By Rick Jones In the justice department it’s known as THE FERGUSON EFFECT. As criminals are increasingly brazen and citizens are increasingly critical of law-enforcement, law and order is giving way to mayhem and anarchy. Violent crime in our cities is rising at an alarming rate. Murder is up 33% over last year in greater St. Louis. In our schools it’s known as THE INDISCIPLINE EFFECT. Some of the finest teachers in the nation are throwing up their hands in despair and calling it quits. Unable...

IT IS NOT GOD’S plan for His people to be lean in their souls, yet there are multitudes of professed Christians who are below the level in spiritual blessing. Soul leanness is noticed by loved ones, friends, the people of the world and most of all by the blessed Christ. Soul leanness is inexcusable. Here was the king’s son, with free access to the king’s table and yet coming up lean from day to day. We can understand why spiritually ignorant people in sin might try to find satis-faction in...

“For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Rev. 12:10b-11) In Part One of this series we emphasized the first part of our text regarding knowing our enemy. In Part Two, we are emphasizing the last part of our text regarding overcoming our enemy. Indeed, we have a formidable enemy whose abilities far surpass our...

Dear Church Goer, I write to you today from a heart of love and concern regarding a growing trend that troubles me, and one that I fear is eating away at the core of our personal and church values. As long as I can remember, Sunday School has been a regular part of my family’s Sunday worship routine. Although there were many times as a young person that I did not want to go, nor did I get anything out of the lessons, a habit and a pattern was formed for which I am very grateful. Although it...

“For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”—Rev. 12:10b-11 The setting for these verses is in the middle of the Tribulation. It speaks of the ejection of Satan and his angels from the heavenly realm to the earth following a battle in the heavenly realm with Michael and his angels. The Tribulation days will be...

By Larry Grile For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”—II Tim. 1:7 The great elderly apostle Paul is writing to Timothy, his son in the faith, for the last time. Like a mentor, Paul had taken Timothy into his ministry and shared a tender affection with him. Paul was rightly concerned that Timothy, who was by nature less aggressive than Paul, would be strong and would continue faithful to the ministry and the message. Paul had laid his...

THE LIGHT ON THIS precious doctrine of Christian Assurance has shone more brightly ever since the night of John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience. He said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Wesley was thirty-five years old at the time of his Aldersgate experience. He then began a long ministry of over fifty years. The...