The Plodding Preacher

Two little lines I heard one day, Traveling along life’s busy way; Bringing conviction to my heart, And from my mind would not depart; Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Only one life, yes only one, Soon will its fleeting hours be done; Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet, And stand before His Judgment seat; Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. C. T. Studd

This is an excellent article on a topic from which we too often shy away. The Cure for Shame Article by Sammy Rhodes September 2014   " Shame. Boatloads of shame. Day after day. More of the same. Blame. Please lift it off. Please take it off. Please make it stop ." Those words are not just the lyrics to a famous Avett Brothers' song, they are also words under which a lot of us live. To live in this world is to experience shame. Boatloads of shame. Shame is a word that's hard to describe. We've all experienced it on some level. It's the feeling you get when you suddenly realize you're underdressed for a party. When you show up late to a meeting thinking you're right on time. Or when your card gets declined buying coffee at Starbucks for your financial advisor. That last one hits a little too close to home. Then there's the shame that never gets spoken. The kind that involves things done in secret. Compulsive behaviors. Hidden st

God's agenda for our lives may be far different from our own. He cares more about our character than our convenience, comfort or cash.       Joseph M. Stowell  

All of those progressives who supported the marriage rights of homosexuals vociferously argued that such a change would not open the floodgate to other disturbing types of non-traditional marriage.  They lied. Incest a 'fundamental right', German committee says Anti-incest laws in Germany could be scrapped after a government-backed group said relationships between brothers and sisters should be legal.

We picture death as coming to destroy; let us rather picture Christ as coming to save. We think of death as ending; let us rather think of life as beginning, and that more abundantly. We think of losing; let us think of gaining. We think of parting; let us think of meeting. We think of going away; let us think of arriving. And as the voice of death whispers,  "You must go from earth," Let us hear the voice of Christ saying, "You are but coming to me."   Norman Macleod

He hungered - but He fed thousands... He was wearied, but He is the Rest of them that are weary... He was heavy with sleep, but He walked lightly over the sea... He prays, but He hears prayers. He weeps, but he causes tears to cease. He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was Man; but He raises Lazarus, for He was God. He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only thirty pieces of silver; but He redeems the world... As a sheep He is led to the slaughter, but He is the Shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also. As a Lamb He is silent, yet He is the Word... He is...wounded, but He healeth every disease... He dies, but He gives life... If the one gives you a starting point for your error, let the others put an end to it. Gregory Nazianzen, c329 - 389/390 AD

Undercover at Oprah's Tour Paula Hendricks | 09.22.14 "We come from the stars. . . . How amazing is that?" These were Oprah's opening words at The Life You Want Weekend 2014 Tour. Undercover at Oprah's Tour I know, because I was there. Oprah Winfrey’s The Life You Want Weekend Tour is drawing women like crazy, and I wanted to see what women are feasting on. What is Oprah feeding them? I figured I'd return to the office with fresh passion for why I do what I do. I got that . . . and more. As I slipped into my seat just minutes before the tour started with my pen and notebook, I asked God for compassion, wisdom, and discernment. Those prayers quickly turned toward marriages and families as Elizabeth Gilbert encouraged women to go on a quest (even if it meant divorcing their husbands, as she did, in order to "find themselves"). I prayed for Rob Bell, who, according to TIME magazine, "is at the forefront of a rethinking of Christ

R. C. Sproul on marriage: Divorce Myths:1. When love has gone out a marriage, it is better to get divorced. 2. It is better for the children for the unhappy couple to divorce than to raise their children in the atmosphere of an unhappy marriage. 3. Divorce is the lesser of two evils. 4. You owe it to yourself. 5. Everyone's entitled to one mistake. 6. God led me to this divorce. A married person does not live in isolation. He or she has made a promise, a pledge, a vow, to another person. Until that vow is fulfilled and the promise is kept, the individual is in debt to his marriage partner. That is what he owes. "You owe it to yourself" is not a valid excuse for breaking a marriage vow but a creed of selfishness.

Since my devotions this morning, this hymn has been running around in my mind.  I have not heard it in years, but it has such a good challenge.

Summer has just ended and along with it the traditional low time for charitable donations.  Our church is no exception with the result that we are significantly behind in our budget.  Further, there appears to be a persistent pattern in the reduced offerings that may portend a need to trim our budget for the coming year.  When it comes to the ministries of a local church, there is just no easy way to do that.  The alternative for many involves the pastor preaching on giving.  I resist this latter approach for several reasons. 1.  The televangelists have ruined appealing for donations in the same way the Mormons and JW's have ruined door-to-door visitation.  Although there is nothing wrong with doing either thing, some activities just have a guilt-by-association feel to them.  I am tired of the caricature that the church just wants your money.  I don't want to feed that image.  2.  I don't know how much people should give.  I rather suspect that most people, including my

Rick Cowan is a fellow pastor I am friends with on Facebook.  The other day he wrote this excellent comment about the widow. If the widow in Mark 12 ever came to our church with her last few dollars and attempted to put it in the offering plate, my first reaction would be to try with great effort to discourage her from doing so. I would tell her to keep her money and suggest to her that it is the church that should be giving to her, and not she to the church. I would try to understand her motivation and make sure that she was not giving out of superstition, obligation or under the mistaken notion   that by doing so she was earning favour with God. But, in all of this... I might also need to consider the possibility that it is not she who has the wrong understanding of the offering, but me. What if this woman came to give her last few dollars, not to the church, but to God? What if she came to give, not to support the ministry per se, but to express her trust in her Lord? What if

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away. Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away; And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more. Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more; Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more. E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die; Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die. Then in a

We should not ask, "What is wrong with the world?" for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather, we should ask, "What has happened to the salt and light?" John Stott

It is hard to believe that thirteen years have passed since the attacks on New York and Washington.  As I look back over the intervening years, I have to admit that I am dismayed that conditions only seem worse.  World leaders still appear clueless to the true nature of the threat that caused 9/11 and all of the disasters since.  People still mouth the foolishness that Islam is a religion of peace despite the 23,803 Islamic terrorist attacks the have taken place since 9/11 (see www.thereligionofpeace.com ). I am convinced that our Western liberal culture cannot face the truth because to do so would require that they admit that there is true evil in the world.  It is not lack of education, employment or opportunities that causes this terror.  It is not poverty or hunger. It is pure and unadulterated evil in the hearts of these people.  Their religion is spawned of the Devil and their hearts are controlled by wickedness.  The reason our Western elites cannot admit this reality is that

I came to Canada in 1967.  As part of becoming a new Canadian, I became a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.  (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)  However, I have had to stop watching Maple Leafs games on Saturday nights (hockey night in Canada). The reason? - I was getting so depressed by their dismal performances that it was affecting my spirit for ministry on Sunday morning.  In order to be in the right place for Sunday morning I have had to give up the Leafs on Saturday night. Kevin DeYoung speaks of the same malady from an American football perspective in this article: I don’t think being a huge football fan is automatically, or even normally, idolatrous. I’ve loved watching football as long as I can remember. It’s one of the many habits of sports fandom I picked up from my dad. Each year when I start to get sad about the inevitable ending of summer, I am cheered to think that with everything we start to lose in the month of September–daylight, heat, leaves, pool time, va

Sometimes we're so concerned about giving our children what we never had growing up, we neglect to give them what we did have growing up. James Dobson

Original work by Sacred Sandwich

WEDNESDAY •   September 3, 2014 The evangelical world, joined by no shortage of secular observers, has been abuzz about the latest soundbite of note from the Pastors Osteen — this time offered by Victoria Osteen as her husband Joel beamed in the background. It is a hard video to watch. In her message, Victoria Osteen tells their massive congregation to realize that their devotion to God is not really about God, but about themselves. “I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God–I mean, that’s one way to look at it–we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we are happy. . . . That’s the thing that gives Him the greatest joy. . . .” She continued: “So, I want you to know this morning — Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. . . . When you come to church, when you worship him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God hap

I can be a real klutz.  I have very few manual skills and I never grew out of the "tripping over my own feet" stage of life.  I have fumbled and dropped more than my fair share of balls. In other words, "oops" has been a regular part of my vocabulary. It is not only in the physical world that I have fumbled things.  I have messed up relationships.  I have prejudged people before ever getting to know them.  I have used and abused those who love me most in this world.  I have failed and sinned my way into more than one tight corner and created untold disasters.  Oops is not even sufficient for the ways that I have blown it. Perhaps that is why something Paul, our worship leader last Sunday, said resonated so deeply with me this week.  He said "Oops is never said in heaven."  Our God never is clumsy.  He never makes mistakes. His plans never go belly-up.  He never fails.  He never ever has to say oops - and that comforts me.