Having begun his professional life believing in the promise of communism, British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge abandoned this utopian dream in the 1930s. Coming to Christ in 1969, he emerged as a cultural critic who saw groundless vanity in suggestions that human achievement or human error could save or ruin everything. Lord Jesus was the glorious, redemptive constant, a truth often recognized only when all else failed.

  Simone Weil, the French philosopher, displayed an uncommon clarity when it came to exposing human evil. Having seen first hand the horrors that engulfed Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, she was well acquainted with ordinary people’s capacity for wickedness and gave much thought to how this could be. One of her most startling conclusions was that: “Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.”1

  3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:3 (ESV)

Pastor John Scripture Reference: Isaiah 12:1-6

  On his twenty-ninth birthday, a Dominican monk discontented with the priesthood knew he was in trouble. Martin Bucer had publicly allied himself with the Reformation and his superiors were prepared to try him. On November 11, 1520, he wrote Wolfgang Capito in the court of Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz pleading to be released from his order. It was agreed to, but with the stipulation that Bucer remain a priest. He consented; however, with Luther as his guide, Bucer married in 1522.1 The Reformation’s dawn meant changes to the priesthood and, as Bucer would later promote, to marriage and divorce.

  Jonathan Lamb serves as one of the directors of Langham Partnership International, an organization committed to encouraging expository biblical preaching. His book Integrity: Leading with God Watching (2006) is a challenge to pastors. He wrote of a conversation with Christian leaders who wanted to argue that their credibility depended upon visible success. These leaders despised the prosperity gospel but nonetheless argued “that dressing well and having a reasonable car and an appropriate title were all necessary elements of a leadership style which won an audience.” Lamb’s response, based upon 2 Corinthians 6:8-10, offers a perspective sadly missing in the […]

  When an international consortium of geneticists announced in the summer of 2005 their discovery that humans and chimpanzees share some 96% of their DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) structure, the scientific establishment responded with what amounted to a collective “We told you so!” Francis S. Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which funded the study, greeted the news with satisfaction, saying he could not think of a better way to prove Darwin’s theory of evolution “short of a time machine.”1 Robert H. Waterson, one of the directors of the study, agreed: “I couldn’t imagine Darwin hoping for stronger […]

Pastor Chris Scripture Reference: I Corinthians 15: 1-5