Articles

. . . trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:10) Every Christian is called to heed and obey the myriad of commands for holiness, for keeping God’s law.2 And we all acknowledge that we fall short of that standard. In a desire to address legalism in the evangelical church the contemporary […]

The same day that I heard a Sudanese pastor and a Chinese missionary speak of their countries I read the text, ‘Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them’ (Matt. 13:17). Even our little conference in New South Wales was representative of the blessing […]

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. (Daniel 9:3) After reading the prophet Jeremiah and having known of the promised return from the exile, Daniel seeks Yahweh with diligence and zeal – fasting, putting on sackcloth and ashes, and making supplication. […]

‘We’ve a story to tell to the nations.’ So how does it go? We need to think about that. Barna has his statistics, and it looks like a lot of us struggle in just knowing what that story is. Is it what you once heard the evangelist say, that you’re a hell-deserving sinner and that […]

Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory, honour, and power, for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created. (Revelation 4:11.) We are to rejoice in the Lord always. We are to consider everything joy when we encounter various trials. We are to have […]

The Christian Medical Fellowship have drawn up 10 sound reasons for opposing the government’s proposals to legalise homosexual marriage. 1. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman Throughout history in virtually all cultures and faiths throughout the world, marriage has been held to be the union of one man and one woman. […]

Raymond Oakley, esteemed former pastor of the church at Hope Chapel, Arcal Street, Sedgley (1980-2007), and an acceptable supply minister for many years, passed to his eternal rest on December 3rd, 2011, aged 84 years. Our friend was a faithful minister of the gospel for sixty-two years and served the churches as a supply minister […]

This book of the law . . . you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it . . . then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8) Do you drink in the […]

Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. (Psalm 119:11) If we wish to be blameless (Psa. 119:1), if we hope to be blessed (Psa. 119:2), if we desire to live righteously (Psa. 119:3), if we want a shame free life (Psa. 119:6), if we long for lives […]

I am, apparently, something of a book nerd. I did not realise this, but it does occasionally get pointed out or exposed (for example, when someone makes a passing reference to some musty volume, and my instinctive response is, ‘Which edition?’ or something of that order). It feels very normal to me. But there we […]

Martin Holdt, well known as an evangelical and reformed leader in his native South Africa and around the world, went to be with his Lord suddenly on 31 December 2011. This tribute by his son, Jonathan, Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Lyttleton, Pretoria, was given at the Memorial Service for his father on 6 […]

Surely some of the most staggering words in the New Testament are found in 2 Corinthians 2:14: ‘But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.’ If you are a Christian, however bad or poor or despondent you […]

Today [November 30, 2011] more than a million public-sector workers in the United Kingdom are on strike. Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his autumn statement, which made clear the limited prospects for growth in the British economy this year and next, a situation which led analysts to predict that living standards in 2015 […]

Francis Nigel Lee died on December 23, 2011 in Australia. One thing he left behind is the story of the conversion of the man who murdered his father. In April 1994, I was invited to fly round the world and expound the Lord’s Prayer in the USA during September. Having acquired the plane ticket, as […]

The conversion testimony of Kevin McGrane, elder of Bury St Edmunds Presbyterian church. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family, my father having been born in Dublin of Roman Catholic ancestry. Baptism, Confession, Holy Communion and Confirmation followed in regular course. After junior education under Ursuline nuns, I moved to a boys’ grammar school […]

At a time when the importance of biblical preaching is downgraded in so many quarters it is important that we consider the history of preaching. John the Baptist was a preacher and great crowds went to him to be baptized in the Jordan but were at the same time stirred by his powerful preaching. He […]

We may be amazed that so few people seem to have been brought into the kingdom of God through Christ’s direct activity while he was in this world. One reason no doubt was that the course of providence must run on unimpeded that would bring him to Calvary, to be slain by the hands of […]

Don’t blur the frontiers of the law. It works well as it is. There are two key tests to apply to Lord Falconer of Thoroton’s report: does it present convincing evidence that the law we have now is in need of change? And, if it does, are the safeguards proposed adequate to protect vulnerable people? […]

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations. (Matthew 24:14a) Jesus preached the gospel (Mark 1:15), and he told us to preach the gospel (Matt. 24:14a). Paul knew that he was under obligation to preach the gospel (Rom. 1:15-16) and he also knew he […]

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9) The apostle has been referring to the fact that man was originally made a little lower than […]

Big events call for big celebrations – parties, food, balloons, streamers, noisemakers. But when God sent his Son to be born in Bethlehem, he came with much less worldly celebration than you might expect. In fact, many of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, as recorded in Luke 2, were downright pitiable. What does God want […]

The times need changing. United prayer meetings are held on the first Friday of each quarter in Glasgow. Similar groups have begun to meet in Northern Ireland, Wales and England. The meetings are open to all evangelical Christians of whatever denomination. New meetings may be organized in your area or you may join in secret […]

. . . if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9) Mainline Methodist minister Martin Thielen recently made this the title of a book he wrote in hopes of winning to the Christian faith sceptics, atheists, […]

This is part of a lecture ‘Witnessing in the Workplace’, given by the writer at the Barton Conference on Saturday 15th November 2008. A meeting at a carpenter’s bench at Ramsgate about 1895 was the means of the call by grace of my late grandfather, John William Walley. Working beside him for three months was […]

It was the late Professor John Murray who pointed out that there was nothing supernatural in the emergence of Jesus from the womb of Mary – what we usually refer to as the ‘birth.’ The whole process of foetal and embryonic development was normal. We are told that when Mary’s ‘full time’ had come, she […]