Rick Warren, CEO of Saddleback Church, yesterday played the Pharisee card. He wrote:
‘It drives Pharisees nuts to watch God keep blessing ministries they ridicule & despise.God’s sovereignty is often humorous.’
What’s the Pharisee card? Good question.
Which of these two statements is true?
We are never permitted to sin.
We cannot avoid sinning.
Both of these assertions appear in an excellent article by Todd Wilken (of the Issues, Etc radio programme). Todd writes:
They seem so different. One person lives his life striving for moral perfection. The other person doesn’t try that hard. The first [...]
My friend James kindly posted some thoughts in response to my How to diagnose a sermon article. That article gave a three-step diagnostic (courtesy of the Issues, Etc. radio programme) for reviewing sermons. You can read his comments in full on that article, but his three main points were:
That I seemed to be ‘casting judgment [...]
Many people in the Church seem to be asking ‘What if’ questions. Which started me thinking…
What if…there exists a truth which is absolute?
What if…it is true that there is a God?
What if…this God made the heavens and the earth?
During his Olivet discourse, Jesus tells His disciples of the coming day of judgement when He shall separate the sheep from the goats:
31When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before [...]
Someone called Bill left a comment on my previous post. Bill asks a good question, namely this:
Is it worthwhile for us to spend significant amounts of time studying the Bible, the newest parts of which were written over 1,900 years ago?
Yes! In every way.
Why do I believe this?
I was asked to talk on this topic for a carol service at the local sheltered housing complex just before Christmas. What a great subject! But, how to do it justice in ‘about 5 minutes’? Give me an hour, and no problem. But a mere 300 seconds? That’s hard!
And how in that short time [...]
Crosstalk has a radio broadcast of a talk by Paul Washer, given in February 2008. Paul, in his usual uncompromising and clear way, presents the essence of the True Gospel of Jesus Christ. Well worth a listen.
Listen (MP3)
The Crosstalk site also offers this broadcast in RealAudio and Windows Media formats.
A big lie in evangelical circles is that you can be saved by saying a prayer. But it is not what we do that saves us, it’s what God does for us. This is comforting; if our salvation depended upon our work, then we would be lost indeed. Our obedience to God is evidence of [...]
In 1 Samuel 15, we read God’s instruction to King Saul to punish the city of Amalek by utterly destroying it. Not one man, woman, child, ox, sheep, camel or donkey was to be spared. Saul carries out the command – almost. But, he does not execute Agag, king of the Amalekites, and he spares [...]
