The Plodding Preacher

I have to admit that all the excitement over the new Pokémon game leaves an old-timer like myself wondering about all the fuss.  This article by Trevin Wax puts an interesting slant on things and certainly speaks to Gospel potential. Pokémon Go has taken America by storm. If you’ve seen people on the streets of your neighborhood peering into their phones, you’ve witnessed their attempt to catch mythical creatures that appear in various places. Pokémon Go is a cross between geocaching and augmented reality games, and the results have been astounding. As   the Washington Post reports: Pokémon Go has already been downloaded more times than the dating app Tinder, and it is rapidly encroaching on Twitter, which has been around for a full 10 years. Nintendo’s stock soared nearly 25 percent Monday because of the game — its biggest gain in more than 30 years. It’s a mania, or it’s magical – depending on your take. If you’re a parent who has questions about the game, ...

The best of men are still men at the best. Charles Spurgeon

15 things cops wish the public knew about policing You don't understand police work May 18, 2016 A question posted recently on  Quora  asked, “What do police officers wish the general public knew?” Retired Officer and PoliceOne Columnist   Tim Dees  gave his opinion on the topic, below. 1. Use of force isn't pretty.  People have been conditioned by TV to believe that a properly trained police officer of any size can take down a person of superior size and strength, quickly, almost effortlessly, without the use of weapons, and without any injury to either party. This is not true. Few cops are expert martial artists. The defensive tactics training they receive is fairly perfunctory. Struggles often result in injured joints, lacerations, concussions, and other injuries to both parties. There is lots of cursing and screaming involved. The cops usually win, but only because they can get enough cops on the scene to overwhelm the adversary. 2. Most c...

From Joni’s Hope . . . The Best of Things : I sure hope I can bring this wheelchair to heaven. Now, I know that’s not theologically correct. But I hope to bring it and put it in a little corner of heaven, and then in my new, perfect, glorified body, standing on grateful glorified legs, I’ll stand next to my Savior, holding his nail-pierced hands. I’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus,” and he will know that I mean it, because he knows me. He’ll recognize me from the fellowship we’re now sharing in his sufferings. And I will say, ”Jesus, do you see that wheelchair? You were right when you said that in this world we would have trouble, because that thing was a lot of trouble. But the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you. And the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be. It never would have happened had you not given me the bruising of the blessing of that wheelchair.” Then the real ticker-tape parade of praise will begin. And all of earth w...

May the Lord prepare us to bear up under the utmost unkindness, and hold on till the day of judgment comes. C.H. Spurgeon

One of my deepest concerns is to see men, young men in particular, who have become increasingly content with doing little in life, sometimes resulting in their wives becoming their caregiver and provider and, effectively, the sole parent of their children. Randy Alcorn

When we tell people we are going home to Northern Ireland people naturally think back to the ugliness of the Troubles.  But Northern Ireland is also a land of incredible beauty.  A view from the ruins of Dundrum castle to the Mountains of Mourne. Our wee harbour at Portavogie. Dun Luce castle.

Babylon Bee Paula White Advising Trump On How To Exploit Name Of Jesus For Personal Gain NEW YORK, NY—After it was reported that she had “led him to Christ,” sources confirmed that Paula White, televangelist and Senior Pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Florida, is actively advising Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on how to shamelessly exploit the name of Jesus Christ for personal gain. White, who has decades of experience misusing Christ’s name for extravagant monetary profit, has become Trump’s “spiritual adviser,” according to sources, and looks to leverage her expertise to help the Republican frontrunner prostitute the Son of God’s name in return for evangelical votes. “She started by reportedly getting [Trump] to say the ‘sinner’s prayer,’ which, just right there, was a shrewd move, and will get a good chunk of evangelicals to instantly declare him a Christian,” noted political analyst Michael Kelly. “She’s teaching him...

In a Q&A, Carl Trueman was asked about why churches today are losing their young people. Typical answers to this question range from things like the temptations of this world or the irrelevance of the church–your typical answers. But Trueman makes a keen and convicting connection between our parenting and apostasy. “The church is losing its young people because the parents never taught their children that it was important. I think that applies across the board. It applies to family worship, and it also applies to whether you are in church every Sunday and what priority you demonstrate to your children church has on a Sunday. If the sun shines out and their friends are going to the beach, do you decide to skip church and go to the beach? In which case, you send signals to your children that it is not important.” (Carl Trueman) Now we know that artificially taking your kids to church neither bestows salvation nor guarantees it. God is obviously not honored by ...

Here in Northern Ireland, July 11 is bonfire night.  Tomorrow, the twelfth, is the commemoration of King William's victory over King James at the Battle of the Boyne.  My observation, as an Irish Protestant who as grown up outside of the politics of the last forty years, is that there is a great memory of tradition without a similar memory of the doctrine which led to the division between Catholic and Protestant.  Many Protestants would give their lives for the tradition without any real concept of the Gospel from which their tradition originated.  That is sad. There is a willingness to fight - just no real concept of what is worth fighting for.

May we stop seeing people as black, white, brown or wearing blue & see them instead as husbands, wives, sons, daughters & children of God. Mitt Romney

These last few days, we have had a first hand glimpse of the slanted nature of human justice.  The United States has prided itself on the fact that they have no nobility.  This pride has arisen from the belief that the absence of a ruling class has removed the old prejudices that allowed nobles to get away with crimes for which the peasant class would be harshly punished.  However, we have observed that there is still a class system at work in the U.S.  Despite the FBI concluding that a certain presidential candidate was indeed guilty of gross negligence in the handling of top secret material, it was decided that there would be no prosecution for the crime.  If ordinary seaman Jones had been guilty of the same crime, he would have at least been drummed out of the Forces with a dishonourable discharge.  It matters who your are for justice. In on sense this is not true of God's justice.  All people are sinners and all will justly receive the ...

A broken person is a much more attractive leader to God, than one who doesn't know they are broken. Timothy Keller