The Plodding Preacher

“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

George Mueller, nothing. The Lord Jesus, everything. In himself worse than nothing. By grace, in Christ, the son of the King. George Mueller

There is one common denominator in all religions made by human beings - works.  All of them preach that we must do something in order to earn eternal reward.  True Christianity is different from all religions in this striking point.  It teaches that it is not what you do, but whom you trust that determines your eternal destiny.  It is not what you do, but what Jesus did that earns salvation.  As we come to the Easter Season, we ought not to focus on what we bring.  Instead, our attention and adoration must be upon Jesus the author and finisher of our faith!  Nothing in my hand I bring Simply to Thy cross I cling. Rock of Ages

It always amazes me how Scriptures that I have read a thousand times have truths that I have missed over and over. Recently, I was reading the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). All my life I have assumed that the term "prodigal" refers to the younger son's leaving the father's home. I had always thought that prodigals were people who wandered away. Imagine my surprise when I finally looked up the word and found that it means nothing of the sort. Prodigal is an adjective that means "excessive, extravagant, over the top." The prodigal was not prodigal because he left home but because he took his inheritance and wasted it on wine, women and song. He spent excessively and extravagantly. That is why he is described as prodigal. That got me thinking. Who is the real prodigal in this story? Yes, the son wastefully threw away his inheritance through extravagant spending. However, I think there is an even more extravagant prodigal in the story. It is the f...

Over the last number of weeks, the issue of suffering has come up several times. Specifically, the question of why Christians suffer has been at the forefront of our thoughts. Finding a comprehensive answer to this question has always troubled believers. It is too easy to latch on to one answer and then limit God's work to our theological construct. At times, we easily fall into the formula of "Do good, get blessed; Do evil: get cursed." Unfortunately, we all can immediately cite examples where those who do good aren't blessed, and those who do evil seemingly are blessed. Indeed, many of the formulaic approaches to suffering hit this snag. There are exceptions to the formula. Where do we find a comprehensive explanation for suffering? Well, let's start with our title. It is taken from the title of a well known book from a number of years ago. It is a question that is repeatedly asked. However, it is wrong in its basic formula. Bad things don't happen to ...