Category Archives: Christian Life

Thoughts on money

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Ask any person – rich or poor – how much money they would need in order to make them happy, and the answer will always be the same: ‘A little more’.

Money will buy a bed but not sleep, books but not brains, food but not appetite, fine clothes but not beauty, medicine but not health, luxury but not culture, amusement but not happiness, a crucifix but not a saviour, a temple but not heaven. Naismith, 1200 Notes, Quotes and Anecdotes)

Martin Luther astutely observed, “There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind and the purse.”…

Praying with Paul

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General characteristics of Paul’s prayers:-

1. They begin with thanksgiving

1 Cor 1:4 ‘I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.’

2. They appeal to the character of God

2 Cor 1:3  ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.’

When Paul would pray for the peace of the church at Thessalonica, he says: ” Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.”…

Puritans on Pride

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A few choice quotes from that wonderful collection, A Puritan Golden Treasury:-

Pride loves to climb up, not as Zacchaeus to see Christ, but to be seen.  (William Gurnall)

A proud faith is as much a contradiction as a humble devil.  (Stephen Charnock)

I may say of pride, many sins have done wickedly, but thou surmountest them all; for the wrathful man, the prodigal man,  the lascivious man, the surfeiting man, the slothful man, is rather an enemy to himself than to God; the envious man, the covetous man, the deceitful man, the ungrateful man, is rather an enemy to men than to God, but the proud man sets himself against God (because he does against His laws), he maketh himself equal with God (because he does all without God and craves no help of Him); he exalteth himself above God (because he will have his own will).…

Love of self

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The Puritan John Milward posed the question, In what sense is it lawful to love oneself?  In answering the question, he points out that Scripture teaches the sinfulness of self-love, 2 Tim 3:1-4.  The worship of self is idolatry of the most common and destructive kind.  But, although love of the sinful self is hateful, love of the natural self is good, as all divinely created things are good.

We love our bodies, and are bound to care for them, Eph 5:29; cf.…

Praying for healing

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Wayne Grudem takes, I think, a scripturally balanced view of this sensitive subject.  To summarise:-

It is right to pray for healing, Mt 6:13; 3 Jn 2.

Jesus frequently healed all who were brought to him.

A high expectation of healing is implied in our regular use of ordinary medical remedies.  We do not usually argue, “I won’t take this treatment, because it’s better for me to suffer than to be well!”

It is right to pray believingly for healing. …

Psalm 16 – Contentment – sermon notes

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Are you contented?

Alexander the Great conquered the known world.  But he was not contented.  After all his victories, he wept, because, he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”

Voltaire was a brilliant philosopher and a critic of organised religion.  He was not contented.  He wrote:  “I wish I had never been born.”

Lord Byron lived a life of hedonistic pleasure.  He was not contented.  At the age of 35, he wrote:

My days are in the yellow leaf,
The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone.…

Quotes on happiness

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1.  I submit that the whole hectic scrample after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success.  (A.W. Tozer)

2.  I never met a happy individual who was not committed to a job or cause outside himself.  Because such people have a mission in life, they are not self-centred and introspective.  For them happiness is the by-product of work and duty.  (Abraham Maslow)

3.  Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.…

1 Samuel 1 – The prayer of Hannah – sermon notes

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At last, scientific research seems to have proven what many people have suspected all along.  Prayer does not work.  Prayer does not change things.

A recent study led by cardiologists from Duke University Medical Center tested whether heart patients recovered more readily if they were prayed for.  The three year study involved 750 patients from throughout the USA and 26 prayer groups from different part of the world, including Christians in Manchester, Buddhists in Nepal and Sufi Moslems in America. …

Conscience

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‘Oh, yes,’ said the little Indian boy, ‘I know what my conscience is.  It is a little three-cornered thing in here’ – he laid his hand on his heart – ‘that stands still when I am good; but when I am bad it turns around, and the corner hurt very much.  But if I keep on doing wrong, by and by the corners wear off and it doesn’t hurt any more.’

1.  WHAT IS CONSCIENCE?

The nearest to a definition is Rom 2:14-15  This teaches that even when people do not know God’s law, they still have a very good idea about how they ought to behave, and this standard of behaviour is reinforced by the voice of conscience in their hearts. …

Prayer and revival

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We now move on to consider a vital element of our subject, namely, the indissoluble link between prayer and the coming of revival:-

[It] is God’s will, through his wonderful grace, that the prayers of his saints should be one great and principle means of carrying on the designs of Christ’s kingdom in the world…It is revealed that, when God is about to accomplish great things for his church, he will begin by remarkable pouring out the spirit of grace and supplication, Zech 12:10.

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