Indulgence in nostalgia is commonplace amongst those who are getting on in years. A check to it comes with the warning in Ecclesiastes: ‘Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this’ (Eccles.7:10). Yet we are also encouraged to …
Somehow we usually find talking to others quite easy but talking to God surprisingly onerous. Ole Hallesby said that his worst sins were his neglect of prayer. We often feel guilty in our private prayers, because we pray so badly. Richard Baxter asked: ‘In secret prayer, is not thy heart …
Since 1960 there have been Australian of the Year Awards which have been handed out mainly to entertainers, sports people, and social engineers of one kind or another. The award is invariably accompanied by speeches about how this represents Australia’s growing maturity as a nation (despite all the evidence to …
The order in which we do things is very important, as any man has discovered in the morning if he has put his shoes on and then tried to pull on his trousers. This is true also for what we first tell people about God. To most modern Christians, this …
As Western society becomes more bullying in its attitude towards Christians, there has been an increasing tendency on the part of many believers to be content with arguing for our space in the public square. There has been a reluctance to call on unbelievers to repent, and even an assumption …
Recent events have revealed – to those with eyes to see – how deep is the morass into which Western societies have fallen. There are conflicting views as to what should take place, and the prevailing impressions left are those of moral confusion and disarray. The West seems to be …
Perhaps most Christians have had the experience of listening to a sermon and thinking: ‘I agree with what he is saying, but I am not sure he is explaining the text rightly.’ This is not what Peter complained about in his second epistle when he spoke of the ignorant and …
October 31 is Reformation Day. However, many professing evangelicals think that the Reformation was something of a mistake, and in any case, is over now. We should ask first what October 31 is meant to commemorate. Back in 1517 Johann Tetzel, a Dominican salesman, came near Wittenberg, and the townspeople …
Book banning is usually associated with Germany in the 1930s or, perhaps more pertinently, with the prohibition of the publication of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in the United Kingdom, from its writing in 1928 until the famous court case of 1960. Yet on 6 May 2015 readers of …
Western society is beset with slogans of one kind or another. There can be few societies which have had to face so many. Not that previous generations have not had to respond to them. Virgil spoke to the ancient world of ‘Eternal Rome’, and people were meant to be grateful …
