The Plodding Preacher

10 Stats That Show the Dire State of Christian Persecution Our brothers and sisters around the world are suffering. “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:26-27). What comes to mind when you hear the word persecution? If you are like us, your mind will instantly conjure up images of the 21 Coptic Christians kneeling on the beach with the name of Jesus Christ on their lips as they courageously faced death at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Today an   estimated 5.5 billion people   (77 percent of the world) of all faiths (Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist and others) face some form of religious persecution, including economic discrimination, imprisonment, physical violence and death. Here are 10 countries where the body of Christ is suffering. These individuals, their families ...

We are not far off of a federal election in Canada.  The choices in many ways are completely underwhelming.  Two of our federal parties do not permit candidates to run for the party unless they sign on to a pro-abortion position.  The third party has been in power for ten years and though many within the party are pro-life, when push came to shove the leadership undermined any legislation its members brought forward. We have legalized homosexual marriage.  As a nation we have legislation in place (as yet untested in a law court) that makes it a hate crime to speak against homosexuality from the pulpit.  We have kangaroo courts of human rights that can impose fines and demand sensitivity training without any legal recourse on the part of the accused.  The Toronto transit commission allows Muslims to put adds on its buses and subway cars that deny the deity of Jesus. At the same time the same commission forbids any advertising that might be considered off...

“Either we conform our desires to the truth or we conform the truth to our desires.”   ―   Os Guinness

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things. Dwight L. Moody

Nothing explicitly Christian about Pope’s speech By Denny Burk on September 25, 2015 in Christianity , Politics I just finished listening to the Pope’s speech to Congress from earlier today (watch below). There is no question that the occasion was historic—the first time ever that a Pope has delivered such an address. Indeed, it would have been impossible to imagine such an invitation being extended just fifty years ago. But the times have changed, and now the United States Congress has done something unprecedented. Nevertheless, even though the speech was historic, it was also a disappointment—not so much for what he did say but for what he didn’t say. For example: 1. The Pope didn’t mention Jesus . Not even in passing. He moralized and polticized, but he rooted none of it in anything explicitly Christian. He stands before the United States Congress—a platform that commands the attention of the world—and he says nothing about the heart of the Christian gospel. Nothin...

America is abuzz at the arrival of the latest occupant of the papal throne.  Pundits are going back and forth about whether he is a conservative or a progressive.  Progressives like his stand against capitalism and his support for the global warming agenda.  Conservatives like his position on abortion and marriage.  Everyone, it seems, is attempting to recruit him to their cause. In the flurry of excitement, it seems to me that we have forgotten what this man, and, in particular, what his office claims.  He claims to be the official and only spokesperson for Jesus Christ on this earth.  When he speaks "from the throne," he believes that he is uttering the very infallible words of God Himself.  He believes that what he speaks stands as equal in authority to the Scriptures. Yet at the same time he leads a church that still pronounces justification by faith alone as anathema.  He is part of a church that venerates Mary to the point that some with...