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"For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me" (Romans 7:14-17). Believers have been freed from sin's power, but not from its presence....

"All Scripture is . . . profitable for . . . reproof" (2 Tim. 3:16). People who aren't interested in holy living will avoid being exposed to sound doctrine. Paul instructed Timothy to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction" (2 Tim. 4:2). He knew a time was coming when many people would reject sound doctrine, and "wanting to have their ears tickled, [would] accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and . . . turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn...

October 29, 2015 Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Rom 8:31b-39 Brothers and sisters:If God is for us, who can be against us?He did not spare his own Sonbut handed him over for us all,how will he not also give us everything else along with him?Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones?It is God who acquits us.Who will condemn?It is Christ Jesus who died, rather, was raised,who also is at the right hand of God,who indeed intercedes for us.What will separate us from the love of Christ?Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or...

THIS IS WRITTEN FOR THOSE CHRISTIANS who may have missed a formal education. Let no one despair. A do-it-yourself education is better than none. It can be acquired by the proper use of our mental powers. Our intellectual activities in the order of their importance may be graded this way: first, cogitation; second, observation; third, reading. I wish I could include conversation in this short list. One would naturally suppose that verbal intercourse with congenial friends should be one of the most profitable of all mental activities; and it may have been so once but no more. It is now...

“And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me” (Romans 7:9-11). The law shatters all of man’s attempts at self-righteousness. The old saying “ignorance is bliss” is rarely true, and in the spiritual realm it is deadly. As a Pharisee, one of the rising stars of first-century Judaism (Gal. 1:14), Paul thought himself very much “alive apart from the...

"All Scripture is . . . profitable for . . . reproof" (2 Tim. 3:16). Scripture is the standard by which you must measure all teaching. In November of 1978, United States Representative Leo Ryan of California visited the People's Temple (a California- based cult) in Guyana. He went to investigate reports that some of the people were being held there against their will. The world was shocked to learn that the congressman and his party had been ambushed and killed. Even more shocking was the grim discovery that followed a few days later. Authorities who entered the compound at...

The Vatican synod on the family concluded over the weekend – with somewhat inconclusive results that were open to multiple interpretations. While there were many topics of conversation – including homosexuality, cohabitation and contraception – much of the focus fell on Catholics who have been divorced and remarried without an annulment, and the debate over whether the church would allow them to receive Communion. The synod’s final document, with each paragraph approved by at least two-thirds of the 265 voting bishops in attendance, did not take a clear stance on the issue, but some observers expect Pope Francis may leave...

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates” (vv. 30–31). - Proverbs 31:28–31 Having explored the industriousness, wisdom, kindness, and other attributes of the excellent wife in Proverbs 31:10–27, the author of this poetic conclusion to the book of Proverbs brings his discussion to a crescendo with words of praise for this woman. Given the great blessing that she is to her family and community, this is the most fitting response that can...

As I have mentioned before, "Fantasy Islam" is a popular game among many non-Muslims and so-called “moderate” or “reformist” Muslims. Reza Aslan appears to be such a Muslim. Reza Aslan was born in Iran. In 1979, at the age of seven, he and his family fled the Iranian Revolution and came to the United States. At the age of 15 he converted to evangelical Christianity, but later returned to Islam. His website states that he is “an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions.” He is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside...Aslan stated that...

The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa has voted to recognize same-sex marriages and will start ordaining gay ministers without a celibacy clause. The DRC has been criticized by other Christian denominations, including by the Roman Catholic Church, for going against biblical doctrine. DRC Moderator explained the decision, arguing that "It is historical because with this decision we actualy are at a point where there can be no doubt that the Dutch REformed Church is serious about human dignity.""And you know that we are living in this country where we have so many problems with the dignity of people."..Catholic Church...

There was a time when Church and State cooperated – when governing powers welcomed the influence of Judeo-Christian values and sought to harmonize its laws with morality. But since the radical secularization of Western society, Christians have been forced into an adversarial, politically incorrect role, much like the early Church in times of persecution. Since a "culture of death" began to dominate the West, genuine Christians have become counter-cultural. The leader of America's largest Protestant denomination, Dr. Albert Mohler, applies this Christian counter-culturalism to the latest politically correct trend in society: the approval of sodomy and sodomitical relationships – in...

October 28, 2015   Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles Reading 1 Eph 2:19-22 Brothers and sisters:You are no longer strangers and sojourners,but you are fellow citizens with the holy onesand members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.Through him the whole structure is held togetherand grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;in him you also are being built togetherinto a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Responsorial Psalm PS 19:2-3, 4-5 R. (5a) Their message goes out through all the earth.The heavens...

“But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead” (Romans 7:8). When confronted with God’s holy law, sinful men are motivated not to obey it, but to break it. It is a perverse fact of fallen human nature that the surest way to get people to do things is to tell them not to do them. When people see a sign reading “Keep off the grass!” or “Don’t pick the flowers!” their first impulse is often to trample the grass and take some flowers. The same is...

October 27, 2015 Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Rom 8:18-25 Brothers and sisters:I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothingcompared with the glory to be revealed for us.For creation awaits with eager expectationthe revelation of the children of God;for creation was made subject to futility,not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,in hope that creation itselfwould be set free from slavery to corruptionand share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;and...

Ten years after publication of Who Was Adam? by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross, 13 new chapters detail the new scientific evidence on the origins of humankind in a second edition.Rana and Ross are scholars affiliated with Reasons to Believe, which also published the new edition of Who Was Adam? RTB works to spread the Gospel by showing how science supports the truths found in Scripture. Rana and Ross both have doctorate degrees in the physical sciences, biochemistry and astronomy, respectively. Unlike most second editions, this one leaves the original edition alone and adds the new chapters onto the original.During an interview...

October 26, 2015 Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Rom 8:12-17 Brothers and sisters,we are not debtors to the flesh,to live according to the flesh.For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,but you received a spirit of adoption,through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”The Spirit himself bears witness with our spiritthat...

In an explosive report we learn that ever since 2012, the United States has been spying on Israel in order to prevent the Jewish State from attacking suspected Iranian nuclear sites, according to Friday’s Wall Street Journal. The White House had sent an additional aircraft carrier to the region after learning that Israeli aircraft had flown into Iranian airspace in what U.S. officials feared was a test run for an attack on Iran’s Fordow plant. The carriers had attack aircraft on board prepared to respond to any Israeli attack on Iran. If that wasn’t enough to strain the conceit that...

October 25, 2015 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 31:7-9 Thus says the LORD:Shout with joy for Jacob,exult at the head of the nations;proclaim your praise and say:The LORD has delivered his people,the remnant of Israel.Behold, I will bring them backfrom the land of the north;I will gather them from the ends of the world,with the blind and the lame in their midst,the mothers and those with child;they shall return as an immense throng.They departed in tears,but I will console them and guide them;I will lead them to brooks of water,on a level road, so that none...

A great scene reminding us to search what we have done as we accuse others.

October 24, 2015   Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Rom 8:1-11 Brothers and sisters:Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesushas freed you from the law of sin and death. For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do,this God has done:by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful fleshand for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us,who live not...