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Modern Idols and the Silent Exodus: Why the Church Is Emptying—and How God Is Calling Us Back
The Old Testament is painfully honest about the downfall of God’s people. Israel and Judah did not fall because they lacked religious activity. They fell because they worshiped the wrong things—often while still claiming the name of the Lord. The prophets did not accuse Israel of atheism. They accused her of idolatry. “My people have…
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Is Idolatry Destroying the Church?
IS IDOLATRY DESTROYING THE CHURCH? That’s a perceptive—and pastoral—question. The prophets were relentless because idolatry wasn’t merely wrong worship; it was misplaced trust. The tragedy of Israel and Judah wasn’t just that they bowed to images, but that they replaced the living God with substitutes that felt safer, more visible, or more controllable. The same…
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How Can I Trust God in Hard Times? Understanding Christian Endurance
The Lord’s Prayer is famously simple. But in its simplicity lie profound truths about Christian living. The prayer begins with recognition of God’s love for us and His glory, then shifts to focus on His kingdom—the one to come and the one that lives and breathes on Earth today through God’s transformed people. Then comes…
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Sacred Time: Reflections on the Sabbath
Sacred Time: Reflections on the Sabbath Introduction: A Sacred Meeting Point in Time There is a holy moment woven into the fabric of creation—a moment when heaven bends toward earth and God invites humanity into His rest. This moment is not marked by geography, architecture, or achievement. It is marked by time. Scripture calls it…
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When Heaven Meets Earth: The Sacred Gift of the Seventh-Day Sabbath
When Heaven Meets Earth: The Sacred Gift of the Seventh-Day Sabbath “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD.”— Exodus 31:15 (NKJV) Introduction: A Sacred Meeting Point There is a moment in time—quiet, sacred, and intentional—when heaven bends toward earth, and humanity is…
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Understanding Human Value
Understanding Human Value “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) From a biblical perspective, human worth is not earned, measured, or negotiated. It is bestowed by God. Scripture consistently teaches that human value flows from who God is,…
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Biblical Lessons of Trust that Lead to Success
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16, NKJV) Below are timeless biblical lessons especially relevant for our present age: Trust God Above Circumstances Lesson: Faith is choosing to rely on God even when outcomes are uncertain. “Trust in…
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What Determines Human Worth?
What Determines Human Worth? Key Text: Isaiah 43:1 (NKJV) “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.” INTRODUCTION We live in a world that constantly assigns value—by productivity, wealth, influence, appearance, usefulness, or approval. People are praised, dismissed, elevated, or discarded based on what they can…
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The Measure of a Soul: What Determines Human Worth
The Measure of a Soul: What Determines Human Worth Welcome, friends. Today we’re asking a question that every human heart wrestles with at some point— What am I worth? And maybe even more importantly… Who decides? The world measures value by success, appearance, intelligence, usefulness, influence, and productivity. But the Bible tells a very different…
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The Supreme Sacrifice
In the back of my Bible, I have two quotations that I read very often to remind me of the direction of my preaching. The first one is: Gospel Workers, [Ellen G. White], p. 315: “The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In…
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The ‘In Christ’ Motif
When Christ came to this world 2,000 years ago, He came primarily to be the gospel, not just to explain the gospel. It is Paul who God set aside to explain the gospel. Paul tells us about himself and his ministry: Ephesians 3:8: Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given…
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The Love of God
There is no book in the whole of the Bible that so clearly and so masterfully explains the wonderful gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ than Paul’s epistle to the Romans. In this letter Paul expounds the full counsel of God pertaining to our salvation. He has told us that we are desperately sinful. He…
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Life in the Spirit
In our study of the Book of Romans, we have discovered two main facts and have had the opportunity of being totally convinced of them and of accepting them. The first is the fact of our total depravity, that we are sinners, not eighty percent but one hundred percent. From head to foot, there is…
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From Under Law to Under Grace
In Paul’s introduction to his letter to the Romans, he referred to the gospel as the power of God unto salvation, salvation not only from the condemnation and the death sentence that the law brings to us, but also from sin itself. Joseph was told that, when Jesus was born, he should give Him the…
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The Two Counterfeits
A counterfeit is something that looks like the real but it isn’t. When I was in Ethiopia my father wrote to me and said, “There is a coin, a very special coin in Ethiopia which was produced by the Italians during the five years they were there called the Maria Theresa coin.” My father is…
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The Two Adams
John tells us that, when we understand the love of God, His perfect love will cast out fear and there will be no more fear of the judgment. It is not because we are good but because, as He is, so are we in this world. But the fact that God loves us unconditionally is…
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Justification by Faith
We have discovered, basically, three major facts: We are all under sin. That means we are ruled and dominated by sin. We are slaves to sin, which means that it is impossible, and I repeat that, it is impossible for us to save ourselves through our own good works. The gospel is the righteousness of God, which…
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The Righteousness of God
In 1972, my family and I had the “privilege” of being deported from Uganda by Idi Amin. I say “privilege” because the other alternative was to be put into a concentration camp and be shot. When we left, we lost everything. Idi Amin would not allow us to even touch our bank account. Each one…
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The Signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
“Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore, be ye also ready; for in such…
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Ellen White and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
It was not long after the passing of the time, in 1844, that my first vision was given me. I was visiting Mrs. Haines at Portland, a dear sister in Christ, whose heart was knit with mine; five of us, all women, were kneeling quietly at the family altar. While we were praying, the…
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Those Who Watch Will Know
“Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore, be ye also ready; for in such…
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Jesus’ Second Coming and Matthew 24
What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” – DISCIPLES. SCOC 3.1 “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” – JESUS. Matthew 24:3, 33. SCOC 3.2 CAN anything be learned from the Bible relative to the period of the second advent? is…
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Noah’s Time And Ours
“For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” A picture of…
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Real Hope In the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
The promise of Christ’s second coming to complete the great work of redemption is the main theme of the Sacred Scriptures. Since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, the children of faith have waited for the coming of the Promised One to bring them to the lost Paradise again. GrH_a 38.1 Enoch, the…