Sufferings!  Trials!  Heartaches!  Afflictions! Testings!  Sound familiar?  Ring a bell?  The world, our nation, our communities, our families and friends face them on a daily basis. Maybe right now you are going through a fiery trial, if not, no doubt soon may.  For the believer, it could be enough to make one depressed if not for the fact, that sufferings can draw us closer to God and the examination of Scripture reminds us that sufferings are what help mold us into the image of His lovely Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Puritan Joseph Church stated, “Sufferings are but as little chips of the cross.”  Our sufferings can never be compared to the One who suffered ALL for us.  Thankfully, sufferings are just temporal (2 Corinthians 5:7); that during such times we should pray (James 5:13); that part of genuine discipleship is suffering (Matthew 16:24; Philippians 1:29); that in the fire we should glorify Him (Isaiah 24:15); and most encouraging of all, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). [Read more…]

Eccl. 11:1-6
Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days. 2 Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth. 3 If the clouds are full of rain, They empty themselves upon the earth; And if a tree falls to the south or the north, In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. 4 He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap. 5 As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything. 6 In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, Or whether both alike will be good.

Fall is the season when many churches host their annual missionary conferences and so as I write, I have missions on my mind. Actually missions have been on my mind since the early days of my conversion to Christ. At age sixteen I was led to Christ by a missionary appointee heading for the Philippines. He was serving as an intern in my home church, which also had missions on its mind. A year later when I went off to Bible College I joined the Far East Prayer Band, because that is where the Philippines was located and I wanted to pray for the missionary who led me to Christ. My place of academic learning also had missions on its mind. Missionaries were paraded through our Bible conferences, chapel services and even taught several of our classes. [Read more…]

Not a bad prayer. F. B. Meyer in his book, “Five Musts of the Christian Life,” tells of a meeting of ministers in the home of William Wilberforce where one of the pastors, well advanced in age, confessed that he was somewhat “short‑fused.” Once, while teaching a Sunday School class in which the students were quite boisterous, his patience was stretched to the breaking point. Just when he was about to lose it he said that he felt inclined to pray, “Lord, give me Your patience, for mine is wearing out!” [Read more…]

Are there times in ministry when you feel dried up, just like the brook at Cherith? Times when you are mentally drained, spiritually disoriented, physically exhausted and literally limp through the activities of the day with animated form, retiring at night with no worthwhile purpose for tomorrow?  If only the answer was, “Take two aspirin, get a little rest and tomorrow will be fine!”  I once heard someone say that had Moses lived today and came down from the mountain, the tablets he would have been carrying would have been aspirin! During the dry seasons of ministry this little poem has been of encouragement to me. [Read more…]

What a wonderful, glorious truth, we are living on the Easter Side of Calvary! Just mediate upon that thought for a few moments! Oh, the thrill that it should bring to our hearts as we have the honor and privilege of proclaiming to the people in our spiritual care that He is alive! Preached in power, practiced with persuasion, posed with prayer! What grandeur! It drives into triteful insignificance, or at least it should, the discouragements of the heart, the hurts and differences in the church, the despair of daily events in the world. It brings hope where it is most needed – a knowledge of life after death! It brings joy when sorrows flow like the billows of the sea! It screams out to us from the corridors of time the written words of Christ…… “Because I live, you shall live also” (John 14:19).  [Read more…]