Stealing is big business. Shoplifting in France is described as a national pastime. In our own country, over ten million pounds per day are lost through shoplifting. Marks and Spencer spends twenty million pounds per year on security, but still loses thirty million in stolen goods. One woman boasts that she can make thirteen hundred pounds a day by shoplifting.
The most notorious theft in the history of British crime took place on Thursday, August 8th 1963.…
It is a horrible thought to try to imagine life without someone you dearly love.
The disciples were having to get used to the prospect of life without Jesus.
There they are, sitting around the table sharing one last meal with Jesus. They listen with increasing alarm as he tells them that he must leave them. On top of that, he warns them that they can expect to be treated with terrible hostility after his departure.…
General references to Ex 20:14 Le 20:10 Job 24:15 Mt 5:27 19:9 Rom 7:3 1 Cor 6:9 2 Pet 2:14
Adultery is the name given to a sexual relationship by a married person with someone other than his or her legal spouse.
The most notorious case in the OT is that of David, 2 Sam 11:2-12:25.
Adultery is a sin against both God and other human beings, Gen 20:6 Ex 20:14.
Adultery breaks the great commandment to love one’s neighbour, Rom 13:9.…
The New Testament teaches that every person can now have access to God because Jesus’ death on the cross has opened the way. Such access is actually experienced by those who express personal trust in Jesus and rely on divine grace. This brings peace and eternal hope, (Rom 5:1-2) but it is always dependent upon the heavenly King’s royal favor, not upon entrance requirements established or met by humans. Both Gentiles and Jews have an open door to the Father through Christ’s death on the cross and through the work of the Holy Spirit present in the believer’s life.…
‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ (Psalm 19:1).
Paul affirms in Rom 1:19-21 and Acts 17:28 that nature itself bears witness to God’s power and majesty. His works of providence bear witness to his kindness, Acts 14:17. Conscience testifies to the demands of his holy law, Rom 2:14, and to the reality of punishment for the wrong-doer, Rom 1:32.
This is referred to as general revelation, because everyone receives it. Failure to thanks and serve God aright is, therefore, a sin against knowledge, and any claims not to have this knowledge should not be taken seriously. …
1. In the light of CREATION
God himself sets the example, Gen 2:1-3. God calls us into partnership with him, Gen 2:15. God has made this world our workplace and our playground, Gen 1:28. God has established a cycle of work and play, Ex 20:8-11.
2. In the light of THE FALL
Work tends to become a hardship, Gen 3:17-19. The worker tends to become selfish, lazy, disobedient, dishonest, 2 Thess 3:6-12. Play tends to become perverted from its original purpose: (a) it may become commercialised and over-competitive; (a) it may become destructive of work, education, physical health, family life or spiritual well-being.…
Of the evils that infect God’s world (moral and spiritual perversity, waste of good, and the physical disorders and disruptions of a spoiled cosmos), it can summarily be said:
1. God permits evil; (Acts 14:16)
2. he punishes evil with evil; (Ps 81:11-12 Rom 1:26-32)
3. he brings good out of evil; (Ge 50:20 Acts 2:23 4:27-28 13:27 1 Cor 2:7-8)
4. he uses evil to test and discipline those he loves; (Mt 4:1-11 Heb 12:4-14)
5.…
Richard Baxter spells out the mutual love that a husband and wife must have for one another:-
I pray you, next tell me my duty to my wife and hers to me.
The common duty of husband and wife is,
1. Entirely to love each other; and therefore choose one that is truly lovely.… ;and avoid all things that tend to quench your love.
2. To dwell together, and enjoy each other, and faithfully join as helpers in the education of their children, the government of the family, and the management of their worldly business.…
According to J.I Packer, the Puritans advanced four arguments confirming the rightness of male leadership as adumbrated in Milton’s ‘he for God only, she for God in him’:-
