John is a 38 year old Christian man. He ends most days physically and mentally exhausted having spent almost no time before God in prayer, Bible reading, or quiet reflection. Most nights he feels guilty about being lazy. The thought occurs to him that, if – after tucking in the kids to bed – he could just muster a final ounce of effort, he could read a chapter of the Bible before collapsing on the couch.
Read moreOne of the events that contributed to the Union army winning the Civil War occurred when a Yankee soldier found a detailed copy of Robert E. Lee’s orders for the Antietam campaign on a cigar wrapper. The wrapper quickly passed through the ranks until Northern officers found themselves holding a cheat–sheet to victory. A subtle and cunning enemy is far easier to counter when you know with precision what his next move will be.
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The support group, AWARE, states that in the Republic of Ireland one in ten people are suffering the symptoms of depression at any given time. The figures are likely to be similar in the United Kingdom. That being the case, you can be sure that there are probably more people in your church who struggle with depression and anxiety than you realize. So, how can you help them?
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It is not uncommon for families to be convinced that they ought to do family worship, to want to do family worship, to talk about doing family worship, and yet fail ever to establish a consistent pattern of actually doing family worship. Men in particular seem easily intimidated, seeing themselves as inadequate, fearful they won’t know what to do, or that they won’t know what to say. We assembled The Family Worship Book hoping to alleviate these fears. All the necessary resources may be found there
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The preacher got up and looked at the congregation. ‘Too many of you are taking tablets for your depression. Where is your joy in the Lord? If you were depending on God, you wouldn’t need to take medication!’ I wish I could say that these words are fictional, but they are not. I have heard of depressed and anxious people having guilt added to their distress by such careless words.
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I came across Dr Rosaria Butterfield’s first book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, several years ago, and loved it. How unlikely a convert was she?
Read moreWe did not practice family worship in the house in which I was reared. My parents were good people, Christian people, and church–going people. Yet regular family devotions were not a feature of our home. We didn’t pray together, or read Scripture together, or sing praises together.
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Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul lived in a culture which was utterly opposed to the truth claims of Christ. But he was confident that there is a truth that every human being knows:
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I had been with Christian Focus Publications for a year or two when I pulled into the leafy campus of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts in late Autumn 2002. Coming from the Highlands of Scotland I was something of an innocent when it came to understanding the intricacies of the different tribes of US Evangelicalism. I knew what CFP stood for but was in the process of discovering where we fitted.
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“Did John Calvin murder Michael Servetus?” Questions like this swirl around Calvin’s involvement in the trial, judgment, and execution of Servetus in 1553.
Unlike other trials, the case of Calvin and Servetus is compounded by the often–emotional topic of Calvinism. As a hero or villain in church history, one is likely to read the evidence tainted by a desire to defend or vilify Calvin.