Marching Forth!

We live in a day of relativism.  Yet even with the relative state of morality in the various societies in the world, there are crimes so heinous they deserve prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.  Even in prisons there is a code of ethics, where felons punish violators for the crimes committed outside prison, as well as breaking the code within.  In each of us there is a morality based upon our beliefs.  A drug dealer may have no problem with dealing illegal narcotics to adults, but believes it would be wrong to sell bad dope to kids.  Everyone has within them a conscience that causes us to experience guilt or shame when we know we've done something wrong.  There's a lot of people in prison who believe they have been hard done by and don't deserve the punishment they have received.  In some cases there is injustice, but it doesn't mean that concept of prison is one of them. Can you imagine a serial child rapist and murderer complaining to the...

One of the wonderful aspects of the One True God is He makes all things new.  When a person is born again by grace through faith, the Holy Spirit transforms us from the inside.  We are freed from the bondage of sin and spiritually brought from death to life.  It is like coming out of a darkened grave into the light of God's love.  What warmth and joy we experience!  What a relief, to be free from the burden of sin and to have a new Master.  It was Satan and sin that once oppressed and ruled us.  We were prisoners in a chain-gang serving a life sentence headed to hell with the whip of guilt laid across our consciences.  But in Christ we have been made free and a whole new life for eternity stretches before us like a luscious meadow before a flock of sheep.  Jesus is our Good Shepherd and we love to hear Him call our names. Though God makes all things new, we continue to live life on earth in a body of flesh.  All the experiences in our ...

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis is an intellectually stimulating book.  In it he does not so much seek to prove the existence of God but to reconcile His good, perfect character with the painful experiences we face during life on earth.  C.S. Lewis was once an atheist but reason compelled him to abandon that view.  He was no fool.  In the introduction to his books, he says this: " There was a man born among these Jews who claimed to be, or to be the son of, or to be "one with", the Something which is at once the awful haunter of nature and the giver of the moral law.  The claim is so shocking - a paradox, and even a horror, which we may easily be lulled into taking too lightly - that only two views of this man are possible.  Either he was a raving lunatic of an unusually abominable type, or else He was, and is, precisely what He said.  There is no middle way.  If the records make the first hypotheses unacceptable, you must submit to the second...

Abraham was a man who believed God, and his faith was accounted to him as righteousness.  As he walked in obedience to God's directives, he had many opportunities to grow in faith.  One of these time is after his brother's son Lot was taken captive by four kings who had just defeated five other kings.  Genesis 14:14-15 says, " Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus ."  From a military viewpoint, Abraham faced long odds - he and his 318 trained servants against four victorious kings!  God granted Abraham a most improbable victory and recovered all as we read in Genesis 14:16 :  " So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as ...

Few of us pray to God hoping He will say "No" to our requests.  But like every good parent, our Heavenly Father knows when to say "No."  Can you imagine what life would have been like as a kid if every time you asked for something your parents said "Yes?"  I doubt such a parent could possibly have any respect from their children.  Because of immaturity and limited vision, kids desire all sorts of things that would ruin them.  A loving parent will do what's best for their kids, even if kids don't want the best for themselves. Scriptures demonstrates time and time again that God said "No" to many of His faithful followers.  After Moses sinned in Meribah, he begged that God would allow him into the Promised Land.  God sternly told him no and forbade Moses to bring up the subject again ( Deut. 3:26 ).  King David desired to build God a house, but God told him no.  When David's infant son was sick and he prayed and fasted for seven days ...

During my reading this morning I came across Deuteronomy 29:6 when God spoke to His people:  " You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God ."  This is an interesting connection.  God sustained His people with manna from heaven when they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.  They did not have access to wine or fruit of the vine and there was a purpose:  " that you may know that I am the LORD your God ."  When I read this, it brought to mind a sermon delivered in 2013 by pastor Joe Focht called, " What About Alcohol ?"  It is a great sermon that holds forth a biblical perspective on drinking:  it's not about how far we can safely go with drinking, but that we should labour instead to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let me say that we have liberty in Christ to eat and drink whatever we want.  Personally, I take to heart the teachings given by Lemuel's mother in Proverbs...

One of my Bible study aids is from a most unexpected source:  the 1828 Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language.  What makes this volume different from modern dictionaries is Noah Webster's definitions spring from a biblical worldview.  It is interesting to me that you will not find the words "automobile," "radio," or "telephone" within the pages because those modern advances were not yet invented.  At the same time, the text is largely free from encroachment of worldly philosophy and politically correct speech which has emasculated and convoluted the original meaning of words.  Here is one of my favourite examples when comparing modern definitions to those given in Webster's 1828 dictionary: " Duty " as defined by dictionary.com : Something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation. The binding or obligatory force of something that is morally or legally right. An action or task required b...