HEALING PRAYER
“Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven –...
HEAVEN
Jeffrey Burton Russell, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has written Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven and How we Can Regain It (Oxford University Press, 2006) It is a brilliant description of the secular mindset that...
MENTAL ANGUISH AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH
When you read the story of Jesus and the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20) there is the temptation to interpret it only in terms of mental illness. Commentaries on the passage spend a great deal of time exploring what is meant by being demon-possessed. Those who use...
DEEP HEALING
When I read the story of the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12) I notice three things: what Jesus saw, what Jesus said, and what Jesus knew. Let me take them in turn. Jesus is preaching the word to the people in his home. It was so crowded there was no room left...
DECLINING AND THRIVING CHURCHES
Joseph Bottum has written a compelling article about the demise of Mainline Protestant churches in the USA (National Review, August 2024). He relates how in 1965 they claimed about 50 percent of the American population but in the last census in 2020 this has fallen to...
WISDOM FOR OUR LEADERS AND ACTIVISTS
I have read many of the books on history and geography by Robert Kaplan who is a journalist with decades of experience in foreign policy. His latest, THE TRAGIC MIND, is the fruit of his disillusionment with recent American involvement in the Middle East. In this...
HEALTHY MASCULINITY
Aaron Renn is a writer and consultant who is Senior Fellow at American Reformer and writes a newsletter to help people to successfully adapt to the 21st century world. Today he wrote about the 10 Pillars of Healthy Masculinity which is a summary of a talk he gave at...
THE ZIMBABWE COVENANT
I have kept a copy of this quotation in my Bible for many years to inspire me and to remind me what my commitment to Jesus Christ entails. "I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The...
THE SECRET TO HUMAN FULFILLMENT AND CONTENTMENT
The Bible tells us that God goes before everything else. God is prior to all things. God is to be pre-eminent in all things. All life follows God. God is the leader, we are the followers. That is the order of creation and salvation. To attempt to reverse that order is...
MEASURING OUR DAYS
As I look forward to celebrating my eighty-third birthday this week, I am struck with the meaning of my life at this stage. This morning I read Psalm 39:4 “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days (NIV). “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the...
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