourite is a Bible from sixteenth century England, one of the earliest printed copies of God’s Word. The top third of this Bible is covered with the blood of its original owner. My friend let me hold it in my…

Jesus is everything that we are not When Paul wrote about love in 1 Corinthians 13, he was not trying to give people something nice to read at weddings (although it is nice to read at weddings). Instead, he was trying desperately to show a church full of self-centered Christians that there is a better way to live-not just on your wedding day, but every day for the rest of…