FAIR SUNSHINE

Posting this for record's sake, as the topic is of much importance. Chapter 1 of What is the Church by R.C. Sproul In the seventeenth chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus gives the most extensive prayer that is recorded for us in the New Testament. It is a prayer of intercession in which He prayed for His disciples and for all who would believe through the testimony of the disciples. That prayer is called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. One of the central themes of that prayer is Christ’s request to the Father that His people might be one. It was a prayer for Christian unity. Yet here we are, in the twenty-first century, and the church is probably more fragmented than at any time in church history.  We've seen a crisis with the question, "What is the church after all?" Historically, via the ancient church council of Nicea, the church has been defined by four key words. It is, 1) one, 2) holy, 3) catholic, and 4) apostolic. As we study the nature of the church, I want to look ...

After the patient space of one full year dedicated to the humble discipline of Family Worship, it hath now pleased the LORD to mercifully birth the reading of the Holy Scripture into four new households this year. This is a visible testament to the Sovereign’s pleasure! Our own young ones, having been diligently instructed in this sacred practice, have carried the custom learned in our home directly into their respective dwellings. With a commendable zeal, they now intentionally read the Scriptures to their own unbelieving families—a work of bold, spontaneous evangelism. A visible stirring is already observed amongst those who have heard the Living Word thus plainly read. The very heartbeat of this ministry in the home is to magnify the reality of God's great glory as the Scriptures are opened and the Psalms are either read or sung—and by the whole family participating in unison. The precious fruit of all this labor, however, is not presumed by us, but is dutifully left to God’s ow...

So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul, and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on your brow; Teaching them to your children, and talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up: Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns: So that your days, and the days of your children, may be long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens. For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking in all his ways and being true to him: Deuteronomy 11:18-22 / 6:7-9 The gift of family worship, was given to us April of last year and has continued non-stop 7 days a week till this day. It also gave birth to the weekly prayer meeting in which the whole gathering participates, all thanks be to God for the great kindness He evidenced through the exa...

It is an inescapable truth that there is a weighty and strange, prevailing disparity between the open passions of the world's devotees and the quiet, retiring disposition of the Christian soul. I have paused many a time to ponder why the adherents of novel and unconventional ideologies seem ever so unreserved, so vocal, and so insistent in the public square, while we, who hold the veritable key to eternal life, keep our profession of faith confined to the muted corners of our chapel walls. The question presents itself with poignant clarity: Why do Sodomites who promote sin and degeneracy labor with such determined effort to present their tales to the very innocents in the school-room, when the Christian father and mother, knowing the priceless worth of sacred Scripture, so often permit a day to pass without committing to the reading of the Bible with their own dear children at home? Must we not feel a prick of conscience to see those Mormons who follow a misguided phantom of a d...

My wife takes our current house help through the pages of the New Testament each day before starting work. Her life is unbelievably difficult, and seemingly hopeless. Singled out by her in-laws for her background, she struggles between being beaten and maltreated by her husband, disrespected by her children, and having nowhere to turn to, till she found solace in talking about the Lord. As believers we are to treat each soul brought to us by the Lord as a candidate for His mercy. Each gasoline boy, driver, or security guard, a recipient of a gospel tract. These bread crumbs, done consistently and without regard for numbers, will one day surprise us in heaven. I tend to imagine a soul in heaven approaching me saying, "Remember that one tract you gave at such a place? The Lord used that to save me. And now I am here to worship God forever because you obeyed."

Some gain the things of this world in the strength of their youth at the cost of the next life, and all they have are rusty memories that die with them. While some set their eyes upon eternal things at the cost of this temporal life, and gain a crown that will never fade away. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first. Matthew 19:29-30