The great chapter on faith in the Bible is Hebrews 11. I have always found the first verse difficult to understand. So I resorted to the most highly rated commentary on “Hebrews”, that by William L. Lane. Now there areRead More »Hebrews 11:1
Peter thought that he was strong enough to go to prison or even die for Jesus. But he was shown his utter weakness. On the contrary Jesus was going to die for him. And he was going to deny JesusRead More »” … that your faith may not fail.”
Two teenagers asked me whether there was more likelihood of our prayers being answered if we had more faith. That has sent us all on a voyage of discovery…. We all, I am sure, remember Jesus’ encounter with the centurionRead More »Faith and the Centurion
Have you ever seen a mustard seed? It’s an absolute speck! What has this got to do with faith? Quite a lot, actually. Or at least Jesus thought so…. The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And theRead More »The Mustard Seed
In the last two posts we have seen five characteristics of a man after God’s own heart. What else made David such a man? Sixthly, David knew who he was – a covenant child of the Living God. Goliath hadRead More »A Covenant Child
We saw in my last post some of the characteristics of a man after God’s own heart. Today we see more of what it means to be such a man or woman. Fourthly, when convicted of sin David repented immediatelyRead More »A Humble and Contrite Heart
We all know that David was a man after God’s own heart. But why? And we all want to be a man or woman after God’s own heart, right? At least, I do. And I bet you do too. SoRead More »A Man After God’s Own Heart
Get a copy of The Evidence for the Christian Faith
I used to show teenagers two DVDs as evidence.
One was called “Changes”.1 Various surfers tell about how they encountered Jesus. The story of Chris O’Rourke, the last one on the DVD, is particularly moving. By 1976, at the age of seventeen, he was the top-ranked surfer on mainland America. Then cancer struck. He was led to Christ by another surfer, Brew Briggs. Brew had become a Christian earlier, and had tried sharing his faith with his fellow surfers. “But they didn’t want to listen!”
But facing death, Chris did. Once a Christian, he had an amazing influence on many, including his arch rival, Joey Buran. Joey knew he would never be the top surfer in California as long as Chris was fit. Describing himself as brash and cocky, he found himself seated next to a very ill Chris on a non-stop flight to Australia, with no other seat free on the plane. Chris questioned him on the fulfilment he found in surfing and witnessed to him about Jesus the whole way to Australia.
Recently I was asked to preach as a visitor at a local church. The vicar is a friend of mine. He asked me what I intended to preach on.
“All things,” I said.
“That’s far too broad a subject!”
“No, Allan, not everything. ‘All things.’”
Many years ago God had drawn my attention to the constant repetition of the phrase “all things” in the NASB Bible that I used. I began to compile a list of Scriptures containing this phrase. They speak powerfully about God and our response to Him. I would like to share some of them with you.
All of them, I believe, will challenge us.
