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Every Careless Word You Speak

As someone who talks for a living, and who is talkative by nature, I find this verse extremely arresting: “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37 ESV).

A Case Study in Persecution (Lessons from 1 Peter)

The First Epistle of Peter was written in or around AD 63 to a group of Christians living in Pontus-Bithynia, an area in modern-day Turkey, just south of the Black Sea. These people were beginning to experience significant social and cultural marginalization as a result of their faith in Christ. But it was not yet formal or fatal persecution. Thomas Schreiner says here: “The only specific suffering noted is discrimination and mistreatment and verbal abuse from former colleagues and friends”…

What Is Heaven Like?

Every couple of years in our church, it seems we lose a young person to some tragic accident. When the young person is a believer there is hope and comfort, but still a whole host of questions that are difficult to answer. Death gets us thinking about the things that really matter.

The Christian And The Law

There are few things more confusing to the average Christian than the question of how he or she should relate to the Old Testament Law. On the one hand, Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17 ESV) Obviously Jesus was “pro law”, in some sense. He did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, he came to fulfill them. Thus, whatever attitude a Christian is to have toward the law it…

Equal But Not The Same – Case Study In The Book of Numbers

This is a classic case of “right principle, wrong application”: They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” (Numbers 16:3 ESV) Korah and the other men with him were correct in asserting that the whole nation of Israel was holy to the Lord. They were a kingdom of priests!! They were…

What If We Had 50 Years Before The Outbreak Of Formal Persecution In Canada?

Let’s build up such a store of good works and good will that the population itself would rise up in uniform protest should the government ever attempt to stamp out the church of Jesus Christ in this country. Let’s not be known as the people constantly complaining about their loss of privilege, power and public funding.

God Is Not Unreasonable

God is not “permissive”, but neither is he unreasonable. Reasonable exceptions to general rules are peppered all across the pages of Holy Scripture. In Numbers 9 verses 1-3 for example, we read: And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed…

Persecution, Birth Pang or Pruning? (How Should We Interpret This Pandemic?)

As more and more countries emerge from lockdown and things slowly but surely begin to open up, thinking Christians are starting to ask an entirely different set of questions: What in the world just happened? Why did we respond the way we did? Have we just opened the door for totalitarianism and tyranny? Will the church come back stronger after being pressed down in the mud for more than a year?

COVID Gleanings from Ecclesiastes 7

We hear things in times of trouble that we tend to ignore in times of ease. In that sense, COVID19 has been a blessing. I know that I’ve seen some things in my daily readings that had not previously been raised to my attention.

How Should a Christian View the Government?

Salvation cannot be achieved by government. Governments restrain, they do not redeem. Governments reward, they do not restore. For blessings of that magnitude we look to the cross and to the coming of the Christ.

Dear Pandemic Weary Sister

A young lady that used to attend our church wrote to me recently and very kindly asked if I could encourage her as she was feeling very low as a result of this pandemic. I wrote her back a brief pastoral letter which I am happy to share here in the hopes that it may minister to others experiencing similar needs:

Pastoring after This Pandemic

The last 12 months have been incredibly difficult for pastors – as they have been for many others – but the next 12 months of recovery, regathering, and rebuilding promise to be even more so. COVID19 blew through the evangelical church in North American like a category 5 hurricane. As we begin to emerge from our lockdown shelters to survey the damage, the sheer scale of the task awaiting us will prove overwhelming for many.