One of the joys of today is that there is so much good fighting going on. By a good fight I mean an honest struggle between ideas and convictions. Yet there are so few who will fight. We are afflicted with moral laryngitis. We are like the lad who was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” He replied, “Alive.” That is what we want most. So we play it safe. We have become soft and fla...
It’s ridiculous what’s happening to marriage today. For every person who says, “I do,” there’s another who says, “I’m through.” With marriage, every passing day finds the distance between the marriage altar and the divorce court growing shorter and shorter.
Why is this? It’s partly due to the fact that we have been sold a bill of goods. People who ought to know better have told us that...
A man who belongs to another denomination said to me, “I’d really like to join your church, but it’s the dunking [baptism] business that gets me.”
That gets a lot of people! They don’t understand what we believe about baptism or why we do what we do. Let me explain:
First, the most important thing is to be a Christian. This is a matter of heart commitment. Without that you can b...
Life has been defined as the sum total of a person’s choices. From the cradle to the grave we face many great decisions. What is life’s greatest choice?
It is not the choice of a vocation, or education, or a mate. Life’s greatest choice has to do with God and one’s spiritual life.
The Bible presents that choice to us when it says, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua...
More and more denominations mean less and less to people. There was a time when people fiercely defended their “brand” of Christianity—sometimes to the point of being unchristian. They were often more committed to their church than to Christ.
Today most people realize that all denominations are man made—even those who say they aren’t. And all of them have strengths and weaknesses. This...
A lady said to me, “My husband has an elephant memory.” He never forgets anything—especially things she says to him in the heat of an argument. In times of anger we oftentimes say the most cutting and hurting things. We do not live together as husband and wife very long before we know what really hurts each other. Then when an argument comes up we usually strike for the jugular vein. We say the...
Do you own a Bible? If so, you own the greatest book in all the world. It is a priceless possession for which people have suffered, bled, and died through the ages. It is the inspired, eternal, authoritative, powerful word of God. In the light of its importance we ought to do four things with the Bible.
1. We ought to believe it. If you believe what you like in the Bibl...
Polish poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec once wrote: “You will always find some Eskimos ready to instruct Congolese on how to cope with heat waves.” That fellow must have had in mind the meddlesome people who are always trying to tell others how to take care of their business.
Meddling in other people’s business is an age-old sin. Back in Solomon’s day God warned against it when he said, “He tha...
God’s purpose for our lives involves more than our physical ease. It also involves our spiritual development. His aim is not primarily that we be comfortable on earth but that we be conformed to the image of his dear Son in heaven (Romans 8:29).
To this end God uses even the troubles of life for our good. What are some of the good things that can come out of the bad experiences of life?...