The Plodding Preacher

In the 150 years that Darwinism has been the accepted theory of the scientific community for the origin of mankind, it is not only the perception of God that has suffered.  A key "contribution" of the evolutionary hypothesis has been the destruction of the dignity of man.  If evolution is true then man is just an animal like all the rest.  He is not special, unique or otherwise worthy of attention.  The practical outworking of this new belief has been a litany of abuses against humanity.  Eugenics tried to breed the super man - the next evolutionary step forward.  Instead, it forcibly sterilized thousands of people because they were deemed unfit breeders.  Hitler tried to create his master race exterminating the lesser races.  Today abortion murders millions of babies, because they are not human, but "just a lump of fetal tissue." But mankind does have dignity.  We were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27).  By eliminating God from the hypothesis, man has un

"Love always takes the initiative. If there’s no welcome in the room, you be the welcomer." Alistair Begg

The following is part of an article from a post by Douglas Wilson.  The original can be read here . Jesus predicted that He would come back from the dead after three days, and His enemies knew that He had made this prediction. “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again” ( Matt. 27:62–63 ). Note what they call Him — “that deceiver.” He is a   deceiver , the liars all said, and so they had a guard posted. Those guards were the first witnesses of the resurrection, and they lied about what happened. The first congregation to hear the fact of the resurrection declared to them were these same people who paid the messengers of that great event to lie about it. Facts, even the most remarkable facts, bounce right off a hard heart.

1 Corinthians 13 Reversed Reveals Much Jun 24, 2014 | Jared C. Wilson  (original post here ) What if we looked at   1 Corinthians 13:4-8   from the reverse angle? I think it helps us put so much of our pettiness and self-interest in stark perspective and shows love as that much more beautiful. Impatience and unkindness is hatred. Hate is envious and ego-centric. Hate is arrogant and rude. Hatred is insisting on one’s own way; hatred is irritable or resentful; it celebrates sin, and it mocks what is true. Hate is whiny and thin-skinned, thoroughly skeptical, always pessimistic, a born quitter. But hatred ends . . .

I am not one who usually gets excited about growing older.  Generally, the so-called golden years aren't so golden.  However, last night I enjoyed one of the blessings of being around for more than half-a-century.  Our missions committee had the privilege of interviewing a young woman who is planning to go and serve the Lord on the mission field.  Why was this a particular joy?  This young woman is the daughter of missionaries the church has supported for around 25 years. Most of God's works are not done in a day.  Many take a lifetime to observe.  One of the joys of being permitted to grow older is to see some of those multi-generational works of God coming to fruition - to see with our own eyes the faithfulness of our God from generation to generation.

No man is to be credited for his mere authority's sake, unless he can show Scripture for the maintenance of his opinion. John Wycliffe.

The following is a transcript of a message given by Pastor John Piper.  The original can be found here . “Pastor John, do you believe there is a difference between film nudity versus pornography? I know many Christians who are against porn, but they have no issue watching movies or TV shows that show graphic nudity.” A young woman named Emily recently emailed this question to the   Ask Pastor John   inbox. A day later, Adam emailed to ask: “Pastor John, what would you say to a Christian who watches the cable TV show   Game of Thrones ?” This is a television series rated TV-MA, and has become rather infamous for its explicit nudity and sex scenes, and for graphic scenes of rape and sexual violence against women. Game of Thrones   is now the most popular series in HBO history, with an average audience of more than 18 million viewers. What follows is a slightly edited transcript of John Piper’s response in today’s episode of   Ask Pastor John . The closer I get to death and meet

Jun 19, 2014 | Kevin DeYoung  Original blog found here . What does the devil want to do with you? Does he want to haunt your house? Not likely. You’d write a bestselling book or become a reality television star. Make your head spin around? You could make a lot of money showing off that trick. Get you to carve a pentagram into your leg? Nah, not the sort of behavior that draws a big following. So what does the devil really want from you? He really only wants one thing: he wants to keep you from Christ. He wants to make you selfish. He wants you to live for your ambition. He wants you to live for your addiction. He wants you live for your ego. He wants you to live for anyone or anything that’s not Jesus. As long as he keeps you from Christ–from the true and living God–he doesn’t care how it happens. Make you sick like Job or rich like Uzzah, just so long as you forget your Creator in the days of your youth. He will be the accuser of the brethren in one breath and the lying sp

I am sitting in Glasgow airport at the end of a month long vacation with my beloved wife and children.  It has been a wonderful time.  I count it very precious that I have gotten to spend such a quantity of time with my two grown children and my daughter-in-law.  As I sit here, I am thankful, but more than a little bit sad that it is coming to an end.  As I reflect on the temporary nature of this life and our longing for an unending joy, I am reminded of the end of the last book in C. S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles and its reference to heaven. “And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at la

A vacation trip is one-third pleasure, fondly remembered, and two-thirds aggravation, entirely forgotten. ~Robert Brault

This is the Sliddery Ford Dolmen just outside Newcastle, Northern Ireland.  It is identified as a prehistoric monument dating back several thousand years.  It probably would have marked the entrance to a Celtic passage tomb.  While it is not as grand as the pyramids, it essentially serves the same purpose.  It reflects man's age-old desire to be remembered after passing from this world.  All over the world, monuments have been erected to mark man's time in this world for future generations.  Some are more effective than others. Some last for millennia, while others barely survive the person that they commemorate.  They all reflect our desire to be remembered - and they all ultimately fail. However, there is one who never forgets his children.  5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. (Rev 3:5 ESV)

by Dan Phillips (original post here ) Last Wednesday, one of those minor household accidents happened while I was away. My dear wife was readying some of her award-winning chili which, in my house, usually requires the accompaniment of corn bread. Everyone in my family loves corn bread, excepting only me. So chili needs corn bread, and corn bread needs honey. But our honey was crystallized. So Valerie popped it in the microwave and got it boiling hot or thereabouts. In transferring it, something slipped, and she poured this boiling hot honey on her hand. Both she and my boys swung right into action. What did they do? What Valerie didn't do is say "Boiling honey has gotten a bad rap all these years. At some point, uptight and narrow-minded people took a wrong turn and labeled the experience of spilling boiling honey on your hand as 'painful' and 'bad' and 'harmful.' But if we read the ancient texts right, they were talking about particular honey

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. ―   John Calvin

Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer. -John G. Paton,   John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides, an Autobiography  (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 56. That was John G. Paton’s response to an objection that he would be eaten by Cannibals if he went to share Christ with indigenous people in the South Sea Islands.   I want the perspective Paton had. Serving and honoring Christ is vastly more valuable than the comfort of this short, temporal life. No matter how nice the life, one’s body rots in the ground when all is said and done. Thus, what is ease and comfort if it takes away from honoring Christ? It is empty!

We attended Millisle Baptist Church yesterday.  It was a special service to mark the end of the year's Sunday School program.  The children participated in the service.  I did not know any of the songs that were sung.  The style was different than any service I have been a part of in the last year.  I sat in an uncomfortable chair in an overflow area of the building.  There were a dozen things that I could have complained about if I had the mind to.  But. . . God was glorified.  Therefore, it was a service worth attending. We serve a God of infinite variety.  The evidence of this surrounds us in His creation.  Yet when we come to worship, we want to limit acceptable worship to our own particular style and preference.  It is good to occasionally expand our boundaries and observe how our brothers and sisters in other places and cultures worship our same Lord. 

What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it. John Bunyan