Category: CHRISTIAN LIFE

The Whisperer, The KJVer, and Other Types of Group Prayer Participants You Don’t Want to Be

My first opportunity to pray in a group came when some of my fellow students and I were standing in a circle, holding hands. The leader told us we could either pray or squeeze the hand of the person next to us. I was a squeezer...

The Unrepenting Repenter

The believer in Christ is a lifelong repenter.  He begins with repentance and continues in repentance. (Rom. 8:12-13) David sinned giant sins but fell without a stone at the mere finger of the prophet because he was a repenter at heart (2 Sam. 12:7-13). Peter denied...

The Importance of Fearing the God You Love

Aside from atheists and people in false religions, most people would argue that God should be loved. Jesus went so far as to say that the obligation to love God is the foremost commandment in Scripture (see Mark 12:29-30). What is not universally agreed upon is...

Sweeter Than Honey: A Lesson From Pooh

In Psalm 119:103 the psalmist exclaims, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Though we may not put it in such eloquent words, that is the testimony of every true Christian. Nevertheless, even true Christians, those who recognize the...

Sucked In: A Lesson from Demas about the Dangerous Side of Love

At the center of the swirling mass of stars known as the Milky Way galaxy exists a phenomenon known as a black hole. This cosmic garbage disposal has a gravitational pull so strong that stars, planets, asteroids, and even space itself cannot escape. What happens to...

Mixed-Up Churches: Aiming for Multi-Cultural Glory

Is it better to have Caucasian churches, Black churches, Korean churches, Farmer churches and Rock-driven churches, or to mix them up? Recently I read an unambiguous advertisement for a church in our city. It read, “We sing the old hymns.” That was it. Contrary to what...

Mingling Groans of Pain and Songs of Hope – Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Depression

It’s a good thing he wasn’t born in the 20th century. Many believing brothers and sisters would label his tendency to melancholy sinful, or evidence of a lack of self-discipline, or even the result of shallow faith. A psychologist would probably send him away with a...

Love Is Not Less than a Feeling

What does it mean to “love the brethren” (1 John 3:14)? It has been correctly said that to truly love someone is more than just having feelings for them. Actions, in addition to words and feelings, are the proof of genuine love. The husband who truly...

John Bunyan: Blessing God for Affliction

“Like the tearing of my flesh from my bones.” That’s how John Bunyan described parting with his family after their brief visits with him in prison. Each time they walked away, John was reminded of the great difficulty his incarceration imposed on them, especially on his...

Five Resolves for Personal Revival

Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short that it cannot save; neither is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He...