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| He who asks the questions controls the agenda. |
| To a large degree, the results of any questionnaire are built into the questions themselves. A typical question doesn't have an unlimited number of possible answers. While questions can be used to clarify issues, they also can be used to muddy the waters and create doubt and uncertainty in the mind... Read More |
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| If things continue as they're going, someday when someone says God is love, He'll have to respond, "Not if that's what you mean." |
The word love has become cheapened to the point where it is not uncommon to hear someone say "I saw two dogs making love" or speak of "homosexual lovers" or say "I just love apple pie." Then, in the next breath, they may say that God is love. As long as the English language has only... Read More |
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| If you don't think for yourself, others will do your thinking for you. |
| There are certainly other people who would be happy to do your thinking for you. But this is no time for you to have a favorite guru. In matters having to do with faith and morals, it is generally not safe to be a disciple of anyone. God hasn't put, as it were, all His eggs in one basket. To be a... Read More |
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| Once we accept the lifestyle of the practicing homosexual as the base line for morality, adultery and fornication cease to be issues. |
| Romans 1:26, 27 is the major New Testament text regarding homosexuality. It includes both men and women. Fornication and adultery are consistently condemned throughout Scripture. But for that matter so is pride, selfishness, murder, and stealing. The issue isn't who are sinners and who are not or... Read More |
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| The charismatic churches may well be receiving the false latter rain. |
| Today some of the charismatic churches are mega-churches. (A mega-church is a large church that has two thousand or more worshippers for a typical weekly service.) They own radio and television networks. More than that, the charismatic churches have become role models. They compose the music we... Read More |
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| The diagnosis of dysfunction has made repentance seem unnecessary. |
While it is true that we are all to some extent dysfunctional because sin is dysfunction, this word as used in the contemporary culture means that anybody and everybody but me is responsible for my problem. No one is more maligned by this view of life than are our parents.... Read More |
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| The pop doctrine of self-love (self-esteem) tends to put the gospel into gridlock. |
| Loving ourselves comes naturally. Yet, if we are to be whole emotionally and spiritually, we must be loved by someone besides ourselves. In other words, we must know that someone loves us. The church wasn't meant to be a place where we come and hear that we should love ourselves. Rather, it was... Read More |
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| The Religious Right is not the only group about which we should be concerned. |
| The devil doesn't work only with the Religious Right movement but also with all God-denying, humanistic, pagan elements of society. It is important that we don't inadvertently align ourselves with the Left against the Religious Right. There are powerful forces at work on both sides, and the Right... Read More |
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| The word acceptance has largely replaced the word repentance in much contemporary preaching. |
| It is increasingly common to hear sermons that assure the listeners that Jesus accepts them just the way they are. On the face of it, this may sound comforting. But think about it for a moment. Do we really expect Jesus to accept us the way we are? To accept me the way I am means that I am... Read More |
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| There are nine other commandments in addition to the fourth. |
| The Ten Commandments are divided into two parts. The first four commandments are spiritual issues governing our relationship with God, and as such should not be regulated by law. The other six commandments, however, govern our relationship with each other, and as such must be legislated if our... Read More |
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| There are questions that have only wrong answers. |
Can you answer the question, "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Jesus recognized the danger of trying to answer every kind of question. Sometimes instead of replying to a trick question, Jesus would catch them at their own game. He would ask them a question that for them... Read More |
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