Preacher Diaries Archives - Page 29 of 30

Peace-making

March 23, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

Possible Peace

There are multiple Biblical approaches to peacemaking, and peace is qualified. Sometimes, people have worsened the relational friction by attempting to impose on others their own conception of peace or peacemaking. Peace does not mean the naïve ‘Christly’ posture of forcing friendship with a manifest enemy, or lowering one’s guards in their presence as a fond show of ‘Christian’ trust renewed. Godliness is not stupidity. The Bible says to “put on THE WHOLE armour of God,” but tells us nowhere to put it off at any time because we feel safe (Ephesians 6:11).

God’s Regrets

March 23, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

Aborted Suicide

I was at a church service a few days ago to be with a beloved preacher visiting town. During the service, a young woman told her touching story of a narrow rescue from the edge of an ignominious grave. She had felt so frustrated with life that she was going to kill herself. She considered several suicide options and settled for what she thought was the least painful exit out of her regretted world. She was ready with the potent poison for her dispatch that evening, then she heard music from the church. She pondered that she could, at least, go and confess to God before she took the fatal step, so she headed for the church.

Deliverance and Escape

March 23, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause ME to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.

Psalm 71:2.

Two modes of preservation are highlighted in our text: deliverance and escape, both being types of salvation. God is involved in all, but to different degrees. ‘In His righteousness,’ that is, usually without reference to my rightlessness or any significant input from me, God can deliver me. At other times, however, He merely opens the door and lets me use my legs to complete the salvation process. That is, He causes ‘ME’ to consciously get myself out of the obvious danger. That is escape. Either way, God has ‘saved’ me.

Brother Hosea

March 23, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

Shattered Dreams

Imagine that you were Prophet Hosea, a young man in church, loving God with all your heart, hardworking, in the choir and prayer departments of the house of God, with lofty dreams of your wedding day and that pretty girl in the choir that you have been eyeing, whom you would soon marry after her graduation from the university next summer, and thereafter move to your new apartment in that quiet section of town. Then it happens.

LESSONS FROM RAHAB THE HARLOT

March 23, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

And the city shall be cursed, even it, and all that therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house: because she hid the messengers that we sent.

Joshua 6:17.

Treasures in a Stained Vessel

Rahab was a harlot; even the Bible identified her by that appalling trade, but she was a good person at heart, and very hospitable too. She had probably been forced into the sex trade by the difficulties of life. She hid the men that came her way, and would not deliver them to harm. Every harlot is not a devil; some of them are great souls merely stained by the constraints of a hard life.

PRINCE CHARMING

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

Genesis 34:2.

Eyes that Shouldn’t See You

That is the story of Dinah, the only known daughter of Jacob (although Genesis 34:16 speaks of “daughters”). During the 600-mile journey from Mesopotamia (where Jacob had been on exile for about twenty years) back to Canaan (as instructed by the Lord), the family passed through Shechem, a city (or “country”) that bore the same name as its iconic prince.

Dissecting Delilah

March 23, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

Languishing

There is one female gender name that has entered into history with all the connotations of disdain and shame; a pretty-sounding name that no decent mother would call her loving daughter. The name is Delilah, which, according to some Bible dictionaries, means “languishing,” and by others is translated as “delicate” – the delicate one. It is next of kin to another kindred female name, Jezebel. Delilah’s story is told in the Bible book of Judges, chapter 16, in the episode that saw the strong Samson ignobly put out of service by that woman’s soft touches.

Bedroom Terrorism

March 22, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death (Judges 16:16).

All terrorists do not carry bombs and swords; some merely carry words. All terrorists do not blow up public planes and strike off ‘heathen’ heads; some merely blow up intangible souls and decapitate dreaded dreams. One gang bleeds the body and publicly prides itself in the goriness that we cringe at in Christian civility; the other slashes the soul in dark romantic rooms with Judas kisses. Because our ears hardly hear the cry of dying souls, because the soul bleeds a blood that mortal juries do not always see, we are prone to pamper the bloodless dangerousness of swordless terrorists while we fry those that dare to publish their bloodlines in promise of a perverted paradise. It is blind and complicit partiality, but some call it justice for the ‘weak.’

The Mystery of the Mantle and the Mountain

March 21, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

Numbers 20:28.

UNTITLED GENERALS

March 21, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

Preface

I was preparing to speak at a prayer retreat of prison evangelists this evening when the words came to me during the worship: “Untitled Generals.” I instantly had a glimpse of what was meant, and quickly took down the first notes. I share here with you the rest of the message as it subsequently and more fully dawned on me.