Yearly Archives: 2007

The year 2007 has been one of significant anniversaries for the Christian church. Among the most notable were the births of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (see faith Cook’s biography1) and of Charles Wesley exactly three hundred years ago. From far different backgrounds, these two became closely linked in God’s purposes during the great Evangelical Revival […]

When Augustine found himself in controversy with fellow believers, he remarked on more than one occasion to his friend Alypius, ‘Remember, we are washed in the same blood.’ The great Church Father was not downplaying the importance of accurate doctrine. Rather, he was highlighting the foundational truth that, whatever their differences, believers are one in […]

Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; let all the peoples praise Thee. Psalm 67:3. John Paton1 was born to godly Presbyterian parents in 1824 in a small village outside of Glasgow, Scotland. He was reared on the Shorter Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith in daily family worship, and from his earliest days […]

Definition, Indications and Motivations Surrogate gestational motherhood1 can be defined as an arrangement where one woman carries a pregnancy to term for another woman who is either unable or unwilling to do so. There are two types of surrogate mothers. The one type is ‘partial surrogacy,’ in which the surrogate mother is also the genetic […]

JUSTIFICATION IN THE COURT OF CONSCIENCE: BIBLICAL TRUTH OR DANGEROUS ERROR?1 What Exactly do we Celebrate on Reformation Day?Wednesday, October 31, 2007 marked the 490th anniversary of the Reformation and no doubt this event was observed by many churches which trace their origins to this great movement of the Spirit. Sermons will have been preached […]

There’s a lot of talk in the Christian world concerning humility and the handling of God’s Word. Prominent in this discussion are some of the statements emanating from America’s branch of the Emerging Church. According to this school of thought, humility as applied to Scripture entails a sense of uncertainty about Scripture’s meaning, message, or […]

David Brainerd,1 the great missionary to the American Indians, was born in April, 1718 at Haddam, Connecticut. His father, a legislator in Connecticut, died when David was nine years old and his mother died when he was fourteen. He lived with a godly aunt and uncle until he was eighteen and then tried farming for […]

Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. Ephesians 3:13. My wife Wini was recently engaged in a service project where she was asked what was our church’s position on homosexuality. Wini responded by saying that we have had an extensive ministry with HIV […]

ANTI-MISSIONARY THREATS TURN VIOLENT IN TURKEY A Protestant pastor in the Turkish industrial city of Izmit woke up one morning last month to find a huge red swastika pinned to his apartment door, with a handwritten hate letter shoved underneath. The writer threatened the safety of Wolfgang Hade and his family unless they left the […]

I arrived to take up the pastorate at Kabwata Baptist Church on 1st September 1987. I was a young man of 25 years of age and green between the ears. I was still a bachelor and had never seen the inside of a theological college. The church took a great risk in calling such a […]

A Christian farmer had two small boys named John and Tom. He called into the bedroom to see them before they went to sleep, and he asked them had they prayed. They hadn’t, and one of them – John – complained that he wasn’t feeling well. They said that they didn’t know how to pray. […]

Pastor Conrad Murrell of Louisiana helped one man who came to him in this unusual manner. This is how he reported it. A few years ago a pastor brought a troubled man to me for counselling. When I asked him about his problem, he replied, ‘I want to serve the Lord but I am having […]

Dr. Edward J. Young was one of the greatest Christian scholars, and the godliest of Christians whom I ever met. I came to Westminster Theological Seminary in 1964 for postgraduate work. I had just completed a master’s degree at Princeton and was tired of the liberalism that seemed to permeate all the lectures and grading. […]

Geoffrey Thomas is Pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church, Aberystwyth, where he has served the Lord for over forty years. His preaching and written ministry are deeply appreciated by many of God’s people around the world, and he is no stranger to Northern Ireland [where ‘Men for Ministry’ is based], having spoken in a number […]

Iain H. Murray, born in Lancashire, England, in 1931 was educated in the Isle of Man and at the University of Durham. He entered the Christian ministry in 1955. He served as assistant to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel (1956-59) and subsequently ministered at Grove Chapel, London (1961-69) and St. Giles Presbyterian Church, Sydney […]

In The Free Presbyterian Magazine of October 2007 the following report of the address given by the Rev. S. Khumalo at the recent annual meeting of this mission was published and is reproduced here by permission. It was very kind of the Mbuma Zending Board to invite me and my wife to attend this important […]

We live in a world where sorrow repeatedly enters. Indeed, at any given moment, multitudes all over the world are experiencing sadness for all sorts of reasons. Death follows illness, accidents and disasters into families and leaves sorrow behind. And death, however unexpected – however unwelcome – is irreversible; no one returns from the eternal […]

The head of the Church is our Lord Jesus Christ. We see this particularly in the way he writes to the seven churches in Asia Minor in Revelation chapters two and three. He encourages and corrects and reproves. He observes too that while faithfulness in doctrine is commendable, it is possible to lose our first […]

Is it ever right to question one’s standing with God? Recently the world was informed about Mother Teresa’s inner life as a nun in the Roman Catholic Church. Mother Teresa gained world-wide recognition for her labours amongst the poor in Calcutta. Truly, her efforts on behalf of the poor and the unborn are worthy of […]

It was once again the time of the year when Christians of Reformed persuasion in Zambia come together for their annual spiritual feast. This year the Zambia Reformed Family Conference and School of Theology started on Monday 27th August and ended on Thursday 30th August ““ one day earlier than usual. This reduction by a […]

YOUR SHIBBOLETH OR YOUR LIFE! During the judgeship of Jephtha, a civil war erupted between the Gileadites, members of the tribe of Benjamin, and the Ephraimites. The controversy was about the failure of the latter to help Jephtha in his war against the Ammonites. When Jephtha was victorious, the Ephraimites complained that they should have […]

‘The whole earth one community in Christ’ In his Miscellany 262, Jonathan Edwards predicted that in the future there will be better contrivances for assisting one another through the whole earth by more expedite, easy, and safe communication between distant regions than now. The invention of the mariner’s compass is a thing discovered by God […]

For years, modern readers of the Bible have shunned the food laws found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy about as religiously as the ancient Israelites shunned pork and shrimp. A recent New York Times bestseller, however, touts the benefits of the biblical food laws for obese and unhealthy North Americans. In his book, The Maker’s Diet,1 […]

…and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things. Ephesians 3:9 The 16th century Reformation, which brought so much good to Europe, which delivered people from ignorance, poverty, superstition, and the darkness of paganism and idolatry, had a catch phrase […]

By far the best spiritual biography of David that I have read, Walter J. Chantry’s David: Man of Prayer, Man of War1 is an exemplar of biblical depth, pastoral insight, and contemporary relevance. It will no doubt find a welcome home in the hands of busy pastors looking for fresh material on the life of […]