Let me ask you a question: What is the most important thing the church does? I expect, in any crowd, there would be a range of answers: prayer, preaching, teaching, fellowship, pastoral care, social justice, mission, evangelism. Probably not committee work, or building maintenance! Each of these features is vital to the life and effectiveness …
You are unique
Talk to Blakehurst Baptist Church Leisure Group Christmas Luncheon, 16 November 2000. Psalm 139:13-14 God could have come as a preformed child, found, like Superman, in a field somewhere - arriving not from Krypton but from heaven. Or God could have immediately created a whole body, as he did with Adam when he formed his flesh …
The mystery of Christmas
Talk to Blakehurst Baptist Church Leisure Group Christmas Luncheon, 19 November 1998 Isaiah 9:1-2 Weary, we arrive once more at Bethlehem,Asking if this yearly journey is needful or worthwhile.But, O God! Our God indeed!As Christmas approaches our hearts start to beat to your music,And our minds acknowledge a wonder set in strawWorth a thousand journeys …
Welcome to heaven!
Iโm so glad the biblical narrative ends as it does. The final two chapters of the Book of Revelation provide a fitting conclusion to Johnโs apocalyptic vision and are among the most glorious passages of all Scripture. The Lamb wins. We are redeemed. Heaven is open. I wonder what thoughts ran through Johnโs mind after …
The cost of discipleship
When you look at the amount of persecution and martyrdom ofย Christians around the world, the statistics tell a sobering story. According to Open Doorsโ World Watch List,ย 4,476 Christian were killed for faith-related reasons in 2024,ย and some 380 million Christians today suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.[1] A martyr is literally a …
