The Plodding Preacher

 What is the point of preaching the Gospel?  Well one might say, "I preach the Gospel so that people might be saved."  For years I would have said the same thing.  The Gospel is the starting place for the life of Christ and once a person receives Christ the Gospel is left behind for the deeper truths of the Scriptures.  Only in recent years has my attitude changed.  The Gospel is not the just the beginning, but also the middle and the end of the Christian life.  As a result, I preach the Gospel to myself each and every day.  This not with the goal being saved again and again and again.  Rather, I preach the Gospel to keep my life centred on that Gospel.  I would suggest that preaching the Gospel to our selves daily is important for several reasons. 1.  Preaching the Gospel to myself daily results in daily praise to my wonderful God and Saviour.  The old cliché says that familiarity breeds contempt.  I might not go that f...

How Deep the Father's Love for Us This unique presentation of this modern hymn is striking.  However, I would encourage you to just listen to the words and contemplate the absolutely amazing love of our gracious heavenly Father. 

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”   ―   Charles H. Spurgeon

Mentoring is one of today's hot words.  Growing up I never heard the word. Yet, ironically, there was a great deal of mentoring going on in my life back then, and there seems to be a dearth of mentoring in peoples' lives today.  I am not even sure that the people who mentored me would have even been able to put a name or a description to what they were doing - they were just living out the Christian life as they understood it from Scripture.  There were the pastors such as Gordon Rendle and Victor Cornish, who gave me and other young men opportunities for service.  There was Les and Ruthann Snook who took me along as a teenager to speak at their nursing home service each month.  There were the dear senior ladies like Miss Schrag, Mrs. Erb and Mrs. Eckstein who supported and prayed for me in summer missions enterprises.  There were innumerable others - Sunday School teachers, Boys' Brigade leaders, church friends - who each encouraged, challenged, and someti...

"The will of God is not something you add to your life. It’s a course you choose. You either line yourself up with the Son of God…or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world." ― Elisabeth Elliot

Wretched Radio, formerly known as Way of the Master Radio, broadcasts a daily 2 hour program over the internet and on Sirius satellite radio.  The program runs from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and each day's program repeats continuously until the next days program begins.  Todd Friel is the host of the program and each day he covers a wide variety of topics ranging from contemporary news items to deep theological issues.  The discussion is relevant, current and often witty and humourous.  Each Wednesday's program is called "Witness Wednesdays" is devoted to live witness encounters as Todd and others try to share their faith. This is my favourite online radio program.  It is one of the few programs I have encountered that make the real issues of the faith a central topic of discussion.  While being serious about the issues, the hosts don't take themselves too seriously.  The result is a program that is willing to honestly wrestle with the issues of c...

Isaiah 53:6 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.