A Lonely Ember
A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services
regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, one of the elders decided to visit
him. It was a chilly evening. The elder found the man at home alone, sitting
before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for the elder’s visit, the man welcomed
him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited.
The elder made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he
contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs. After some
minutes, the elder took the fire…
GIVE A DEFENSE OF YOUR HOPE
The ability to “give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” is not inborn (1 Pet. 3:15). “Defense” is translated from apologia which is a “speech in defense” (Thayer, 65). Such a defense of one's hope is to be “a reasoned statement or argument” (Online Bible Greek Lexicon). It requires deliberate faith and diligent study to learn the word of God… |
LET'S NOT BE NARROW
One of the most dreadful things many people can imagine is that they will be accused of "narrow mindedness" in religion. That literally scares them to death; the very thought that they might be considered narrow drives them completely away from the truth. Yet it should not. Truth is narrow. There is nothing liberal or generous about truth; it all narrows down to just one fact. The proper answer to the mathematical… |