'Practical Christianity' Tagged Posts

'Practical Christianity' Tagged Posts

Let Us Resolve This . . . A Few Thoughts About Personal Resolutions

As this year draws to a close and the prospect of a new year reminds us again that time marches on, many will see the turning of the calendar as a their annual stimulus for personal change. Those who are stirred in this way will often try to make January 1st the day to make significant and hopefully lasting improvements in health or physical fitness, or in the area of personal or spiritual disciplines. We have come to call these…

Fiscal Hilarity

It would be difficult to imagine any giver doing so often or generously without joy in doing it. I began to be curious about giving early on. In fact, I can still picture the book on giving that my mother read to me, one of only two children’s books I remember. Later in college, my first book on George Muller, the man who fed and clothed over 10,000 orphans, made the deepest impression. I was drawn into a lifestyle that…

Fifty-five Years: Your Letter From Jim

Dear CCW family, It was 55 years ago that I first read the book, George Muller of Bristol, by A. T. Pierson. I remember where I sat to read it. It was my sophomore year at Ouachita Baptist University. I had borrowed the book from my father’s library and was sitting in the sun outside of my apartment. As I read the words and imagined the actions of Muller, I was moved deeply. Muller had fed and clothed over 10,000…

Lofty Grosart : Your Letter From Jim

Dear CCW family, Like many of you, we are aware of the battle for the mind. We are especially concerned that those who profess to know Christ do indeed know him. As we write and speak, we are always aware of deception. “These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you,” John said in the epistle of 1 John. Paul told Timothy about those who were deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim 3:13). This…

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

The little girl talked fondly to her. In fact, she had never done otherwise. And though she had only one eye, and was blind in the other, and though deaf and unable to speak, she was adored. When the other children entered into the room she instinctively embraced the helpless doll even tighter. To her, this baby was precious and nobody else could have her. But the time would come when other interests would compel the little girl to forget…

Two Kingdoms: How Christians View Their Citizenship

The greater reality as believers is that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God and of His Christ (Anointed King) and are therefore aliens in the world. This first reality competes with a second one: we are temporary citizens of a country in this world and are not yet physically in the Kingdom of God as it will be when our King returns and sets it in order. We should not be unconcerned for our temporary country where God…

On Guard Against Greed: Your Letter From Jim

Greed is an aggravation. It shows up everywhere. It is a mother sin, birthing mischievous and malevolent children. When Paul said that “our sins are common to man,” perhaps many of us should admit that greed is more common in us than most other sins. Greed’s reign commenced in the garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were not content with perfection and unfiltered fellowship with God (imagine the weight of that idea), but ate the forbidden fruit from a…

Busy Unlike Jesus

We fail to remember the walking that Christ and the apostles did. In our frenzied lives, failing to remember that these men walked every place they went may fix in us a very wrong view of Christian ministry, Jesus and his followers had time to process, to meditate, to ponder with brothers, to detoxify after encounters with lies and demons and countering authorities. Not only did the walks give them the space and time they needed, it also strengthened them…

Breathing the Air Above: Your Letter from Jim

I don’t watch television often, so for diversion I have become accustomed to reading classical literature. I’m enchanted again with a second read-through of David Copperfield by Dickens, a master at crafting personality types that we in some way identify with. Here, David is with his aged friend who likes to be called “Mr. Dick” instead of Richard. He is something of a project for David’s aunt who has become his rescuer . . . and David’s. Mr. Dick is…

Seven Principles of Finance for the Believer

One of the most recognizable differences in the believer and the world he lives in is his unusual relationship to money and possessions. However, even serious believers sometimes balk at the seeming extremities in the teaching and lifestyle of Christ and the leaders of the New Testament church. Can we duplicate this New Testament lifestyle in our day? This outline provides the diligent believer with some key principles preparing him/her for radical, other-worldly financial behavior. Alone, or if married, with…

The Unrepenting Repenter

The believer in Christ is a lifelong repenter.  He begins with repentance and continues in repentance. (Rom. 8:12-13) David sinned giant sins but fell without a stone at the mere finger of the prophet because he was a repenter at heart (2 Sam. 12:7-13). Peter denied Christ three times but suffered three times the remorse until he repented with bitter tears (Mt. 26:75). Every Christian is called a repenter, but he must be a repenting repenter. The Bible assumes the…

The Pronouns Preach: Lessons on the Glory of the Church

When reading the Bible, parts of speech make a big difference in our understanding. There are many examples, but here is one that demonstrates my point perfectly. It is found in Ephesians. I will be so bold as to say, “If you miss the pronouns, you miss the entire meaning of the epistle,” and you will miss a particularly important lesson we need today. An Illustration Ephesus was a center of pagan worship boasting one of the seven wonders of the…