Weekly Article (Page 39)

“Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” (1 Tim 3:7) John Stott wrote, “William Golding is a contemporary novelist who has vividly illustrated the negative power of hypocrisy. In his book Free Fall he tells the story of Sammy Mountjoy, an illegitimate child brought up in…

This is a faithful saying: “I a man desire the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless.. ” (1 Tim 3:1-2a) Are you a stained glass window? So asks John Macarthur, and added : ‘An unholy pastor is like a stained glass window: a religious symbol that keeps the light up. That’s why the initial qualification for…

“… and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you … a bishop … a steward of God…” (Titus 1:5-9) “… take heed to yourselves and to all the flock of God, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God…” (Acts 20:28) As we prepare to biblically recognise Shepherd-qualified men…

Mother’s day … and yet we are talking about Eldership today. Is that a bit odd, something better suited to Father’s day perhaps …, or is there a connection? Would you be surprised if I said “Yes, there is a connection”? Well have a look at 1 Thess 2:6-7, Paul speaking in his role not just as an Apostle but as a founding missionary…

It is an often told story, but it highlights a great truth. There was an extremely wealthy man who possessed vast treasures of art. The man had one son who was an ordinary boy and who passed away in late adolescence. Having loved the lad deeply, the sorrowing father died of a broken heart only a few weeks later. The father’s will provided that everything would be…

Again we see Jesus feeding a multitude – a different crowd in a different place… this one among Gentiles unlike compared with Jews in the first … and as you compare the two stories there are many other differences. The seal on the reality that Jesus did do two such miracles is that in vv19-20 Jesus Himself says so. There are many things we can learn from this…

The New Year has begun, and for many it has been a time for New Year resolution, many of which have proved to be New Year’s Day resolutions – if that. Far better than making New Year Resolutions is surely to strive for Reformation of Life.

Jesus’ miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 speaks of the compassion of Jesus, but also of the grace and power of Jesus. And it was clearly intended to confront both His disciples as well as the crowd with who He was. On the question of the power of Jesus John MacArthur writes: As we look back on the scene from our two-thousand-year vantage point, it seems impossible…

In Joshua 9 we read of how Joshua, using human wisdom and human counsel instead of God’s wisdom and God’s counsel entered into a covenant of friendship with people he later realised were inhabitants of Canaan and under God’s judgement. It proved to be a wrong decision, involving the sin of not seeking God’s counsel on Joshua’s part, and in no small measure the…

There are many ways of reading the Bible, by which I mean that there are various themes that you can trace through the Bible, such as Faith. But today we face one that has a strong yet terrible pedigree. I speak of ‘unbelief’. There are people in this world who have what are colloquially called wrap sheets of their crime(s), listing occasion after occasion.