The difference between a lecturer and a Christian who is teaching their children is this: the lecturer has as his first aim the imparting of knowledge; the parents have as their first aim to introduce their hearers to a living Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Their desire is that those who hear may know Him […]
Surveying the mammoth ministry of C. H. Spurgeon, D. L. Moody was heard to remark, “It is not Mr. Spurgeon after all; it is God.” Who was this man that the Lord used in such a singular way? Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was born of Huguenot stock, the son and grandson of Independent preachers. Due […]
The day in which we live is an age of speed. The craze for speed gets into the blood and the death rate increases. On the contrary, nature’s processes move slowly and steadily to their conclusion. But man can’t wait. Synthetic pearls replace nature’s patient product. But God is not in a hurry, even if […]
Under the Mosaic law, it was permitted for the poor to pick up the gleanings of the harvest. The rule is still observed (at time of writing) in Palestine. I notice that a poor widow has been following the harvesters all day, methodically gleaning straw by straw. By the time the western sun dips down […]
On several trips to the land of Israel over the past few years, I have been privileged to have as my guide a gracious and well-informed Jew, named at birth Philip Halperin. Philip was the name of one of the kings of Romania, and it was not a wise thing to give Hebrew names to […]
In Norway, the rivers can be swift and hard to cross by boat. Hans had the feeling that danger was close by. He tells the story in his words: “When I was thirteen, my father and I, a brother, and another man, were nearly drowned hauling hay across the river by boat. One of the […]
Service. In contemporary society, it is a word with scores of connotations, many of them very positive. Yet it was not always so. Being a servant meant hard hours of laboring in obscurity for a master whose expectations were high, and whose commendations may have been few. In our world where you are what you […]
There are in the New Testament four words that describe the gifts God has given to the Church. First of all, they are called “spiritual gifts,” reminding us that they are given by the Spirit of God and can only be used rightly in the spiritual realm. They are called “gifts of grace,” and that […]
It was hotter than I had ever experienced, and the convoy of trucks made dust so thick it seemed we were traveling in a cloud. The 45-mile trip to our Vietnam base camp seemed to take forever. I had my M-16 loaded and in my lap; I was scared, but so glad to be on […]