Articles

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love (Revelation 2:4). By 1630 Scotland was in need of another revival, a time of visitation by God when a whole community is soaked with his presence. Such had occurred five years earlier in the town of Stewarton under the ministry of David […]

Sin is everywhere around us in a fallen world. We come in contact with it constantly; the media bring some particularly-awful examples of it to our attention again and again. And no matter where we look, in any part of the earth, we will find sin and its terrible consequences staring us in the face. […]

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord (Genesis 8:20). The year 1995 was a difficult one for me. I was working far too many hours and the idolatry of my work and my children’s activities had caused me to drift in my devotion to my wife. We were not in danger of divorce (we […]

The gentleness and patience of God continue to amaze me and fill me with a sense of increasingly profound gratitude. At the same time, I grow weary of my own lack of those tender virtues that are so fitting and essential in relationships with other sinners. It is striking and instructive for us to note […]

THE URGENT NEED FOR REVIVAL TODAY ‘Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who has a mute spirit. And wherever he seizes him, he throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to your disciples, that they should cast […]

So Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor. 7:29). And that brief statement had huge implications for the way that believers in Corinth were to live. It would seem that much of the advice the Apostle gave them in this chapter – for instance, not to marry – was relevant to what he calls ‘the present […]

We live in what is often called the age of post-modernism. Truth is relative, we are told. Cultures change, people change, and the old ways of thinking need to keep pace with the changes. If churches want to survive in this post-modern age, then they must adapt or die (that is ‘religious speak’ for, ‘Re-interpret […]

It is good for us constantly to recall the truths with which we are familiar – both to promote self-examination as to how these truths are being implemented in our lives, and to stir us up to seek more grace, to be more conformed to them. Paul himself said: ‘To write the same things to […]

On my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. (Song of Solomon 3:1) David Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut in April, 1718 and attended church regularly in the local Congregational Church, as almost everyone did in eighteenth century New England. However when […]

THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF THE WORD I’ve been thinking again about the importance of reading and writing. There are several reasons I write. One of the most personally compelling is that I read. I mean, my main spiritual sustenance comes by the Holy Spirit from reading. Therefore reading is more important to me than eating. […]

Thomas Scott1, the commentator, that holy man of God, in The Force of Truth2 (which is his personal testimony), says Till the 16th year of my age, I do not remember that I ever was under any serious conviction . . . but about my 16th year I began to see that I was a […]

1. Singing is the music of nature The Scriptures tell us the mountains sing (Isa. 44:23); the valleys sing (Psa. 65:13); the trees of the wood sing (1 Chron. 16:33). No, the air is the birds’ music-room, where they chant their musical notes. 2. Singing is the music of ordinances Augustine reports of himself that […]

The question of whether or not God will on the Day of Judgment expose to the world of men and angels the secret sins of his redeemed children is one that vexes many and is somewhat unclear to all men. On the one hand, there are passages in Scripture that appear clearly to say that, […]

By ‘posture’ I do not refer to the alignment of one’s body when standing. Good posture, of course, is advisable, for one breathes better, projects his voice better and shows respect for the uprightness and symmetry with which God created his image-bearers. No better instruction on this feature of pulpit address can be found than […]

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. (Proverbs 31:10) Richard Baxter, the tireless, heavenly minded Puritan minister of the seventeenth century, was a confirmed bachelor,1 devoting himself completely to the ministry of the gospel in Kidderminster, England. When going there in 1641 the parish was notorious for godlessness and […]