There is a tendency in man to disregard God's government in preference for personal autonomy (auto--self; nomos, rule). He wants to rule himself–without interruptions. Illustrations of the fact are numerous.  You see them everywhere, on bumper stickers, in magazines and newspapers, everywhere.  Perhaps the most all-inclusive statement of it is seen in this generation's proclivity to “do your own thing,” or “it’s my life, I can handle it!”

            Jeremiah sounded the warning. so did Solomon.  Jeremiah said, “...it is not in man that walketh…

            Christians are familiar with the responsibility of parents to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph.6:4).  As a result of their love for the Lord and their children, many are very conscientious in this area.  And, many are ultimately rewarded with godly, mature, devoted offspring.

            On the other hand, there are godly parents who do exactly as described and get the opposite results.  It’s tragic, heartbreaking and discouraging.

            The discouragement is often…

            “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

            This well-known commandment makes it very clear what our responsibility is when it comes to assembling with the saints. Faithful attendance is a direct command and we should desire to gather together with those of like precious faith to worship…

            It is almost unfair to try and write a discourse on the providence of God in so short a space, seeing that His providence touches every facet of our lives–from here to eternity.

            The term has been damaged by mis-use and mis-applications of various sorts. If it can be viewed in our lives, it has to be done mostly retrospectively and not prospectively, seeing that we don’t always know if a certain happening is God’s providence or a “time and chance happens to them all”…

    In a sermon several years ago now, Brother Bowman remarked how “Hope is the apparatus that reaches out into our future and affixes itself to that for which we long.”  I can still remember how much I liked the way this sounded, I wrote it down immediately and have obviously committed it to memory.  It wasn’t until a few more years had passed that what had been a really neat way of framing a concept took on a great deal more significance.  My Mother returned to the Lord in 2013 after 40 years away … this expression now had…

By David Diestelkamp

By Leslie Diestelkamp

Instead of arguing my case and then stating a conclusion, I shall first of all state my premise and then make the arguments. The New Testament clearly teaches salvation by faith, but we must recognize that faith does not save because of what it is but because of what it does in the heart of the believer.

By David Diestelkamp

Even a superficial examination of the statement “Do as I say, not as I do,” immediately produces the stink of hypocrisy. I suppose it is said with the wishful thinking that others (mostly children under our influence) won’t copy what we know to be our inconsistent and bad behavior – that somehow saying what is right will impress them more than the wrong actions they see in us.

By David Diestelkamp

"I'm okay" has become a standard response whether or not one really is okay. "Okay" has come to mean everything and nothing at the same time.