The Plodding Preacher

Almost universally, today, December 31st, is referred to by the name New Year's Eve.  However, in the home in which I was raised, the night of December 31st was known as Old Year's Night.  For some reason it has hit my fancy this year to be more attracted to this latter designation.  The term New Year's Eve definitely has a forward looking connotation.  It suggests we are standing on the brink of something we have been anticipating.  The joy lies not in this moment, but in the potential of what tomorrow brings.  It is similar to Christmas Eve.  Everything about its celebration points to the next day - the big event it foreshadows. It seems to me that the name Old Year's Night pictures something very different by contrast.  Rather than a sense of standing at the brink of a moment looking forward into the future, it pictures a long, lingering look back over the year that has been.  It is a moment to savour the sweetness of a final taste of th...

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...

The future is as bright as the promises of God. William Carey

There has always been a tension for Christians when it comes to the Law of God.  Right back to the earliest days of the church, the question of the Christian's relationship to the Law has been an issue of contention.  As early Acts 15 the apostles had to make a decision concerning how much of the Law Gentiles were obligated to obey.  When I am asked this question, I typically answer "None of it. . . and. . . All of it."  Now in this post I want to focus on the none of it side and in a later post I will address the all of it response. When the question of the Christian and the Law arises, I find I am often faced with two false assumption.  First, people tend to assume that the Law was created by God to allow mankind to gain eternal favour with God.  The thinking goes, "If I keep the Law God is happy with me and if I break the Law God is happy with me."  Therefore, I must obey the Law to make God accept me.  Unfortunately this assumption reduces G...

The very purpose of Christ's coming into the world was that He might offer up His life as a sacrifice for the sins of men. He came to die. This is the heart of Christmas. Billy Graham

Forbes magazine put out a list this past week of the top ten professions that attract psychopaths.  Among the professions were many that one might expect to see in a list discussing people who have trouble empathizing with others.  CEO's and lawyers topped the list, with media, salesperson and surgeon rounding out the top five.  Perhaps the most disconcerting among the top ten professions was that clergy appeared as number eight on the list.  Is the ministry a haven for people who have real trouble understanding the feelings of their fellow human beings? To determine if this is true, let's begin by examining what we mean by psychopathy.  Because many serial killers are also psychopaths, many think that calling someone a psychopath means that we can expect them to lose it at any moment and go on a killing rampage.  Psychology Today defines psychopathy in more understandable terms: "Psychopathy is among the most difficult disorders to spot. The psychopath...

Yesterday my father-in-law was in a traffic accident.  His car was t-boned by another vehicle at an intersection.  He is presently under observation in hospital with a concussion. As I sat awaiting news about his condition, my mind flitted in so many different directions.  I am sure that the thoughts that passed though my mind were typical of those that others experience in these types of circumstances.  There were concerned thoughts for his health and for my mother-in-law confined to the nursing home.  There were loving thoughts for my dear wife as she hurts for her father. There were speculative thoughts about what this accident might mean for his future.  There were even selfish thoughts about why this had to happen the week before Christmas. The most productive thought of the day was the one that reminded me that there are really no such things as accidents.  Oh, I know that is the word we humans use for things that happen in our lives tha...