J.A. Wylie was a pastor and author who lived in the nineteenth century whose greatest work is the three volume masterpiece “The History of Protestantism.” The first book spends a small amount of time examining early Christian history and how the purity of the original church gave way to the corruption of the Catholic system.…
Last Sunday was Father’s Day. My son spent his morning in our church’s preschool program while my wife and I enjoyed the service. When the service was over, my son came bounding into the auditorium just overflowing with excitement, holding something behind his back. He came to me and told me he had a surprise…
I know so little about love. This thought occurred to me just a few weeks ago and I began to look at love to see what it is and how I can learn to love more and love better. It is no great mystery that the Bible places great emphasis on love. The word “love”…
Matthew 18:19 and 20 are oft-quoted verses that most of us know by heart. Verse nineteen is the favorite of the Word of Faith so-called Christians. It reads “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father…
I was about 18 years old the first time I saw a dead person. My grandmother had unexpectedly suffered a massive heart attack and died just a few days earlier, and now the family was given the opportunity to say “goodbye” to her before the funeral. We were ushered into a room in the funeral…
There has been some controvery in the Forum since I posted my article about How To Hear God’s Voice. Perhaps controvery is overstating it, but people have been asking what I mean by “God’s voice.” This gives me the opportunity to write about something I’ve been meaning to say for a while now. Two Christians…
I sometimes wonder how many people really “get it.” How many people who profess Christ really, truly understand what the Christian life is all about. We love to use little catch-phrases like “I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ” but what does that really mean to us? How many people had personal relationships with…
A few weeks ago I posted a little article about my dad I entitled Working Man Hands. It was dad’s birthday yesterday and in honor of the occasion (the family is celebrating tomorrow) I have touched the story up and am going to post it again. I’m sorry I can’t be there to help celebrate…
There are only a couple of weeks remaining before the US Open takes the spotlight in the world of golf. One of just four major tournaments in the year, it is almost always an exciting one to watch. And as usual, the golf world is already buzzing about Tiger Woods. It seems he has been…
A few days ago I posted a link to the story about the Duggar Family who is celebrating the arrival of their fifteenth child. Though it did not generate much buzz here, in other places across the Net the story became a hot topic as people debated the appropriateness of having fifteen children. The most…
I found the following list on Shane’s Site and thought it was really well done. It is a list of questions the author recommends one asks when searching for a new church home. As I read it a lightbulb went on in my mind. Far too often I think we are a bit embarrassed to…
In our home church (ie. Bible study) we have been studying evangelism over the past four weeks. One thing we seem to keep coming back to is the difference between what our work is and what God’s work is. I guess we often get confused between the parts of the process that God holds us…
I allowed myself some time to reminisce this afternoon. I found myself doing nothing important (just driving to my computer supplier) and soon was drifting off into my memories. I began to think about my high school days and one memory in particular brought a smile to my face. I attended Guido de Bres High…
I found an interesting list of quotes from some of the great Reformers and spiritual giants of the past concerning the Roman Catholic Church. I will post them below for your reading [dis]pleasure. As you read, remember that we may have lost site of the meaning of what the word “antichrist” means. We most often…
Like most boys my father was my hero when I was a child. You would have had a difficult time convincing me that there was anyone smarter, faster or stronger than my dad. I really did believe it when I told my friends that “my dad can beat up your dad!” And it may well…
It seems that the idea of repentance has fallen out of favor in the church today. We love to stress decisions, worship, faith and growth, but seem to leave out one rather critical aspect of the Christian faith. We need not look far to find people who confess Christ, yet continue to live in ways…
I have been doing a lot of thinking about the nature of men’s relationships with each other. One of the more vivid examples I know of that illustrates the way men interact is found in Bill Perkins’ book When Good Men Are Tempted. I will include an excerpt from the book: In his best-selling book…
This morning in my Bible reading I came across one of my favorite passages in the entire Scripture. It is in Acts 9 and involves just two people – the disciple Ananias and Saul. Saul, notorious for persecuting Christians, has departed Jerusalem after obtaining a letter granting him authority to arrest any Christians he finds…
Have you ever stopped to consider what it must be like to work for Hallmark or another of the companies that creates greeting cards? Imagine spending your whole day attempting to come up with wonderful statements of deep feeling – love, remorse, sympathy – yet without feeling any of the emotions. Imagine having to write…
One of my long-time favorite shows on television is The Antiques Roadshow. It is a show that has been a staple on PBS for many years and on British television for longer than that. The show affords people the opportunity to bring their antique possessions, whether furniture, paintings, toys or anything else, and have them…