The Plodding Preacher

The horrific murders in Colorado in and around a Planned Parenthood Clinic will be ammunition in the days to come for all the pro-abortion anger against pro-lifers.  The one story that I am sure the media won't cover is the that of the pro-life Christian police officer who died trying to save people at the clinic who were doing the very thing he hated.  This posting is from the blog-site Cripplegate.  The link is found in the title. NOVEMBER 28, 2015 Swasey’s Last Sermon by   Jordan Standridge Garrett Swasey was the officer killed trying to rescue people   at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs . Swasey was shot while saving people at a place he abhorred. He was an elder of a church that believed in the inerrancy of Scripture, and that abortion is evil. Let that sink in. A man who hated abortion and hated murder–who gave his life helping others–didn’t hesitate about going to Planned Parenthood to save lives. Garret...

Rod Dreher E-mail Rod   Many of us have wondered when a university president was going to stand up and push back against the student bullies, instead of grovel and coddle them. The president of Yale has not, nor has the president of Princeton. All across the country, presidents of universities have mewled and kowtowed. Until now. May I draw your attention to the words of Dr. Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University , an Evangelical school: This past week, I actually had a student come forward after a university chapel service and complain because he felt “victimized” by a sermon on the topic of 1 Corinthians 13. It appears that this young scholar felt offended because a homily on love made him feel bad for not showing love! In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable. I’m not making this up. Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic! Any time their feelings are hurt, th...

A timely quote from the late Adrian Rogers before the biggest shopping day of the year: It’s about time we stopped buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.

It is Thanksgiving Eve for our neighbours to the south.  As a result a wealth of wonderful thanksgiving material is appearing on blog-sites today.  I was really struck by this article by Darrin Patrick.  What is sabotaging your contentment today? The 6 Assassins of A Man's Contentment You have enemies as you try to live as a content man. Most of the time we think the enemies are from without—people around us and circumstances upon us. But the true enemies of contentment are within in us, which is where contentment is either fed or starved. At the heart of contentment is an embrace of the present and a willingness to enjoy the good things we have right now. These enemies distract us from the present and prompt us to either idolize or demonize our past and future. We either worship or hate the past or future, but doing so makes it impossible to embrace the glory of the contented life. The following 6 assassins are at work within you to destroy your enjoyment of the ...

“Grace has to be the loveliest word in the English language. It embodies almost every attractive quality we hope to find in others. Grace is a gift of the humble to the humiliated. Grace acknowledges the ugliness of sin by choosing to see beyond it. Grace accepts a person as someone worthy of kindness despite whatever grime or hard-shell casing keeps him or her separated from the rest of the world. Grace is a gift of tender mercy when it makes the least sense.”   ―   Charles R. Swindoll

Those outside the church expect followers of Christ to live differently, yet today many in church are chasing after the world - not to win them, but to be like them. Billy Graham

The National Association of Evangelicals and Lifeway Research have come up with four criteria for what is means to be an Evangelical as reported by Christianity Today . The criteria are: The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.  It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin. Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God's free gift of eternal salvation. How do you measure up?

“We cannot find God without God. We cannot reach God without God. We cannot satisfy God without God—which is another way of saying that our seeking will always fall short unless God’s grace initiates the search and unless God’s call draws us to him and completes the search.”   ―   Os Guinness ,   The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life

This morning I had a chat with a retired missionary.  His field of service was Africa.  During our time together, my associate asked him if had ever seen the power of Satan manifested in the culture in which e served.  He then told us about several incidents which he had witnessed where the power of the evil one gave someone abilities far beyond the human norm.  He told us the story of one of his colleagues, a single lady missionary, who was taken away and raped by a man under the devil's direct influence.  During the assault, the man moved a fallen tree that should have been far beyond his meagre strength. In my materialistic 21st century world such things seem beyond belief.  However, the real demonstration of power had not yet been revealed in this story.  I asked the missionary what had happened to the dear lady who had suffered such horror.  The answer -  she was found, cared for, and continued to serve the people of Africa. The Devi...

“Just as Christian came up to the Cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, fell from off his back, and began to tumble down the hill, and so it continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre. There it fell in, and I saw it no more!”   ―   John Bunyan

One of our chief concerns at our church lies in reaching our own precious children with the Gospel.  It is our conviction that every Christian parent's first mission field and ministry must be to her own family.  Yet many parents feel inadequate for this God-given task.  There is absolutely no reason to re-invent the wheel with each and every family.  We need to find the resources to help us with the task.  One such resource is found at http://ministry-to-children.com/ .  The stuff on this site is designed to be used in Church children's programs, but it could be used effectively in family devotions as well.  Even better, the site includes a list of the top 100 blog sites for ministering to children.

The Book Jesus Calling i s a cultural phenomenon.  It sales are astronomical among evangelicals. And it is heresy.  Tim Challies presents an excellent assessment of what is wrong with this book. Sarah Young’s   Jesus Calling   is a phenomenon that shows no signs of slowing down. According to publisher Thomas Nelson, it “continues to grow in units sold each year since it was released [and] has surpassed 15 million copies sold.” Nelson is involved in an expansive new marketing campaign that involves a new web site and daily radio devotionals.   ECPA   reports   that “Thomas Nelson began its partnership with the Salem Media group to provide 60-second daily messages on Eric Metaxas’ show, which is carried on more than 100 stations nationwide and worldwide on SiriusXM Radio. The   Jesus Calling   radio devotional reaches more than 500,000 people each day through these segments.” With 15 million copies sold, it has marched its way into rare...

Christian Forgiveness does not : Say that it doesn’t matter Pretend that we have not been hurt Simply obeying a command to do so Simply “forgive & forget” Find an excuse for what has been done Gain peace at any price (sometimes involves a conflict) Leave it with God (i.e. in a way that avoids personal responsibility) Always end in complete reconciliation (between the people involved) Come without restitution Christian Forgiveness does : Begin with an understanding of what Christ has done Refuse to take revenge (c.f.  Romans 12:19 ) Require an act of the will, not just a feeling Face reality (it is very often painful, but necessary) Accept and forgive ourselves Recognise God’s love and His justice go hand in hand Meg Guillebaud’s book, “ After the Locusts ” is a story of the genocide that occurred in Rwanda during 1994, and the following years of healing and forgiveness still taking place. Meg goes through the idea of practicing forgiveness...

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. Charles Spurgeon

This excellent article by Randy Alcorn is a worthy reminder to all parents of what's most important for our kids. The One Thing My Daughter Remembered Most about My Parenting By Randy Alcorn | November 6, 2015 Some years ago, I sat with my daughters at a wonderful father/daughter banquet at our church. Someone at the table asked my youngest daughter, Angela, what I’d done that made the biggest impression on her. I had no idea what she would say, but of course I hoped for something spectacular. :) I’ll never forget what she shared because it was so powerful to me. She said, “I remember one time when dad was harsh with me. Then a few minutes later he came back into my room, and he cried and asked my forgiveness. I’ve never forgotten that.” That’s what Angie remembered as having the most impact on her—something I had actually done wrong, and then asked her forgiveness for! I thought, Isn’t that interesting? It shows how being a good example isn’t li...

In yesterday's blog I came down very hard on liberal Pharisees in our society.  I did this because those on the left are the most oblivious to their own self-righteous tendencies.  They are the first to quote the command of Jesus "judge not lest ye be judged" even as they are standing in judgment over the people to whom they are quoting the verse.  However, my ultimate goal is not to self-righteously complain that liberals are among the most self-righteous. Rather, it is my observation that self-righteousness is a trait of our entire human species.  Whether we are on the right or the left or somewhere in between, we all tend towards the sin of self-righteousness by our very nature.  We all desire to stand justified before God and men by the standards of our own goodness.  Ironically, we want this even as we are unable to keep the laws that we ourselves force on others. The Bible speaks to this tendency in humans.  It says that all our righteou...

If there is one group that everyone can agree upon as being bad - it would be the Pharisees.  After all, Jesus' greatest conflicts all involve this religious order.  They were self-righteous hypocrites.  They loved to display their superiority to others. They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. If asked to point to the greatest example of Pharisees in our day, most people would point to some fundamentalist, conservative, religious group.  While there are no doubt Pharisees in some of these groups, I believe that the preponderance of Pharisees to day have packed up and gone to Hollywood.  There are also an enormous number who have settled comfortably among the faculty at universities and college across our lands.  There has been a transition from the day of Christ.  In his day, Pharisees were conservative.  Today they are liberal. "But wait a minute," you might say.  "By definition Pharisees are conservative."  Real...

Christian blogs are positively a-twitter with anticipation of the second coming.  Writers are excited.  They are waiting with bated-breath.  They are jumping at any little rumours and sharing them ecstatically with one another. I wish I was talking about the Second Coming of Jesus. The Christian blogosphere is a-boggle with the coming of the Star Wars franchise or with the supposed return of the next edition of the Star Trek enterprise.  Listen - I confess to being a geek.  I like sci-fi as much as anyone.  Yet, I find myself deeply troubled by the breathless worship by so many Christian bloggers concerning these franchises.  Do we  have even a fraction of this kind of anticipation for something truly important like the second coming of Jesus? 

I believe the Bible is the word of God from cover to cover. Billy Sunday