Posts from March 2014
World Vision
Early last week World Vision headquarters in the U.S. made news headlines when they announced an important employment policy change. They indicated that from now on they would approve hiring people who lived in a same-sex marriage relationship. They still objected to people cohabiting but as long as they were legally married then homosexuals too could now be employed by World Vision. Predictably there was a huge backlash from evangelical Christians in the U.S. with thousands of people withdrawing their…
Our final witness
We’ve just had the experience that within one week two friends were called out of this life into the next. Maybe that’s a sign of me aging. I recall that some twenty years ago the monthly letters from my mother often contained a list of friends and fellow church members who had died. In one letter she remarked that one of the down-sides of living to a ripe old age was that you get to go to so many funerals…
When a leader is regarded as god
Back in the 1800s British historian, Lord Acton, said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” That observation helps us understand why, throughout history, rulers have often claimed to be gods. It helps us understand the story of the Exodus and the Ten Plagues. That was not just a battle between Moses and a very stubborn ruler. It was a battle between the God of the Bible and a ruler who…
Why I love an evening service
Of all the casualties the church has suffered in recent decades, I wonder if many will have longer-lasting consequences than the loss of the evening service. There was a time, not so long ago, when many or even most churches gathered in the morning and the evening. But today the evening service is increasingly relegated to the past. At Grace Fellowship Church we hold on to the evening service and I wouldn’t want it any other way. It is a…
Fun times – when?
Jesus once told a story about a rich man who lived in luxury and who feasted every day. He wasn’t a wicked man. His relatives and friends would have told you that he was a great guy to be with. He wasn’t stingy either – the parties he threw were memorable occasions. The problem was Lazarus. He was the ‘skin and bones’ beggar who was always there at the gates of rich man – always hoping that he might get…