Sermons and Biblical Studies

Certain poets have found a morbid pleasure in the law of impermanence and have sung in a minor key the song of perpetual change. Omar the tentmaker was one who sang with pathos and humor of mutation and mortality, the twin diseases that afflict mankind. “Don’t slap that clay around so roughly,” he exhorts the … Continue reading “DEATH:
ENEMY”

I know there are some bright people who argue against the historicity of the fall of humankind in Adam and Eve. But no person, however brilliant, wise and well-schooled, has been able to escape two brief sentences written across all of his prospects by the great God Almighty. Those two sentences are: “You cannot stay—you … Continue reading “DEATH:
CERTAINTY OF; MORTALITY”

In history there is the account of a famous political prisoner standing before his judge. Asked if he had anything to say before sentence was pronounced, the man said “No.” The judge intoned, “I therefore pronounce that on a certain day you be hanged by the neck until death. I sentence you to die.” It … Continue reading “DEATH:
CERTAINTY OF”

My own mother-in-law had a baby that died and she went through fire and water and blood and tears and toil, but through it she came to a wonderful spiritual experience. She had to sit up in bed, weak and weary as she was, and make the baby’s coffin. Her husband made it out of … Continue reading “DEATH:
BABY’S”

If you have any spiritual perception at all, I need not state that in our generation and in every community, large or small, there are churches existing merely as monuments of what they used to be. The glory has departed. The witness of God and of salvation and of eternal life is now just an … Continue reading “DEAD
CHURCHES; REVIVAL: NEED FOR”

He said that we are to leave the first principles, that is, the elementary instructions of the Christian faith. We are to leave them, but not leave them behind. We are not to leave them as one would leave one house and go to another or leave one city and go to another. We are … Continue reading “CURRENT
CONDITIONS: SHALLOWNESS; SPIRITUAL GROWTH”

Why do the majority of present day Christians prefer shallow religious fiction? Or uninspired Bible talks that never get beyond the “first principles”?… First, present day evangelical Christianity is not producing saints. The whole concept of religious experience has shifted from the transcendental to the utilitarian. God is valued as being useful and Christ appreciated … Continue reading “CURRENT
CONDITIONS: SHALLOWNESS; SPIRITUAL DEPTH”

… I confess a sadness about the shallowness of Christian thinking in our day. Many are interested in religion as a kind of toy. If we could make a judgment, it would appear that numbers of men and women go to church without any genuine desire to gear into deity. They do not come to … Continue reading “CURRENT
CONDITIONS: SHALLOWNESS; CHURCH: APATHY”

Suppose some angelic being who had since creation known the deep, still rapture of dwelling in the divine Presence would appear on earth and live awhile among us Christians. Don’t you imagine he might be astonished at what he saw? He might, for instance, wonder how we can be contented with our poor, commonplace level … Continue reading “CURRENT
CONDITIONS: SHALLOWNESS”

We must meet the present emergency with a spirit of optimism. This is no time for repining, no time for looking backward, no time for self-pity or defeated complaining. We are on the winning side and we cannot lose. “Surely I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20) makes ultimate defeat impossible. Surely the days are … Continue reading “CURRENT
CONDITIONS: EVIL DAYS; PROPHECY; ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE”