August 11
Chuck Colson, one-time “hatchet man” for President Nixon, was being interviewed by an Australian radio host. With just 20 seconds left, the host asked, “Mr. Colson,…the goals most people strive their whole lives for, you have achieved—only to see it collapse as you fell from the White House to prison. But now you’re out, leading a new life as a Christian. It’s like having lived two lives. How would you sum up the meaning of those two lives?” In 20 seconds? “Then in a flash the answer came. ‘If my life stands for anything,’ I said quickly, ‘it is the truth of the teaching of Jesus Christ,...
Read MoreAugust 10
Dr. Gerald McKibben comments on the current argument that the degree of similarity between the DNA of men and chimpanzees supposedly proves the evolutionary link between humans and apes: “God used DNA and RNA as the backbone of His genetic blueprints for all organisms, from one-celled ones to the great blue whale. He did not design a different blueprint system for each class of creature.” He then points out that humans share a 50% similarity with the DNA of bananas, 60% similarity with fruit flies, and 75% similarity with nematodes, a worm with the scientific name Caenorhabditis elegans. He...
Read MoreAugust 9
“Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you” (1 Pet 1:23, 25). Michael Boland, in his introduction to John Flavel’s The Mystery of Providence (p. 11), tells the story of Luke Short who heard Flavel preach in Dartmouth, England, when he was a boy. In his mid-teens, Short emigrated to New England. There he lived a long and prosperous life without much thought of God. Then Boland describes what happened: “One day as he sat in his fields reflecting upon his...
Read MoreAugust 8
The primitive churches were not mere assemblies of men who agreed to meet together once or twice a week, and to subscribe for the support of an accomplished man who should on those occasions deliver lectures on religion. They were men gathered out of the world by the preaching of the cross, and formed into society for the promotion of Christ’s kingdom in their own souls and in the world around them. It was not the concern of the ministers or elders only; the body of the people were interested in all that was done, and according to their several abilities and stations, took part in it....
Read MoreAugust 7
Col. Robert Ingersoll, the apostle of agnosticism in nineteenth century America, once had the task of speaking at his brother’s funeral in Washington, DC. In the middle of his talk, he broke down and wept bitterly. Then, regaining his composure, he said: “Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of a wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word.” What utter hopelessness! Is there a way out of miasmatic fog of human speculation? Thank...
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