First Baptist Church of Perryville Archives: April 2008
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29 April 2008
The Single Child Family
New York City is the “national capital of only children”; thirty percent of its families have just one child.1 One must go back over 60 years to the Depression to find a similar percentage. And though the national figure is only 20%, single-child families now outnumber two-child families. Picking up on the phenomenon, Vanessa Grigoriadis has written an article on the “onlies” for New York magazine:
There are many reasons to have one child—population-control arguments and lifestyle arguments as well as a general desire to be more cosmopolitan and European (where the average family size is estimated at 1.4 children)—but what are most often mentioned are late pregnancy and the cost. More American women than at any point in history are conceiving after the age of 35. It is more expensive to raise a child to age 18 than ever before . . .2 (more…)
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27 April 2008
Preparation for Conquest
Pastor John
Scripture Reference: Joshua 1:1-18
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26 April 2008
KIDNAPPED CHRISTIANS FORCED TO ‘RECONVERT’
Hindu extremists in northern India’s Himachal Pradesh state kidnapped at least 60 Christian families in late February and pressured them to “reconvert” to Hinduism, despite a new law that prevents forced conversions. (more…)
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23 April 2008
The New Civil Rights Movement?
In 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome announced he would begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses, he tried to legitimize his flouting of California law by wrapping his action in the garb of civil rights. “Rosa Parks,” he declared, “didn’t wait for the courts to tell her it was all right to ride at the front of the bus.”1 Recently, gay rights activists have taken to declaring loudly and frequently that the golden mantle of the Civil Rights Movement has fallen to them, and any opposition to their agenda is nothing but irrational prejudice and a new breed of racism.2 (more…)
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20 April 2008
Keeping our Eyes on the Living God in Prayer
George Mueller lived in England a century and a half ago. His younger life gave no indication of the greatness that lay ahead. But when Mueller came to know the God who created the universe and the supporter of all life, everything changed. The better Mueller came to know God, the more he was able to trust Him. (more…)
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20 April 2008
Rely On God
Pastor John
Scripture Reference: II Corinthians 1:1-12
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19 April 2008
Men’s Bible Study Methods
The next meeting of the men’s class on Bible study methods will be 7 AM, Saturday, May 24. We will continue learning various methods of Bible study to better understand God’s Word. (more…)
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17 April 2008
“No faith without struggle”
—Herman Bavinck (1854 – 1921)
Herman Bavinck taught theology at Kampen in Holland, and subsequently at the Free University of Amsterdam. He is highly regarded for his four volume Reformed Dogmatics—recently translated into English and published in North America. One contemporary Princeton theologian eulogized Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics saying “[t]he book is so excellent that it seems almost impossible to be too generous in its praise.”1 Bavinck’s work is marked by a deep reverence for the scriptural faith of the church—yet integrates a candid recognition of the difficulties and mysteries encountered by those who confess the one true religion. Here he reflects on some of the problems in maintaining a scripturally grounded faith. (more…)
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15 April 2008
“This is the Will of God for You: That You Abstain from Sexual Immorality”
by John Piper
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. (more…)
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14 April 2008
The Danger of Wealth
John Chrysostom
When John Chrysostom looked toward baptism in the local church, his mother was delighted. But when he said he wanted to become a monk, she made him promise not to leave her as long as she lived. John obliged, but after his mother’s death, he moved to the country to become a monk. There, John apprenticed for four years to an elderly, Syrian ascetic. He sought holiness and spent two years in a cave, pushing his body and mind to the very limit, “continually standing, scarcely sleeping, and learning the Old and New Testaments by heart,” as was the practice of the desert monks. Lack of food and heat did permanent damage to his stomach and kidneys, forcing him to resume his post as a reader in the Antiochene church.1 In the end, Chrysostom (lit. “golden mouth,” so called for his preaching) would not elude the prominence he had sought to avoid. He was appointed Bishop (senior pastor) of Constantinople in 397. But lessons learned about poverty in a humble cave would forever season his ministry. (more…)
