The Plodding Preacher

by   Jordan Standridge A while back, I wrote an article on   truths we’re keeping from our youth groups . While the response was positive, some people wrote back desiring an article directed towards parents. Parenting is one of the most difficult things God has tasked us with in this life, but it can also be one of the most fulfilling. Parents desire much for their kids: happiness, success, friendship, marriage, and many children. Perhaps the greatest struggle parents have is to balance physical needs and spiritual needs. We all want our kids to be saved, but few want their children to be missionaries, or even worse, martyrs. The youth leaders also have a difficult responsibility; they want to influence students while also respecting parents and their leadership. Sometimes he or she must tell the children to do things or think things that are different than what their parents believe, and this causes great stress and difficulty for the leaders. Here are some things...

If we never have headaches through rebuking our children, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up. - C.H. Spurgeon

I am almost on vacation.  One of my few remaining commitments before holidays is this month's missions' committee meeting.  In light of that appointment, I came across this excellent article by Karen Coleman at Eternal Perspectives Ministry. It might come as a surprise to some, but if you do a Bible search for the words “mission” or “missionary”, you aren’t going to find much. To understand the role of believers in reaching the world, we have to dig a little deeper. The heart of missions, when we get down to it, is God’s heart for lost people. It’s the Gospel, the Good News of Christ’s completed work for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection. And it’s not just for people who look like us, speak like us, or live near us.   It’s for everyone. So how can you become a more “Global Christian,” that is, someone who thinks and loves like God, who has God’s heart for the world and the lost? (Obviously, by that definition, every Christian should strive to b...

Our security doesn’t depend on our ability to stay saved, but on God’s ability to keep His promise . —John MacArthur

The following is taken from the article The Rise of Cultural Parasites by Hans Fiene. Christians Aren’t Off the Hook Granted, the liberal social justice warriors were not the only ones to inherit the “take, don’t make” mentality. For the past several decades, conservative Christians adopted the parasitic approach, convincing themselves that overtaking secular nests and repurposing them in a “Christian” style was somehow more virtuous than actually making something new. Having embraced the same mindset as many secular counterparts, Christian parents convinced themselves that creating their own unique faith-driven stories or storytelling genres, like Dante and Milton and Bunyan and Wallace and Lewis and Tolkien had done, would have been too much work and required capital and capabilities they didn’t have, so they churchified the Saturday morning cartoon nest by showing their kids videos of a talking cucumber lecturing them about honesty and fairness with a Bible verse or two thrown ...

The life of many religious people, I fear, in this age, is nothing better than a continual course of chasing after novelties. They are always morbidly craving fresh excitement; and they seem to care little what it is — if they only get it. All preaching seems to be the same to them; and they appear unable to “see differences” so long as they hear what is clever, have their ears tickled, and sit in a crowd. Worst of all, there are hundreds of young unestablished believers who are so infected with the same love of excitement, that they actually think it a duty to be always seeking it. Insensibly almost to themselves, they take up a kind of hysterical, sensational, sentimental Christianity — until they are never content with the “old paths;” and, like the Athenians, are always running after something new!  – J.C. Ryle

Yesterday's quotation from Stephen Altrogge has been on my mind for the last 24 hours.  Here is the result. I was born broken.  I was born a liar.  Lying was as natural to me as breathing.  No one had to teach me to lie.  It came naturally.  However, Jesus died for me and made me his child by grace through faith.  Now I love Jesus more than I love lying and daily I fight against the old temptations for Jesus' sake. I was born broken.  I was born a thief.  Oh, I was raised in a good home, so I never robbed banks or stole candy from babies.  Yet, I stole time from my boss.  I stole praise that other people deserved.  I was a natural.  However, Jesus died for me and made me his child by grace through faith.  Now I love Jesus more than I love stealing and daily I fight against the old temptations for Jesus' sake. I was born broken.  I was born wanting things that didn't belong to me.  From early chil...

The solution to being fundamentally broken is not to call the brokenness good. The solution is not to embrace the sinfulness as simply who I am. Stephen Altrogge from the article IS THIS WHO I AM? IS THIS WHO I WILL BE?

And no. . . this is not a confession even though I like to eat my m&m's in order of colour.  Yellow, orange, green, brown, red, blue.  What's OCD about that?

"Christ is the apex of all that is precious, the center of all that is glorious and delightful. He is the very point of existence. He is the Son of the living God, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last who was and is and is to come. "O come let us adore him!", not scrutinize, utilize, or analyze him." Jared Wilson in the article But Do You Adore Jesus?

Little Eyes Are Watching in Worship Article by Reggie Osborne II Three small communion cups, drained empty, are stacked together in my hand. My two little girls sit on my right, not so little anymore. From the middle of the country, in small-town America, they drank with me from these cups. The eyes of the world couldn’t be further from us here, a place where no politician rallies for votes, no business builds its headquarters, and no rich man invests his money. Beneath us, orange pew pads clash with the blue carpet of our sanctuary floor. A drop-ceiling sags overhead, stained from damage caused by winter leaks around the steeple base. Surrounding us are wooden panels, painted white in our modest attempt to emerge from mid-twentieth-century décor. Our little town is six thousand miles from Jerusalem, from the humble hill outside the city where Jesus died, and it seems like no one on earth pays attention to us. An earthquake could tear the foundations out from under u...

Mark Altrogge reminds us that God Doesn't Miss a Thing She hung her head in shame as she made her way toward the offering box, hoping no one would notice her. The temple treasury was crowded with richly robed people, and she was embarrassed at her own pitiful rags. The wealthy worshipers were dropping huge offerings in the box, and onlookers jaws were dropping at their largess. Oohs and ahhs of admiration could be heard as gold coins cascaded out of the donors’ bags into the box. How humiliated the widow felt clutching her two small coins. Suddenly she saw an opportunity to slip up to the box, toss in her offering, then steal away unnoticed. She was relieved that no one had observed her. Well, almost no one… And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of t...

Salvation is a call to be a missionary.   The following statement can’t biblically exist in the minds of Christians: “God has called me to salvation but not to missions.” The call to a relationship with the king is also a call to tell the world about this same king! And, this should make us extremely joyful. After all, thank God that there is more to being a Christian than getting ‘saved,’ sitting on our blessed assurances on padded pews, going to a bunch of potluck dinners, waiting on the Rapture Bus to swoop down and pick us all up to the “good ol’ by-and-by”. Shane Pruitt from the article : IF YOU’RE A CHRISTIAN, YOU’RE A MISSIONARY

Saying there is a new blogger is no great news in our day.  There are probably thousands of new bloggers each week.  This new blogger is different.  He is a man I respect.  He is a preacher that I love to hear preach.  Each time I return to my homeland of Northern Ireland, I anticipate greatly the enjoyment of fellowship with he and his wonderful church family at Millisle Baptist Church.  I am also looking forward to reading his blog posts in the coming days. Here is a taste: There is no way to get through the Christian life unscathed, there is no immunity from adversity, no free pass from the frequent pain that living in a broken world brings to our door. Anyone who tells you that trusting in Christ brings protection from problems and pain and life shattering things is either sincerely misguided, or is the cruellest of liars. Find Pastor Andrew Roycroft's blog Here

How to Stump a Liberal: Are Sex Chromosomes Real? NAPP NAZWORTH   ,   CP POLITICAL ANALYST If you enjoy stumping your liberal friends, ask, "are sex chromosomes real?" and watch them squirm. In a 2013 debate at American University, dissident feminist Camille Paglia   told a remarkable story  of an argument she had with fellow feminists in the early 1970s. When she remarked that males and females have hormonal differences, her colleagues told her that hormones are not real, they were only made up by a conspiracy of male scientists. "I felt as if I had fallen down a rabbit hole in   Alice in Wonderland ," Paglia recalled. Liberals are down that same rabbit hole today on the issue of sex chromosomes. As the transgender debate has heated up over the past few weeks, I've asked several of my liberal friends if they believe sex chromosomes are real. Disturbingly, none have answered thus far. In the current debate over transgender bathroom use, acknowle...

The Babylon Bee Benny Hinn Spends Another Long Day At Children’s Hospital Healing Kids ORANGE, CA—Most pastors are content to be simple, faithful preachers of God’s Word, and so was Benny Hinn—until he realized, years ago, that God had given him supernatural powers to instantaneously heal the sick and dying. Since the day of that revelation he’s been putting his powers to use by spending his days healing those who need it most—usually with minimal sleep and food himself. “There is too much work to be done,” he says. On this particular Tuesday he was spotted healing terminally ill kids, as he is known to do, at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. It was a typical day’s work at the hospital for Hinn, which includes healing hundreds of patients with a mere touch or a softly spoken word, song, or prayer. He refuses all gifts, donations, and “love offerings,” of course, and gently turns down all photo op attempts and autograph requests. Passing by hi...

The Trans-formation Of Women’s Sports By   ROD DREHER You knew this was going to happen one day: High school girls in Alaska are crying foul after a male sprinter took home all-state honors in girls’ track and field. According to local reports, it was the first time in Alaskan history that a male athlete competed in the girls’ state championships. Haines senior Nattaphon Wangyot–who self-identifies as a girl–advanced to the state finals in the 100-meter and 200-meter events. He won fifth place in the 100-meter dash and third place in the 200-meter. In both events, he competed against girls as young as ninth grade More from USA Today: Wangyot, a Thai native who was born male and identifies as female, qualified and competed in the Class 3A girls’ sprints at the state meet, capturing third place in the 200-meter dash (27.3) and fifth in the 100 (13.36). She also played for the girls volleyball and basketball teams at Haines during her senior year. However, Fairbanks ...

Have we not fallen upon an age of little men, who little dare and little do? C.H. Spurgeon

On Monday and Wednesday nights May through July, our church runs an amazing soccer ministry that has close to four hundred participants.  For the workers involved it is an intense, exhausting labour of love.  When I came across this article by Barnabas Piper , I though it might be an encouragement to our wonder, hard-working volunteers who make this ministry possible. 4 THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT WORK FROM A PEEWEE SOCCER TEAM My  first grade daughter just wrapped up her spring soccer season. If you’ve ever watched kids soccer you would not think there is much to learn about anything but the most rudimentary instructions. “Wrong way!” “Kick the Ball!” “Run!” Over the course of the season, though, I began to notice a few things that consistently occurred that turned the outcome of every game. Each of them is directly applicable to your work and mine. Effort is a skill and we can all learn it. When we think of skills we tend to think of nifty, maybe flashy, an...

“Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don’t have.” – John Ortberg