Four pastors were sitting down to lunch. Having just read James 5, in which James urges his readers to confess their sins to one another (v. 16), one suggested that they practice what they had read. They all agreed, and so the first pastor said, “I have been a little dishonest with the church books, labelling personal expenses as ministry expenses.” The second admitted, “In … [Read more...]
Holy Hatred: A Heart that Devises Wicked Plans
Have you ever watched a film or read a book—perhaps a horror, a crime thriller, or even an action title involving some elaborate criminal scheme—and thought, who comes up with this stuff? Have you ever read or heard of some act of real-life wickedness and wondered, what kind of a mind imagined that? None of this should surprise us, for the Bible tells us that the fallen … [Read more...]
Gospel Celebration (Psalm 32:1–11)
This year marks the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, which commenced with Martin Luther’s thunderous hammer on the doors of the Wittenberg church. Luther was simply calling for a civil debate with Catholic Church leaders concerning some doctrines that he believed they had gotten wrong. He aimed to help correct the errors and assumed that they would appreciate his … [Read more...]
Holy Hatred: Hands that Shed Innocent Blood
The story is told of a three-year-old girl with a pet tortoise. One day, the tortoise would not emerge from its shell, so the concerned little girl took the reptile to her mother. When her mother could not coax the animal out, she concluded that it must have died. Carefully placing the tortoise in a box on the kitchen counter, she sat down to explain to her daughter what had … [Read more...]
Holy Hatred: A Lying Tongue
On 11 September 2001, Tania Head was working for Merrill Lynch in the south tower of the World Trade Centre. After the second Boeing 767 ploughed into her floor, a dying colleague pleaded desperately with her to return his wedding ring to his wife. She agreed, but passed out as she was making her way down the fire escape stairs. Welles Crowther found her passed out in the … [Read more...]