FAIR SUNSHINE

Our time here at Grotto did bring with it a strange blessing and no small intellectual exercise, for I encountered a Romanist apologist, Timothy, whose knowledge of Church history was notably sharp and well-practiced—a rare thing indeed in all my years of public ministry. He contended earnestly for the doctrines of the Roman Catholic faith, speaking with confidence and no small familiarity in matters historical and theological. Yet however fluent a man may be in defense, however learned his arguments may appear, he cannot escape the necessity of confronting the most fundamental question of truth: Is the finished work of Christ upon the Cross ultimately sufficient, or is it deficient? Must the soul trust God fully, resting upon the blessed assurance that its Salvation in Christ is altogether complete and needing nothing else? Or must the anxious heart still be compelled to add to what God hath already accomplished, believing the Divine work to be deficient? In this essential dichotom...

The observance of Holy Week is, in the Philippines, a deeply rooted custom. Even before I had fully grasped its spiritual significance as a mere child, the people were already flocking to this sacred site in Bulacan whenever the solemnity of Good Friday drew near. Their pilgrimage commences upon the Thursday, with souls pouring in from all corners of the metro, some even traversing the considerable distance from Cavite entirely on foot, determined to arrive in time for the awful reflection of the Lord's Passion. The roads for many kilometres are forthwith blocked and surrendered to the multitude, the highway becoming a river of humanity. Thus, even those who attempt the usual conveyance must still finish their journey by walking a considerable distance to reach the ground. I recall the year of my adolescence when a neighbour invited this writer to undertake the journey on foot. We departed our dwelling at the fourth hour of the afternoon and arrived just before the chiming of midni...

Let us maintain a sober and necessary distinction between those who merely criticize the spiritual decay of the age and those who, in the fear of the Almighty, labor against it. There is a vast gulf separating those who simply affirm the existence of error from those who are truly broken before God because of the transgression! Verily, a great chasm separates those who merely attend the assembly and those who, in humility, worship God in Spirit and in Truth. As the sacred record laments, the wicked doth often surround the righteous, wherefore wrong judgments abound in the public square and even within the courts of the Church (Habakkuk 1:4) . Of such wrong judgments is born a grievous lack of urgency for the advancement of Christ's eternal Kingdom—a damnable disease we call complacency. This slothful spirit doth stand in direct violation of the LORD's solemn command to "occupy" our appointed posts until His glorious return (Luke 19:13) . We must affirm that the as...

Father doth bless the work by turning the ministry of the Children’s Church in a more experiential direction: seeking to implant in the little ones a consciousness of the deep, humbling reality of the heart’s corruption, even in their tender years. We are forced, hourly, to acknowledge that we are totally inadequate to communicate the glorious salvation of Christ with the requisite power, and thus we know that our strength and help cometh from the LORD alone! We grieve to report that the cruel affliction of molested children is lamentably common in this locality—a silent plague where, tragically, the parents and immediate relatives are often found to be the heinous offenders. With fear and trembling, we taught the children that their innocent bodies were a gift bestowed by the Lord to be theirs alone, and that no other person, save their own mothers in needful instances, should touch or gaze upon them in parts that ought to be private. They were given solemn warnings to be keenly aware...