We hear so much about preaching being divisive — I for one still hold to the belief that preaching is a true unifier — uniting men of like precious faith! In our day the landscape has become cluttered and prolific with various ensigns and banners representing divers causes and movements. Many of these flapping and […]
Category: Wisdom from our elders
Lives Changed Not Land Captured – Success Measured by Wrong Data
Vietnam was a war like no other war that American forces had ever been engaged in previously. Unlike World War I or World War II where geographical gains (or loses) were determinate of winning (or losing) battles, Vietnam, in contrast, was a war where geographic control had little to do with the overall outcome of […]
Is this a Heaven or Hell Issue?
The following is for whoever may be troubled about all those mean old preachers who preach standards that aren’t named in black and white in the New Testament. We hear a lot of people these days asking if a certain thing is a “heaven or hell issue.” I think the very term smacks of bad […]
Justification and the Law
The faith of Abraham concerns justification.The Law of Moses concerns transgression. Law has never been the basis for justification. The model for New Testament justification is rooted in the Abrahamic model and not the Mosaic model. That was the whole point of “Paul’s Gospel to the Galatians.” -JDC- The law came to protect the relationship […]
UP SCOPE! – Seeing the whole picture.
The difference between a periscope and a picture window is an obvious one… the periscope is a “one-man” view while the picture window is a “group-view” experience. The one-man view is only different, however, from the group-view in that the periscope view is one man “at a time” while the picture window view is a […]
RIDING THE RAILS – Maintaing balance
Trains, well more so, their tracks have always fascinated me. How an engine weighing tons and sometimes pulling tons and tons of cars behind it can travel on two parallel strips of very smooth steel is fascinating. The train travels on a “gauge” – a 4-foot, eight-and-a-half inch width – which is the standard in […]
Observations from an Old Preacher
After 40 odd years (well not all of them were odd) of ministry I have learned (or learning still): I. Reading the Bible and reading the Bible can be two very different things. Since the Bible is unlike any other book in human existence it therefore cannot be read like any other book. However, it […]
The Pastor's Dilemma – Weighing Between Grace & No Grace
I recall, from my youth, using a platform trip scale, similar to modern weight scales found in doctor’s offices, where you slide a weight along a rail until the trip lever raises in between its two limits of upper and lower metal bars showing that the correct weight measurement has been reached and then by […]
The Vortex of Voices
Elder J.L. Groce 5/04/12 “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” 1 Cor. 14:10 Picture, if you will, the placid face of a pool of water and observe the splash of a tossed small pebble and its resulting concentric radiating rings that […]
The Preacher & What Determines His Ministry
In reality every preacher has several facets that ultimately determines the make up of his ministry….several of these determiners are: I. HIS THOUGHTS To me the thinking process of man is an extremely complex subject. “Thoughts” are seldom without history—in other words, they are built from the collected data of one’s experiences, emotions, and general […]