Podcasts about Malcolm Muggeridge

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveWhy do artists try so hard to shock the public? Why is Kanye West singing about Hitler? Why are New York artists dabbling with fascism?The novelist and cultural critic Țara Isabella Burton joins Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos to discuss these questions and more. Last week, Tara published an essay on Wisdom of Crowds titled “The Point of Pissing People Off.” In it, she tries to figure out whether there is something positive at work in transgression and provocation — something good that comes out of shocking art.All three of our conversationalists agree: Kanye is not really being transgressive. But is there a good version of transgression? Tara suggests that we should think about transgression as a genre, with a certain form and structure, that can either succeed or fail. Damir is skeptical of analyzing transgression, and prefers to think of it as a moment of ecstasy. Santiago wonders if transgression is important for self-knowledge, and something valuable for society as a whole.In the course of the conversation, many transgressive works and artists are discussed, among them: Piss Christ; Madonna; Georges Bataille; the Marquis de Sade; and more.In our bonus section for paid subscribers, Damir talks about the difference between analyzing transgressive art and consuming transgressive art, and why he prefers the latter; Damir discusses the difference between the punk rock of his day, where Reagan was the enemy, and the transgressive art today, which hails Trump as a leader; Tara, Santiago, and Damir trade thoughts about the French Revolution; Santiago tries to get Damir to explain what he means when he talks about “the stuff”; they discuss the question of whether love is as powerful as transgression; Damir talks about his favorite part of the Gospels; and Tara talks about kitsch.Required Reading and Listening:* Tara, “The Point of Pissing People Off” (Wisdom of Crowds).* Tara, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World (Amazon).* Tara, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians (Amazon).* Damir's discography from his punk rock days (Discogs).* Damir's music with his band, The Miss (Bandcamp).* Kanye West, “Heil Symphony” (Spotify).* “Kanye West's ‘Heil Hitler' Song & Controversy Explained” (Yahoo! Entertainment). * The new Fiume Gallery in New York.* Piss Christ by Andres Serrano (Artchive).* Madonna, “Material Girl” (YouTube).* Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Amazon).* Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye (Amazon).* Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (Amazon).* Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (Amazon).* Previous podcast episode where Damir says, “That's the stuff!” (Wisdom of Crowds).* Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge, a book about Mother Teresa (Amazon).Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

In this episode, Carrie has delved back into the archives of cassette tapes, where she finds an interview of Malcolm Muggeridge and her father, Dr Rev Tony Lloyd, talking about Mother Teresa, in 1983 - what she was like and how she saw the world. A beautiful and touching insight into the power of compassion and mission based focus. How without love, nothing can change.

Są osoby, które pozostają w cieniu, ale odgrywają kluczową rolę w historii naszego życia i duchowej przemiany. Opowiem historię Ludwika Solskiego, który w krótkiej, symbolicznej scenie na scenie teatralnej pokazał, że nawet najdrobniejsza rola może stać się kultowa. Następnie pochylimy się nad Ewangelią o synu marnotrawnym, by dostrzec niezwykłe znaczenie sług, którzy swoją codzienną troską zmienili bieg czyjegoś życia.Usłyszysz także przejmujące historie nawróceń wybitnych osób takich jak Malcolm Muggeridge, który przez przypadkowe spotkanie z Matką Teresą odnalazł sens życia i nawrócił się do Boga. Poznasz wzruszającą przemianę Władysława Reymonta, który na pielgrzymce na Jasną Górę odkrył prawdziwą głębię ludzkiego serca, oraz poruszającą spowiedź Aleksandra Zawadzkiego, komunistycznego działacza, którego przemiana dokonała się dzięki pokornej interwencji kapłana.Zapraszam Cię, byś odkrył jak Bóg posługuje się nami w momentach, których nawet nie jesteśmy świadomi. Może właśnie Ty jesteś tym sługą, który odmieni czyjeś życie?

Garth Heckman  The David Alliance TDAgiantslayer@gmail.com     Website: www.aegisdefensesolutions.com Insta:   For anyone in IL. Luke is a linseed professional counselor who specializes with kids, teens, and families in Christian Counseling. If you or someone you know is struggling with anxiety, mood challenges, ADHD, and other mental health concerns, reach out to Luke   https://www.whitestoneresources.com/counselors-list/lmerrill   My media channels all go to Garth Heckman    Text me 30 second interviews of you asking people “whats it take to be a man”     You've seen the shirt… but did you die… it's supposed to be funny… but truly when I see it I always shrug with a little disappointment and say no unfortunately I did not…. Death I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. - Mark Twain Death The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. - Mark Twain   DEATH   Lisa Rotgrak is the author of a book called Death Warmed Over, a combination cookbook and sociological study of funeral meals and rituals. She starts it with the story of a man dying at home in bed. He could smell the aroma of chocolate chip cookies--his favorite--baking downstairs. He wanted one more cookie before he died.   He dragged his body out of bed, rolled down the stairs, crawled into the kitchen, and reached out a trembling arm to grasp one final cookie, when he felt the sting of a spatula smack his hand. "Put that back," his wife said. "They're for the funeral."   The rich fool had many cookies, and he thought they were all for him. "This is what I'll do," says the rich fool. "I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods."   One more barn. One more crop. One more cookie. Then one night out comes the spatula. "Whack." "They don't belong to you. They're for the funeral."   Ask not for whom the spatula whacks. It whacks for thee.   --as reported in John Ortberg's new book, When the Game Is Over It All Goes Back in the Box (Zondervan, 2007):     “If it weren't for death, life would be unbearable.” –Malcolm Muggeridge. We have eternal life to look forward to; if we didn't, life would be meaningless     No one escapes death… A driver, who crashed into the side of a 3000-ton wheat train and was dragged in his car more than a kilometer before being slammed into a pylon at the edge of a cliff, fell to his death as he walked for help.  The Queensland, Australia man, 63, and his female companion, 64, were driving along the Newell Highway near Moree, in Northwestern New South Wales, on Wednesday night, police said.  Their car crashed into the side of a fully laden, 600-meter long train at a level crossing. (I guess that would be harder to miss than the side of a barn!) The vehicle became wedged between the second last and last carriages and was dragged sideways beside the track as the train continued towards Moree, a police spokeswoman said.  After being carried more than a kilometer and a half they approached an unfenced bridge with a 10-meter drop, the spokeswoman said. Moments before they reached the precipice, the car was struck by a pylon, dislodged from the train and spun several times. When it came to rest, the pair managed to free themselves from the wreck (I wonder if it was a Volvo?) with minor bruising and the man set off along the railway line for help. But he slipped on the bridge and fell to his death, the spokeswoman said.  The woman was eventually able to raise the alarm and was recovering in Moree hospital with chest injuries.   Are you ready to die… I am, I can't wait…  Jim Elliot (slain missionary) "When the time comes to die, make sure that all you have to do is die!"

Malcolm Muggeridge prayed, “Lord, help us never to lose the wonder.” I wonder. Have we lost the wonder? Our awe is too quickly eclipsed by “awwww!” We have seen it all. Nothing new under the sun. The early believers lived with an eye to the sky, knowing that Christ would return. Today we light one candle, but there are more to come. Stand on your tiptoes. The baby born in Bethlehem will someday come in the clouds and every eye will see him as the trumpet sounds. How then shall we live? Holy. The New Testament writers connect our eschatology with our ethics, our hope with holiness. Message based on 2 Peter 3:8-13. Quotes:Duane Brooks: Our eschatology informs our ethics.  Hope of Christ's return leads us to live holy lives. Duane Brooks: God is being patient, he wants to keep his promise, don't take it from granted why not turn from sin now. Emily Dickens: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all, and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm. I've heard it in the strangest land and on the chilliest sea, yet never in extremity, it asked a thing of me.Duane Brooks: Love that expects us to become exceptional, obedience speeds up his return. Stuart Hamblen: All things are possible with God, it is no secret what God can do. Christ comes to us everyday. Because I knew Christ I knew I would be changed for good. Bernard of Clairvaux talked about three advents:  Christ's first coming; his coming to us now by his Spirit and the coming in which he judges the world.To discover more messages of hope go to tallowood.org/sermons/.Follow us on Instagram, X, and YouTube @tallowoodbc.Follow us on FaceBook @tallowoodbaptist

Our sermon text this morning is Proverbs 6:20-35. That is found on page 630 in the provided Bibles. Solomon is returning to the sensitive but important topic of adultery. This is his second lesson on the issue. In Chapter 5, he introduced it by making the case for faithfulness in marriage, faithfulness in the pattern of marriage that God designed. When we were in chapter 5, one important thing we discussed is the forgiveness that we have in Christ. Believers in Jesus are forgiven of all our sin. And that includes our sexual sin. In him, we have redemption, and in him we are being restored and renewed. Keep that in mind as we continue to navigate God's Word in these matters. As we now come to these verses in chapter 6, Solomon shifts his focus to two things. 1.) Where adultery begins, and 2) the cost of adultery. So, as I read, listen for the cause and the consequences of infidelity. Let's now come to God's Word. Stand Reading of Proverbs 6:20-35 Prayer In the early 20th century One of the great British journalists was Malcolm Muggeridge. He served in World War 1, graduated from Cambridge, lived in India for a period of time, and edited several periodicals in England. For most of his life, Muggeridge was agnostic to God. That means he didn't care about or consider God; but then later in life, Muggeridge converted to Christianity. In his diary and letters, he often reflected back on the things that eventually led him to Christ. One of those was his struggle with lust. In a letter to his father, Muggeridge recounted one suchincident in India when he was younger. At the time, Muggeridge had fantasized about infidelity… the allure of adultery. As Proverbs chapter 9 puts it, how “stolen water is sweet.” Muggeridge had never acted on his impulse, though. That is until one morning while swimming in a local River in India. Across the river he saw the silhouette of a woman bathing. It's then that his heart stared racing with what he called “wild unreasonableness which is called passion.” This was his moment, he thought. And so, he began to swim towards her. Not only did he struggle against the water but also the current of his own conscience. Yet he continued. When he reached the other shore, he emerged from the river and came to a shocking reality. The woman was a leper. Her nose had rotted off. Her body was covered in sores all over and the tips of her fingers were gone. His first reaction was to think, “what a wretched woman this is.” But he soon realized, it wasn't the woman who was wretched, no, instead, it was his own wretched heart. As Muggeridge recounted that event, he wrote “If only I could paint, I'd make a wonderful picture of a passionate boy running after that and call it: 'The lusts of the flesh.'" Well, that story captures the warning of Proverbs 6:20-35. Yes, a big portion of these verses focus on the consequences of actual adultery, but here Solomon identifies where it all begins… it all begins with the lust in our hearts. This morning, we're going to approach these verses a little differently. Usually, as you know, we work logically through the verses section by section. Occasionally, we've looked at themes we find throughout. But this morning, we're going to start in the middle, work our way to the end, and then circle back to the beginning. So, I'm saving verses 20-24 to the end. The reason is, these opening verses help us as we each confront our sinful desires. So, I thought it would be good to actually end with the beginning. Three points this morning. 1. The Cause of Sexual Immorality – That is verse 25. 2. The Cost of Sexual Immorality – Verse 26 to the end of the chapter 3. The Cure to Sexual Immorality – Back up to verses 20-24. Cure may not be the best word. But it helps my alliteration. The cause of, the cost of, and the cure to sexual immorality. 1. The Cause of Sexual Immorality So number 1 - the cause. Jump down to verse 25. This verse captures Solomon's message to his son. After he had just told him to love God's commands, he warns him about the forbidden woman, and then he says this: “Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.” He's speaking about that internal lust of the heart. Sometimes we call that heart adultery. Jesus refers to this in his Sermon on the Mount. If someone looks at a woman with lustful thoughts (or for that matter, looks at a man with lustful thoughts), he or she is breaking the seventh commandment – committing adultery in his or her heart. And verse 25 is very interesting. It's not what we would expect. Because if you look at the rest of the chapter, Solomon is identifying the consequence of breaking verse 25's command… but those consequences are connected to physical adultery, not heart adultery. In other words, what we expect verse 25 to say is: “Do not commit adultery with her.” But Solomon didn't say that. Instead, he goes back to the beginning. He goes back to where adultery starts. And he basically says, do not lust in your heart for her. His premise is that our desires, our unholy desires lead down the path to adultery. Solomon wants his sons to recognize where adultery begins. Unless they recognize its source, and deal with their desires, he's saying, they will fall prey to adultery and its tragic consequences. Really, all sin begins in the heart, but it's especially true for adultery. Let me expand that to include all sexual sin - what I mean is any sexual activity outside of God's ordained pattern of marriage between one man and one woman. We talked about that pattern in chapter 5. All sexual sin begins with lustful desires in our heart. It doesn't start the moment that it's acted upon. Verse 25 alludes to an external attraction. For boys and men that's where it often begins – not always but often. Solomon knows this. His father, King David, experienced that desire and then acted upon it. For girls and women often it's an emotional connection – not always but often. Whatever it is, someone is attractive to you in some way. The problem comes in when that other person is married or you are married and the other person is not your spouse. Perhaps you justify your thoughts. You think, my spouse is not satisfying my physical or emotional needs. Or I know she is married but there's something about her I desire. Whatever it is, whether you are single or married, you begin to have lustful thoughts in your heart. In your mind, you violate God's commandment against adultery. And let me add another category to which I believe verse 25 speaks. This category doesn't just include unholy and sinful desires, but also in a way acting upon them. I'm referring to pornography. Maybe your sinful desires led you down that path or maybe you were exposed to it which led to unholy desires. But what porn does is pervert what God created as good within a Biblical marriage, and instead it corrupts that design to suit our own lustful passions. Not only that, but it objectifies someone else made in God's image for your own pleasure. The difficult truth today is the pervasiveness of porn. A recent study revealed that 64% of Christian men and 15% of Christian women say they watch porn at least once a month. Let me ask this. What would the statistic be if the question focused on adulterous thoughts about someone else in the last month? Would it be 90% of Christian men and 60% percent of Christian women? Perhaps higher. What verse 25 is saying is that our desires, when they are outside of God's pattern, are unholy and sinful. Now, to be sure, I'm not saying that the temptation itself is sin. No, being tempted is not sin. Rather it's when we act on the temptation in our mind, when it becomes sin. Verse 25 is using the word “desire” to mean coveting or lusting after something forbidden. This is very contrary to our culture's message today. Some have called the moment of history that we are in “the sexual revolution.” One of the tenants of this revolution is that our desires in this area are not sinful, but rather they define who we each are. We are not “binary” as the revolution says. Some of you will know what that means. In response, there's a critical element of the Christian worldview that we need to understand. It's that when sin entered the world, everything was affected. The universe experienced corruption. Life itself experienced corruption. Our bodies deteriorate. Disease entered the world. And our hearts and minds were corrupted by sin. That includes our desires, which have also been corrupted. What I'm saying is that having a desire does not legitimate that desire as good or ok. To be sure, not every desire is sinful, but desires that are contrary to God's creation pattern or desires that are idolatrous or adulterous, like verse 25, go against what is holy and right and good. I want to be sensitive not to dismiss the reality of those desires or the difficulty of the struggle. As some of you know, it's complicated and painful. But let me encourage you - the Christian message is one of redemption and restoration. Each of us has different struggles in our lives – maybe it's this, maybe it's something else. But one thing that the Christian can hold on to is that God is at work in us, in this life. Over time through prayer and the community of faith and the Word, God through his Spirit helps. He's conforming us more each day to the image of Christ. That sanctifying work in us includes our sexual desires and lust. And we can hold onto the hope of eternity when we will be fully restored one day, body and mind. I know I've said a lot and, of course, more could be said. So far, we've been dwelling on verse 25. But let's continue now on to the cost. 2. The Cost of Sexual Immorality This is point number 2. The Cost of Sexual Immorality. Verses 26 through 35 focus in on the cost. Really, as I mentioned, these verse are referring to the consequences of full-blown adultery. It's where our unrighteous sexual desire lead. One of the things we do in this area of sin is we minimize the cost. We only think in the moment and we don't think about the consequences of our actions. Solomon captures that in some of these verses. For example, in verse 26, he compares the cost of prostitution – only a loaf of bread - to the cost of adultery – your precious life. In other words, adultery may not cost you a penny of your money, but it will cost you your life. Let me comment on two brief things here. ·      First, Solomon is not condoning prostitution. In fact, in the next chapter, the adulteress acts like a prostitute. And prostitution is condemned in several places in Scripture. ·      Second, these verses are not identifying women as the problem. Ive mentioned that before, but wanted to reaffirm it. No, Solomon is writing to his son, so he emphasizes the adulteress. Add to that, the focus in on his son's heart and his actions, not the forbidden woman. What he is saying is that the cost is extremely high. The two questions in verses 27 and 28 correlate sexual immorality with fire – you will get burned. In verse 29, Solomon gets really explicit – He says, “no one who commits adultery will go unpunished.” And then in verse 30, he contrasts adultery with stealing. He reveals that the consequences of adultery are far worse. It's like this: suppose someone in your community steals food to satisfy his hunger. As wrong as that is, after he is caught, he can be restored. He can pay seven times of what he stole… and if he does, the community will be whole again with him. But not so with adultery. No. Verse 33 – his “his wounds and dishonor and his disgrace will not be wiped away,” it says. Adultery fractures communities and families. There's a lasting and painful mark all around. It includes the anguish of deep betrayal and shame. If children are involved, the impact on them often lasts their lifetime. As a reminder, Solomon is not saying that God and others can't forgive. No, as we considered in chapter 5, his father, King David was forgiven. Rather Solomon is speaking about the tragedy and consequences on a family and the community. Some of you are painfully aware of the cost. Perhaps because of your own infidelity, or a spouse or a parent or child or in-law. You know the heartache. Perhaps you know the comfort of Christ in that situation or forgiveness or restoration in him. At times there's tremendous restoration in a marriage or in a community. But often times adultery leaves a trail of hurt and sadness and grief. And note how Solomon ends. The last two verses. He warns his sons about revenge. You see, the sin of adultery often results in wrath from the husband of the adulteress or the wife of the adulterer. Nothing you can do or give him, Solomon warns, will satisfy his anger. The costs is high - destruction, pain, shame, disgrace, and revenge. And remember, he's speaking about the costs sexual immorality that has been acted upon. But what the warning about the cost does is raise the stakes of our sinful desires. The lust of our hearts if unchecked will lead down the path to damage and destruction. My opening illustration about Malcolm Muggeridge is in some way, very personal. In the mid-1990s, I moved to Atlanta to work for Ravi Zacharias ministries. I worked there for a few years until 1999. During my time there, I heard Ravi use that illustration a few times to highlight our sinful hearts, or as he put it, our lecherous hearts. Sadly, many of you know his story. Ravi passed away from cancer in 2020. Shortly after, he was accused of sexual impropriety and abuse. I say accused because he's not alive to defend himself and some of the facts are disputed. Nonetheless, enough is known and it's a painful illustration of how lustful desires lead down the path to immortality. His sin broke relationships in his family… it destroyed a ministry… and it undermined the faith of so many who considered Ravi a spiritual father here on earth. Brothers and sisters, the cost of sexual immorality is severe, and it all begins in the heart. 3. The Cure to Sexual Immorality The cause, the cost, and now, point number 3 – The Cure to Sexual Immorality. When I say “cure” I'm referring to how we overcome our internal sinful desires. Or how we protect ourselves. Solomon writes this because he wants to protect his son. Back up in verse 24, he uses the word “preserve.” He wants to preserve his son from falling prey to sexual temptation. Of course, the question we ask is “how?” Well, before we get to God's answer in these verses, let me first tell you how not to protect yourself. The answer is not to put up fences and create rules to follow and get accountability partners. I can see some of you squirming in your chairs right now. “but but but wait, I find those helpful.” Well, maybe I overstated that. But I did not say those things were unhelpful. I've heard good things about the app Covenant Eyes, and certainly having someone who is asking you hard questions will be helpful. But remember, your desires, your lust begins in your heart. Any of those external strategies are not going to help unless you begin by addressing your heart. Your unholy desires spring up from a heart that is sinful. What I'm saying is that whatever heart adultery that is in your mind is not going to be resolved by just putting up fences and creating rules. That's why Solomon begins with the heart. Look at what he says to his son in verse 21: Bind the commandments “on your heart always,” he says. You see, he's not saying obey the commandments because these are God's commandments. Yes, we should seek obey God's commandments because they are God's commandments. But ultimately, they are not going to change your heart. No, you need to start with a heart that love's God and his commandments. Do you see the difference? We start from the inside out. This is not a new aspect of our Proverbs study. Almost every chapter has included loving God's commandments from our heart. We love God's commandments because we love God and he loves us. If God and his commandments are just external, then our hearts will wander to all kinds of lusts and desires. On the outside, perhaps we appear righteous and holy, but on the inside, our hearts are wildly adulterous. But when we have God and his commandments in our hearts, look at how Solmon describes the effect. Verse 22 – “When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.” I love it, even when you sleep, your heart and mind will be  filled with God and his commandments. And in verse 23, after describing the commandments as a “lamp” and “light,” it says, “the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.” Way of life. A life dedicated to God and his wisdom. So, how do you fight the battle of the lusts of your flesh? You do it by loving God and making his way the way of your life. I've had Ephesians 6 on my mind all week - the section we read earlier in the service. How do you fight the battle of sexual desires and stand firm? You put on the whole armor of God. ·      You put on the breastplate of righteousness. Not your righteousness but the righteousness of Christ in you – the fulness of his purity. ·      You wear the belt of truth and the sword of the Spirit which is God's Word. That means through the Holy Spirit you trust the truth of God which he has revealed in his Word. Truth about the world, about creation, about what is good and right… truth about sin and the effects of sin. ·      And Ephesians 6 continues, you wear the shoes of the Gospel, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. You constantly remind yourself of what Christ has done for you in his Gospel. Salvation in him - the grace that you have which you receive by faith. That you are forgiven and cleansed of all our sin, which includes your lust and your sexual sins. It's a beautiful place to begin because it's a beautiful thing! What I'm saying is that to fight the battle against your sinful lust, you need to replace your unholy heart desires with holy desires. And there's nothing greater than to look to God and to look to what he has done for you in Christ. When you embrace his Gospel, and rejoice in the Cross, and glory in his resurrection and all the redemption and hope that you have in him, he will fill you with a passion to reflect his righteousness and seek his commands. Instead of your heart being filled with lustful thoughts, more and more it will be filled with glorious thoughts – thoughts about the Gospel and God's grace and forgiveness in your life. Will you be cured from any and all lustful thoughts in this life? No, but through the Spirit, you will be enabled more and more to put to death those desires, to listen to his conviction… and when temptation comes, to turn away from it and back to the Gospel of grace. In closing, there will come a day when those in Christ will be cured from all impure thoughts, all sinful desires, and the consequences of our sin. And it's a day we can long for and anticipate with joy. And in the battle of the flesh, today, we can fight with the full armor of God, knowing the cause of sexual immorality, it's cost, and the ultimate cure. May the Lord help us each day in this battle.

Znani britanski časnikar Malcolm Muggeridge se je spreobrnil ob srečanju s sveto Materjo Terezijo, ko jo je obiskal v Kalkuti in od blizu videl, kaj vse dela za uboge. Natančno je opazoval, kar se je dogajalo v dveh velikih sobah, in potem si ni mogel kaj, da ne bi rekel materi Tereziji: "Mati, tu je vse, kar naredi pekel na Zemlji: skrajna revščina, podhranjeni, okostnjaki ... Tu zreš smrti v obraz, pa vendar se smehljajo, ni videti obupa, ampak veselje do življenja. Kaj je vzrok za to?« Mati Terezija je ravno pitala neko podhranjeno ženo, ki jo je tedaj pobrala s ceste. Za trenutek je prenehala delo, pogledala časnikarja in odgovorila: "Tukaj ni pekel, tukaj so nebesa, ker je tukaj ljubezen!" Potem je mirno nadaljevala hranjenje žene, ki je imela odprta usta kot otrok, ki ga mati doji. Malcolma je to, kar je videl, pretreslo. Toda kot iskalec resnice je hotel razložiti skrivnost te junaške ljubezni in je vprašal: "Toda kje najdete moč za vse to, kje najdete moč za nasmeh v tej bedi?" Mati Terezija je časnikarja povabila: "Pridite jutri zjutraj ob 6.00 do našega malega samostana in videli boste, od kod črpamo moč za ljubezen in za nasmeh." Drugo jutro, točno ob uri, je res stal pred vrati samostana. Mati ga je sprejela in odpeljala v skromno kapelo, brez klopi za sedenje, kjer je bila skupina sester v sarijih, kakršne nosijo revne indijske žene, zbrana v molitvi in pri maši. Časnikar je vse spremljal v tišini in zdelo se mu je nekam skrivnostno, pa tudi dolgočasno. Spraševal se je: "Kaj počnejo sestre? S kom se pogovarjajo? Kaj prejemajo v tistem koščku kruha? Je mogoče v tem vsa skrivnost?" Po maši je mati odhitela k svojim ubogim. Časnikarju je dejala: "Ste videli? V tem je vsa skrivnost. Jezus naše srce napolni s svojo ljubeznijo, me pa jo darujemo ubogim, ki jih srečamo na svoji poti." In kako se je zgodba končala? Časnikar, ki ga vera prej ni zanimala, je čez nekaj časa postal katoličan. Svoj korak je utemeljil: "Želim postati katoličan, da bi prejemal sveto evharistijo, ki v tej veliki ženi rojeva čudeže ljubezni in veselja." (Zgodbe za veselje do življenja, 97). Iz ljubezni do Boga moramo črpati mož za ljubezen do bližnjega. Bistvo vere je, da nevidnega Boga ljubimo po služenju bližnjemu, ki ga vidimo ob sebi. Pripoved nas uči, da sta resnična ljubezen do Boga in resnična ljubezen do ljudi dve plati ene medalje. Ena ne more obstajati brez druge. To je tudi sporočilo današnjega evangelija, ko Jezus pravi: "Ljubi Gospoda, svojega Boga, z vsem srcem, z vso dušo in z vsem mišljenjem. To je največja in prva zapoved. Druga pa je njej podobna: Ljubi svojega bližnjega kakor samega sebe. Na teh dveh zapovedih stoji vsa postava in preroki« (Mt 22, 37-40).

We can't possibly know everything we should know through our own first-person research. That key truth is called by some experts as the real need of all of us for ”facts taken on trust.” And that's certainly true! But countless faulty paths are taken every moment of every day based upon supposed facts that are taken on trust. Join Kevin as we look at a world-shattering event in light of this event…and finish with a bracing challenge for all of us to the highest level of discernment! // Download this episode's Application & Action questions and PDF transcript at whitestone.org.

What does it mean to die? Is there nothingness, do we cease to exist? Or maybe we are all bound for paradise (except maybe that one guy).Everyone will die, that is something we all have in common. But death is not the end. For some of us this life is only a vapor and there is so much more to look forward to.Join the conversation on Twitter @TeleiosTOr, email us at teleiostalk@gmail.comCheck out our book "Six Good Questions" https://a.co/d/bCtOzajThanks for listening!

Neal A. Maxwell. Patience. Song- This is Amazing Grace. ACU Sunday Series. Patience. Neal A. Maxwell. https://youtu.be/WuYtWvzGXmE BYU Speeches 149K subscribers 47,470 views Jun 11, 2021 Having patience with ourselves and our circumstances will bring us closer to God and increase our love, humility, and willingness to submit to Him. This speech was given on November 27, 1979. Read the speech here: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neal-a... Learn more about the author: https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/nea... More BYU Speeches here: https://www.speeches.byu.edu/ Subscribe to BYU Speeches:    / byuspeeches   Follow BYU Speeches: Podcasts: https://www.speeches.byu.edu/podcasts/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/byuspeeches/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byuspeeches/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/byuspeeches/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/byuspeeches/ © Brigham Young University. All rights reserved. "Thank you very much, Bob. I appreciate this great privilege each time that it is mine, my brothers and sisters. I am grateful to the choral group today for that last number, the lyrics of which I hope will linger with you somewhat, because I will turn to them as I close my speech. I have chosen to speak today about a very pedestrian principle: patience, I hope that I do not empty the Marriott Center by that selection. Perhaps the topic was selfishly selected because of my clear and continuing need to develop further this very important attribute. But my interest in patience is not solely personal; for the necessity of having this intriguing attribute is cited several times in the scriptures, including once by King Benjamin who, when clustering the attributes of sainthood, named patience as a charter member of that cluster (Mosiah 3:19; see also Alma 7:23). Patience is not indifference. Actually, it means caring very much but being willing, nevertheless, to submit to the Lord and to what the scriptures call the “process of time.” Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. Either way we are questioning the reality of God's omniscience as if, as some seem to believe, God were on some sort of postdoctoral fellowship and were not quite in charge of everything. Saint Teresa of Avila said that unless we come to know the reality of God, including his omniscience, our mortal existence “will be no more than a night in a second-class hotel” (quoted by Malcolm Muggeridge in “The Great Liberal Death Wish,” Imprimis [Hillsdale College, Michigan], May 1979.) Our second estate can be a first-class experience only if you and I develop a patient faith in God and in his unfolding purposes. We read in Mosiah about how the Lord simultaneously tries the patience of His people even as He tries their faith (Mosiah 23:21). One is not only to endure, but to endure well and gracefully those things which the Lord “seeth fit to inflict upon [us]” (Mosiah 3:19), just as did a group of ancient American saints who were bearing unusual burdens but who submitted “cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord” (Mosiah 24:15). Paul, speaking to the Hebrews, brings us up short by writing that, even after faithful disciples had “done the will of God,” they “[had] need of patience” (Hebrews 10:36). How many times have good individuals done the right thing only to break or wear away under subsequent stress, canceling out much of the value of what they had already so painstakingly done? Sometimes that which we are doing is correct enough but simply needs to be persisted in patiently, not for a minute or a moment but sometimes for years. Paul speaks of the marathon of life and of how we must “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). Paul did not select the hundred-meter dash for his analogy! The Lord has twice said: “And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life” (D&C 101:38, emphasis added; see also Luke 21:19). Could it be, brothers and sisters, that only when our self-control becomes total do we come into the true possession of our souls? Patience is not only a companion of faith but is also a friend to free agency. Inside our impatience there is sometimes an ugly reality: We are plainly irritated and inconvenienced by the need to make allowance for the free agency of others. In our impatience—which is not the same thing as divine discontent—we would override others, even though it is obvious that our individual differences and preferences are so irretrievably enmeshed with each other that the only resolution which preserves free agency is our patience and longsuffering with each other. The passage of time is not, by itself, an automatic cure for bad choices; but often individuals like the prodigal son can “in process of time” come to their senses..."   Phil Wickham - This Is Amazing Grace (Official Music Video) Phil Wickham 974K subscribers 84,853,959 views Nov 13, 2013 Phil Wickham's official music video for 'This Is Amazing Grace'. Click to listen to Phil Wickham on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/PWSpot?IQid=PWAG As featured on The Ascension. Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/PWTAPlay?IQid=PWAG Google Play: http://smarturl.it/PWAGPlay?IQid=PWAG Amazon: http://smarturl.it/PWTAAm?IQid=PWAG More from Phil Wickham Messiah/You're Beautiful:    • Phil Wickham - Me...   Divine Romance:    • Phil Wickham - Di...   Glory:    • Phil Wickham - Gl...   More Great Christian videos here: http://smarturl.it/ChristianPlaylist?... Follow Phil Wickham Website: http://www.philwickham.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philwickham?... Twitter: https://twitter.com/philwickham Instagram: https://instagram.com/philwickham/ Subscribe to Phil Wickham on YouTube: http://smarturl.it/PWSub?IQid=PWAG --------- Lyrics: This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That You would take my place That You would bear my cross You lay down Your life That I would be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing for All that You've done for me Best of PhilWickham: https://goo.gl/T2ghbT Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/xsEmE2" Music SONG This Is Amazing Grace ARTIST Phil Wickham ALBUM This Is Amazing Grace   --------------------------------------------------------------------  HELP ACU SPREAD THE WORD!  Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks. Forward this show to friends. Ways to subscribe to the American Conservative University Podcast Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FM Player Podcast Addict Tune-in Podcasts Pandora Look us up on Amazon Prime …And Many Other Podcast Aggregators and sites   Please help ACU by submitting your Show ideas. Email us at americanconservativeuniversity@americanconservativeuniversity.com Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks.   Endorsed Charities -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese -------------------------------------------------------- Food For the Poor https://foodforthepoor.org/ Help us serve the poorest of the poor Food For The Poor began in 1982 in Jamaica. Today, our interdenominational Christian ministry serves the poor in primarily 17 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Thanks to our faithful donors, we are able to provide food, housing, healthcare, education, fresh water, emergency relief, micro-enterprise solutions and much more. We are proud to have fed millions of people and provided more than 15.7 billion dollars in aid. Our faith inspires us to be an organization built on compassion, and motivated by love. Our mission is to bring relief to the poorest of the poor in the countries where we serve. We strive to reflect God's unconditional love. It's a sacrificial love that embraces all people regardless of race or religion. We believe that we can show His love by serving the “least of these” on this earth as Christ challenged us to do in Matthew 25. We pray that by God's grace, and with your support, we can continue to bring relief to the suffering and hope to the hopeless. -------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer from ACU. We try to bring to our students and alumni the World's best Conservative thinkers. All views expressed belong solely to the author and not necessarily to ACU. In all issues and relations, we hope to follow the admonitions of Jesus Christ. While striving to expose, warn and contend with evil, we extend the love of God to all of his children.

Andy Peck talks to Os Guinness whose latest book, Signals of Transcendence: Listening to the Promptings of Life celebrates 50 years of publishing, and tells the stories of 10 well known authors who have sought God following unexpected moments. These include C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden and Malcolm Muggeridge. They also reflect on what Christian leadership is and how we can all play our part.  The Profile is brought to you by Premier Christianity, the UK's leading Christian magazine Subscribe now from $1/month 

What is a woman? Matt Walsh gets a taste of his own medicine, or does he? Wait until you see not only how he answer that question, but how he turns the tables in such a way that stunned the trans activist!   Highlights:  ●      “Once you've severed sex and gender from each other, now it becomes nearly impossible to speak intelligibly about them without acknowledging their interdependence. And that's what Matt Walsh is doing here, he's drawing out this conceptual incoherence that occurs once two terms that depend on each other for their intelligibility have been split apart.” ●      “A lot of people are getting duped into very faulty fallacious thinking. Malcolm Muggeridge once said we've educated ourselves into imbecility. I can only pray that the clarity and indeed the respect and kindness exemplified by the likes of Matt Walsh breaks through this spirit of imbecility and consigns it eventually to the ash heap of history.”      Timestamps:    [01:15] Matt Walsh's answer to the question: what is a woman? [04:30] How the trans couldn't answer the question: what is a female? [07:57] How Matt demonstrated the inherent interdependence of the terms ‘man' and ‘woman [09:38] How Matt responded to the trans' faulty fallacious thinking Resources:  ●      You can download my NEW GUIDEBOOK “5 Steps to ESCAPE the Great RESET" for a limited time for FREE at https://free.turleytalks.com/escape-the-great-reset/ ●      Get Over 66% OFF All of Mike Lindell's Products using code TURLEY: https://www.mypillow.com/turley ●      Ep. 1550 Trump Plans TAKE OVER of Cities as Liberal Society IMPLODES!!! ●      Learn how to protect your life savings from inflation and an irresponsible government, with Gold and Silver. Go to http://www.turleytalkslikesgold.com/ ●      Want free inside stock tips straight from the SEC? Click here to get started now: https://webinar.tradersagency.com/insiders-effect-turley ●      Escape the vulnerability of the Bankster Matrix and learn to create your own micro-economy with these proven strategies at www.TurleyEconomy.com ●      Join Dr. Steve for an unedited, uncensored extended analysis of current events in his Insiders Club at https://insidersclub.turleytalks.com/ ●      BOLDLY stand up for TRUTH in Turley Merch! Browse our new designs right now at: https://store.turleytalks.com/ ●      Make sure to FOLLOW me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrTurleyTalks ●      Get 25% off Patriotic Coffee and ALL ITEMS with Code TURLEY at https://mystore.com/turley   Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and/or leave a review.  Sick and tired of Big Tech, censorship, and endless propaganda? Join my Insiders Club with a FREE TRIAL today at: https://insidersclub.turleytalks.com  Do you want to be a part of the podcast and be our sponsor? Click here to partner with us and defy liberal culture! If you would like to get lots of articles on conservative trends make sure to sign-up for the 'New Conservative Age Rising' Email Alerts. 

G.K. Chesterton was a prolific writer across many genres, including fiction, poetry, journalism, literary criticism, biography, social criticism, theology, and Christian apologetics. He was also a vocal critic of eugenics. Research: "Chesterton, G.K." Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, Merriam-Webster, 1995. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/RN1480001897/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=d75f28d6. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023. Schwartz, Adam. "Conceiving a culture of life in a century of bones: G. K. Chesterton and Malcolm Muggeridge as social critics." Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, vol. 11, no. 2, spring 2008, pp. 50+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A370214476/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f9d4a07a. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023. Eden, Dawn. "Thursday's Father; The cosmos in the mind of G.K. Chesterton." The Weekly Standard, vol. 15, no. 47, 30 Aug. 2010. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A236124464/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=9747e015. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023. Douglas, J.D. “G.K. Chesterton, the Eccentric Prince of Paradox.” Christianity Today. 5/24/1974, republished 8/1/2001. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/augustweb-only/8-27-52.0.html?paging=off#bmb=1 "The Inklings." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Kathy D. Darrow, vol. 258, Gale, 2012. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/GEDIQJ153565504/LitRC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=52d0152e. Accessed 22 Feb. 2023. Bergonzi, Bernard. "Chesterton, Gilbert Keith [G. K. C.] (1874–1936), writer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Date of access 22 Feb. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/32392          McDonagh, Melanie. "No saint: G.K. Chesterton was a great journalist, not an angel." Spectator, vol. 322, no. 9652, 24 Aug. 2013, pp. 22+. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A340576384/LitRC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=2c4fc00f. Accessed 22 Feb. 2023. "G(ilbert) K(eith) Chesterton." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2004. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000017634/LitRC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=6ef03f18. Accessed 22 Feb. 2023. Douglas, James. “Personality in Literature.” The Bookman. July 1903. Kenney, W. P. "G(ilbert) K(eith) Chesterton." Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century British Literary Biographers, edited by Steven Serafin, Gale, 1995. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 149. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200006044/LitRC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=8bdae33c. Accessed 22 Feb. 2023. Leitch, Thomas M. "G(ilbert) K(eith) Chesterton." British Mystery Writers, 1860-1919, edited by Bernard Benstock and Thomas F. Staley, Gale, 1988. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 70. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200002585/LitRC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=5e778e84. Accessed 22 Feb. 2023. Schwartz, Adam. “G.K. Chesterton's Jewish Problem.” VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center , 2017, Vol. 34 (2017). : https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48600516 Fraga, Brian. “Group promoting author GK Chesterton faces turmoil over right-wing connections.” National Catholic Reporter. 2/20/2023. https://www.ncronline.org/news/group-promoting-author-gk-chesterton-faces-turmoil-over-right-wing-connections Kimball, Roger. “G. K. Chesterton: master of rejuvenation.” The New Criterion September 2011. Chesterton, G.K. “Eugenics and Other Evils.” Cassell and Company, Limited London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne 1922. Sparkes, Russell. “The Enemy of Eugenics.” https://archive.secondspring.co.uk/articles/sparkes.htm See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John J. Miller is joined by Michael D. Aeschliman to discuss Malcolm Muggeridge's book, 'Winter in Moscow.'

In this episode we complete our journey towards cinematic eternal damnation and pick up with the release of Monty Python's Life of Brian in the U.K.The Pythons come up against the likes of Mary Whitehouse, Malcolm Muggeridge, Mervyn Stockwood and founder of Christian Voice, Stephen Green.SaucesAlways Look on the Bright Side of Life by Robert SellersLife of Brian: The Gospel According to Monty Python by Leah SchnelbachEric Idle's Twitter Accounthttps://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190822-life-of-brian-the-most-blasphemous-film-ever50 Years After John Lennon's “Bigger Than Jesus” Quote, We Forget How Shocking the Rest of That Interview Was BY RUTH GRAHAM, Slate.comHow A Beatle Lives Part 3: George Harrison by Maureen Cleave, Evening Standard, The, 18 March 1966Chabad Rabbi Who Once Called For Rabin's Assassination Passes Awayhttps://failedmessiah.typepad.comhttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/mar/28/artsfeatures1http://menardstemarie.chez.com/mp/c3.htmRobert E. A. Lee, Who Made ‘A Time for Burning,' Dies at 87, New York TimesIron Maiden Meets Monty Python By Bryan ReesmanVANDALS PLAGUE FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH IN 'VILLAGE' By Charles Austin, New York TimesBBC's Malcolm Muggeridge groped women uncontrollably, claims book. The GuardianPinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the nation 1974-1987 by Jean SeatonNot the nine o'clock NewsFriday Night, Saturday Morning BBC2ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE': THAT ONE TIME BRITISH SAILORS SANG MONTY PYTHON AS THEY WATCHED THEIR SHIP BURN By CLAIRE BARRETT, HistorynetIn public he rails against immorality as the voice of Christian Britain but in private he is a wife beater, says his former partner By FRANCES HARDY, THE DAILY MAIL

In this episode we take a trip down the blasphemous heretical road to Golgotha that is, Monty Python's Life of Brian. We will scour the scourge of screaming scathing scornful scandals aimed at scuttling the most scrumptiously scurrilously scatological sacrilegious scrutiny of scripture ever scribbled by scruffy scriptwriters when it scorched across screens in 1979. Sauces Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by Robert SellersLife of Brian: The Gospel According to Monty Python by Leah SchnelbachEric Idle's Twitter Accounthttps://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190822-life-of-brian-the-most-blasphemous-film-ever50 Years After John Lennon's “Bigger Than Jesus” Quote, We Forget How Shocking the Rest of That Interview Was BY RUTH GRAHAM, Slate.comHow A Beatle Lives Part 3: George Harrison by Maureen Cleave, Evening Standard, The, 18 March 1966Chabad Rabbi Who Once Called For Rabin's Assassination Passes Awayhttps://failedmessiah.typepad.comhttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/mar/28/artsfeatures1http://menardstemarie.chez.com/mp/c3.htmRobert E. A. Lee, Who Made ‘A Time for Burning,' Dies at 87, New York TimesIron Maiden Meets Monty Python By Bryan ReesmanVANDALS PLAGUE FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH IN 'VILLAGE' By Charles Austin, New York TimesBBC's Malcolm Muggeridge groped women uncontrollably, claims book. The GuardianPinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the nation 1974-1987 by Jean SeatonNot the nine o'clock NewsFriday Night, Saturday Morning BBC2ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE': THAT ONE TIME BRITISH SAILORS SANG MONTY PYTHON AS THEY WATCHED THEIR SHIP BURN By CLAIRE BARRETT, HistorynetIn public he rails against immorality as the voice of Christian Britain but in private he is a wife beater, says his former partner By FRANCES HARDY, THE DAILY MAIL

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION Sin “is a deep interior dislocation in the very centre of human personality, and that you can never, as they say, ‘make people good by Act of Parliament.'” ~Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957), English writer, in Creed or Chaos “Underneath human anxiety is the reversal of identity in which the finite attempts to be infinite.” ~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, author and hip hop artist “It is the way of God: he humbles that he may exalt, he kills that he might make alive, he confounds that he might glorify.” ~Martin Luther, as quoted in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment “…looking back on one's life, it's one of the things that strikes you forcibly – that the only thing that's taught one anything is suffering, not success, not happiness, not anything like that. The only thing that really teaches one what life's about – the joy of understanding…what life really signifies – is suffering, is affliction….” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), journalist who brought Mother Teresa to popular attention, from a 1980 interview “Suppose you eliminated suffering, what a dreadful place the world would be. I would almost rather eliminate happiness. The world would be the most ghastly place because everything that corrects the tendency of this unspeakable little creature, man, to feel over-important and over-pleased with himself would disappear. He's bad enough now, but he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990) in his book Jesus Rediscovered “The greatest misery of all is for God to give you up to your heart's lusts and desires, to give you up to your own counsels (Ps. 81:11-12). [When visited by various trials and difficulties] think thus: ‘Lord, you have laid an afflicted condition upon me, but, Lord, you have not given me the plague of a hard heart.'” ~Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment “When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines.” ~Samuel Rutherford (c.1600-1661), Scottish pastor and theologian SERMON PASSAGE John 15:1-11 (ESV) John 14 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. John 15 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

Day 209 Today's Reading: Hebrews 5 In talking about the power of mentoring, UCLA's great basketball coach, John Wooden wrote: “[President Abraham] Lincoln fiercely believed in self-sufficiency, and in the maturity and character that struggles and hardships can bring. This lesson is so important for teachers and parents. It is only natural for us to want to shield our students and our children from anything that might possibly cause them hurt or to suffer or even to be uncomfortable. But some degree of pain is necessary for a person to become suited for the responsibilities that lay ahead.” Pain is necessary. Those are true but tough words to swallow. In today's chapter we encounter a topic that is not often discussed in our culture. The writer of Hebrews speaks of a classroom that is often overlooked but more so avoided—the classroom of suffering. And we see that Father God was doing exactly what Lincoln and Wooden spoke about with His Son Jesus: “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Suffering and learning. These are words we don't normally associate together. Suffering and learning are partners, and they are integral in the life of Jesus. Malcolm Muggeridge, one of the great British Christian writers, did not come to faith until later in life. His words on suffering and learning are powerful: “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness. Amy Carmichael can attest to that. Carmichael was a missionary to India in the early 1900s. She was the originator of the safe house, rescuing young girls at a time when the world did not know about the horrific exploitation of them. She did this at the risk of her own life. In 1932, Carmichael was badly injured in a fall, which broke her leg and twisted her spine, and which left her mostly bedridden and in constant pain for the next twenty years until her death. Rarely did she sleep through a night without waking up in pain. However, while bedridden, Carmichael wrote sixteen books that are filled with awe-inspiring revelation. All coming from a fall, sleepless nights, and back pain. We could learn from her suffering. Helen Keller said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” Those are the learners. We try to avoid pain instead of learning from pain, which leads us to where we waste our pain. A. W. Tozer was spot on when he said: “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” Our Daily Bread tells the story of A. Parnell Bailey who toured an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was in a drought, and the trees were beginning to die. Next Bailey visited another orchard where irrigation was used sparingly. “These trees could go without rain for another two weeks,” the man giving Bailey the tour told him. “When they were young, I frequently kept water from them. This hardship and pain caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture. Now mine are the deepest-rooted trees in the area. While others are being scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth.” That's what happens in pain, we learn to go deeper in God. Pain takes us deeper so we are not hurt by the pain but have learned to draw our resources from a place of depth. As Mildred Witte Struven explained: “A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.” I want to be porcelain. I want to come out of the struggle with depth and value that wasn't there before the struggle and pain. Robert B. Hamilton's poem called “Sufferings” captures it well: “I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chatted all the way; But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow, And ne'er a word said she; But, oh! The things I learned from her, When sorrow walked with me.”

Life Under the Sun Part 5: How to Really Grow Spiritually By Louie Marsh, 9-4-2022   Malawi pics = last one hand washing.   TO REALLY GROW SPIRITUALLY I MUST DO 5 THINGS   1) Drew near & LISTEN.   “1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.” (Ecclesiastes 5:1, ESV)   WHY? Because God is   “14For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.” (Job 33:14, ESV)   “Everything happening, great or small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” - Malcolm Muggeridge     “19Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19, ESV)   “Everything difficult indicates something more than our theory of life yet embraces.” - George MacDonald       2) Speak less, LISTEN more!   “2Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5:2, ESV)   Don't shoot off your mouth, or speak before you think. Don't be too quick to tell God what you think he wants to hear. God's in charge, not you – the less you speak the better. Eccl. 5:2 (Mes)   WHY? Because God hears THE INAUDIBLE & sees THE INVISIBLE.   “21would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.” (Psalm 44:21, ESV)   3) Let my ACTIONS speak louder than words.   “3For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words…“7For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.” (Ecclesiastes 5:3,7, ESV)   WHY? Because God takes me SERIOUSLY!   “15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15, ESV)   4) If you make a commitment to God – KEEP IT!   “4When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. 5It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. 6Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?” (Ecclesiastes 5:4–6, ESV)   WHY? Because God takes my DECISIONS   “15And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”” (Joshua 24:15, ESV)   “20loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”” (Deuteronomy 30:20, ESV)   5) Eventually I must ACCEPT or REJECT  Jesus as Lord.   “23Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Luke 11:23, ESV)   WHY? Because God can only be found THROUGH HIM.   “6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, ESV)  

Life Under the Sun Part 1: Ask the Right Questions By Louie Marsh, 8-7-2022   Everything I Need To Know About Life, I Learned From Noah's Ark. One: Don't miss the boat. Two: Remember that we are all in the same boat. Three: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark. Four: Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big. Five: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done. Six: Build your future on high ground. Seven: For safety's sake, travel in pairs. Eight: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs. Nine: When you're stressed, float a while. Ten: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals. Eleven: No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.   1) ASK the right questions.   “3What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.” (Ecclesiastes 1:3–11, ESV)   The truth is: much of life is DULL!   “The basic fact about human experience is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in any sense.” - H.L. Mencken    “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” - Thoreau   “The craft we call modern; the crimes that we call new; John Bunyan had them typed and filed in 1682.” - Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)   2) EMBRACE the ugly truth.   “12I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 15What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.” (Ecclesiastes 1:12–15, ESV)   Seek = “investigate the roots of the matter.” (research) Search Out = “to examine all sides.” (Experimentation)   EMBRACE IT = ACCEPT IT, FIND GOD IN IT, THEN WORK TO CHANGE IT FROM THERE.   The sensual lure of something better tomorrow robs us of the joys offered today. The personal temptation to escape is always stronger than the realization of its consequences.   3) LEARN your limitations.   “16I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:16–18, ESV)   “A man's got to  know his limitations.” – Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood)   ”Education – that great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the ages – purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part it serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity, and put those subjected to it at the mercy of brainwashers with printing presses, radio, and television at their disposal.” - Malcolm Muggeridge, (1903-1990), Jesus Rediscovered,   4) LOOK above the sun!   “1The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:1–3, ESV)   Meaningless = used 35 times in the book – from a word for breath, means hollow, vain, useless. Under the sun – used 29 times, refers to life WITHOUT God – Under heaven – used 3 times – means same thing.   3 Truths To Help Us Get Started:   The final destination, if God is absent, will NOT satisfy! If there's nothing meaningful under the sun – our only hope must be above it! If a man who had and tried everything visible was left unsatisfied – the one thing needed must be invisible!   Errol Flynn, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Introduction (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959)   I was without faith. Full of regret that I could not believe in God. I was upset with people who said to me, "What? You don't believe? You don't have faith? Well if you don't have it, you just don't know," in a very upsetting, smart-alecky tone that many people have. They give it to you in a very superior way. They are in touch with God, you are not! If you don't know, old man, it's your tough luck. I doubt these people. Maybe they don't look at life hard enough and deeply enough. Maybe they Iet the barriers down at a certain point, and don't resist, and they let something rush in that they call God.   I'm too hardheaded for that. I have been in rebellion against God and Government ever since I can remember. As a result I am tormented, as it I have been missing something that others have. You can have fame, fortune, be an international character, and wonder whether some little guy who has faith has something bigger than anything you have ever had.   But I had my vodka—and had faith in that. It came in cases. I got up in the morning and reached. I hawked, coughed around a while, took another drink, started the day.

La civilización en la cual estamos viviendo, tiene todas las señales de una civilización que está a punto de colapsar. Malcolm Muggeridge, un reconocido periodista inglés, dijo que una civilización está a punto de colapsar cuando comienzan a aparecer señales como el quebrantamiento de la ley, el orden, el aumento del erotismo, el entretenimiento excesivo, los sistemas de impuestos complejos y por último el aumento del aburrimiento. Este programa de Entendiendo Los Tiempos con Miguel Núñez y Eduardo Saladín. SÍGUENOS EN LAS REDES SOCIALES Me gusta en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EntendiendoL... Síguenos en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entendiendo... Síguenos en Twitter: https://twitter.com/entendiendolt Escucha nuestro podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/23nyYsN... Visita nuestra página web: https://entendiendolostiempos.org

La civilización en la cual estamos viviendo, tiene todas las señales de una civilización que está a punto de colapsar. Malcolm Muggeridge, un reconocido periodista inglés, dijo que una civilización está a punto de colapsar cuando comienzan a aparecer señales como el quebrantamiento de la ley, el orden, el aumento del erotismo, el entretenimiento excesivo, los sistemas de impuestos complejos y por último el aumento del aburrimiento. Este programa de Entendiendo Los Tiempos con Miguel Núñez y Eduardo Saladín. SÍGUENOS EN LAS REDES SOCIALES Me gusta en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EntendiendoL... Síguenos en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entendiendo... Síguenos en Twitter: https://twitter.com/entendiendolt Escucha nuestro podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/23nyYsN... Visita nuestra página web: https://entendiendolostiempos.org

Our River Sunday worship gatherings are jumping into a new summer series we are calling, “Stories from Another World: the parables of Jesus.” A parable of Jesus is a story about life in the kingdom and what the king is like. Jesus told them on purpose to comfort, to describe, and to provoke. I like what Malcolm Muggeridge said, “All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message.” God is speaking, right now, into your life, and into our collective community we call The River Church. I am going to walk us through what we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son [though I'm going to give it another title I think is more helpful] in Luke 15. I see three themes: compassion, confession, and celebration, so join me as we discover whether Jesus, through this parable, might give shape to us individually and as a community, for the good of the world.

Jesus is not only the only Son of the Father, but His father has given him all authority under heaven and on earth. Literally, everything hangs on every word that comes from His mouth. If you want to honor God, you must honor the Son. Honoring the Son means taking his words, not just the words we like, but especially the words we don't like, seriously. He is the Son of the Father, the Judge of all, the final word over every life, or he is nothing. We should honor him by crying out to him for eternal life that only the Son of the Father can give. He promises us, in his timing, just as he has been doing from the very beginning, that he will bring life to dead things, even dead things like you and me.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/4886683822.04.03

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?  -Hillel the Elder, circa 50 BC Astronomy contains no wisdom. A man died at the Brooklyn Half Marathon a few days ago.  Many people are happy to jump to conclusions about it instead of asking some basic questions and doing the boring thing of finding answers. “Previous civilizations have been overthrown from without by the incursion of barbarian hordes... Our barbarians are home products, indoctrinated at the public expense, urged on by the media systematically stage by stage..." -Malcolm Muggeridge, 1980

Reverend Dave Carpenter  preaches about Mother Teresa, a true saint!Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Little is known about her early life, but at a young age, she felt a calling to be a nun and serve through helping the poor. At the age of 18, she was given permission to join a group of nuns in Ireland. After a few months of training, with the Sisters of Loreto, she was then given permission to travel to India. She took her formal religious vows in 1931 and chose to be named after St Therese of Lisieux – the patron saint of missionaries.On her arrival in India, she began by working as a teacher; however, the widespread poverty of Calcutta made a deep impression on her, and this led to her starting a new order called “The Missionaries of Charity”. The primary objective of this mission was to look after people, who nobody else was prepared to look after. Mother Teresa felt that serving others was a fundamental principle of the teachings of Jesus Christ. In 1952, she opened her first home for the dying, which allowed people to die with dignity. Mother Teresa often spent time with those who were dying. Some have criticised the lack of proper medical attention, and their refusal to give painkillers. Others say that it afforded many neglected people the opportunity to die knowing that someone cared.Her work spread around the world. By 2013, there were 700 missions operating in over 130 countries. The scope of their work also expanded to include orphanages and hospices for those with terminal illnesses.Mother Teresa never sought to convert those of another faith. Those in her hospices were given the religious rites appropriate to their faith. However, she had a very firm Catholic faith and took a strict line on abortion, the death penalty and divorce – even if her position was unpopular. Her whole life was influenced by her faith and religion, even though at times she confessed she didn't feel the presence of God.The Missionaries of Charity now has branches throughout the world including branches in the developed world where they work with the homeless and people affected by AIDS. In 1965, the organisation became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.In the 1960s, the life of Mother Teresa was brought to a wider public attention by Malcolm Muggeridge who wrote a book and produced a documentary called “Something Beautiful for God”. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace.” She didn't attend the ceremonial banquet but asked that the $192,000 fund be given to the poor.In later years, she was more active in western developed countries. She commented that though the West was materially prosperous, there was often a spiritual poverty.Mother Teresa was a living saint who offered a great example and inspiration to the world.She received a Nobel Peace Prize 1979 and was awarded an Honorary US Citizenship in 1996. Check out this article on our guest, Karen Wright Marsh - https://pres-outlook.org/2021/01/mentoring-with-the-communion-of-the-saints/Link to Karen's Book on Amazon - Vintage Saints and SinnersBPC YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/BrentwoodPresbyterianChurchPlease consider supporting our show - Support the show

Repentance and St. AugustineWe continue our Lenten podcast series by considering the spiritual practice of repentance with author, philosophy professor, and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow, James K.A. Smith. Few figures cast as long a shadow over church history as Saint Augustine of Hippo, regarded by many as second only to St. Paul in terms of his extraordinary contributions to theology and philosophy. For his part, James K.A. Smith takes a different approach, describing Augustine as an AA sponsor for the soul.Disordered Desire and the Role of RepentanceIn Augustine's book, Confessions, he offers us a searingly honest glimpse into the human heart and it's Augustine's refusal to look away from his own disordered loves, but instead to confess and repent at the level of his deepest desires, that makes Confessions one of the most enduring works of Christian spiritual writing of all time.Learn more about James K.A. Smith.Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Confessions by St. AugustineOn The Road With Saint Augustine by James. K.A. Smith Related Trinity Forum Readings:Devotions by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip YanceyThe Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo, Introduced by James K.A. SmithPilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie DillardPilgrim's Progress by John BunyanGod's Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsA Spiritual Pilgrimage by Malcolm Muggeridge. Related Conversations:Liturgy of the Ordinary in Extraordinary Times with Tish Harrison WarrenCaring for Words in a Culture of Lies with Marilyn McEntyreInvitation to Solitude and Silence with Ruth Haley BartonThe Second Mountain with David BrooksOn the Road with Saint Augustine with James K.A. Smith and Elizabeth BruenigTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org, and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, visit ttf.org/join. Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

On Saturday morning I watched, as usual, Newswatch which gives viewers the opportunity to criticise the BBC news broadcasts....this week the viewers launched into the total waste of airtime given to the Government's Christmas parties.....and the biassed reporting by the Beeb......needless to say there was no-one to comment live from the news section but as usual they wrote a comment saying they feel they have got it right....in the many years I have been watching television I have never seen it so bad....The BBC should print their news on a piece of paper which you could nail up in an outside toilet where it belongs. Golf at St.Andrews wont be the same anymore as they have severed their connection with the golfer formerly known as Prince.....so the Banned old Duke of York will no longer be including many rounds of golf amongst his royal duties ....oh how one's life can change in such a short time......so now he's not a golfer...he's a naughty boy.........normal golf clubs are generally littered with pompous arrogant toffee nosed members so I dread to think what the St.Andrews committee are like. We have recently lost a great comedy writer...Barry Cryer....he wrote some fabulous comedy for many comedians when comedy was actually funny...before humourless brigade who have no imagination decided to be deeply offended by any thing that was funny.....probably because they knew their faces would split in half if they ever smiled When it comes to making comedy films there are certain geniuses who need a mention.....firstly we have Mel Brooks and his brilliant Blazing Saddles which cleverly pokes fun at the ignorance of racist idiots with the black sheriff....then we have The Producers which poked fun at The Nazis which a lot of people missed the point of.....but to me the classic of all time was Monty Python's Life of Brian which was genius.....the Americans totally missed the point calling it anti religious where in fact it simply illustrated the sheer stupidity of the human race who always need someone to follow....a classic film....and I enjoyed the historic interview after the film was made with John Cleese and the arrogant upper class twit Malcolm Muggeridge who showed what a total prat he was The record I would like to discuss this week is the Elvis classic...Jailhouse Rock......the record still holds up today.and considering there are only 4 musicians backing Elvis it makes this a masterpiece......the temptation to write this song in a country style must have been hard to resist but whoever came up with the the guitar work and the drum breaks makes this, for me,one of the best rock and roll records ever.and also lyrically brilliant.

"The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4," Jan 1-15, 1981. Say hello to our new book, the Sue Townsend classic! Jody and Alison chat about 1981's events, music, movies, and TV... UK-style. Welcome to the year of John McEnroe's Wimbledon tirade, Charles and Diana, The Yorkshire Ripper, Bucks Fizz on Eurovision, and the teen who tried to shoot the Queen. Adrian starts the new year with some lofty resolutions, decides he's an intellectual, and writes a poem for Malcolm Muggeridge. Charlie runs away, Nigel shows off his tan, and Pandora enters the scene. There's also some classic British adverts and truly awful English accents (please forgive us). Super duper thank you to our newest Patron, Lisa W.! It's a Judy Blume book club. Join us every week!

TIME OF REFLECTION “Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you.” ~Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964), novelist and essayist “Malcolm Muggeridge talks about the dark little dungeon of my own ego. That is sin, a twist of self-centeredness that has us imprisoned. But God's order is that we love him with all our being, and then that we love our neighbor and put ourselves last. Sin is the reversal of the order.” ~John Stott (1921-2011), English clergyman and author “As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal, there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol.” ~A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), pastor and author “…be killing sin or it will be killing you.” ~John Owen (1626-1683), English clergyman “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main…. Any man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” ~John Donne (1572-1631), English poet, scholar and cleric “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr (1929-1968), Baptist minister and activist “Self-denial is a practice which lies very near to the heart of true religion. Without its exercise there can be no conversion to Christ. Qualities most basic to a Christian frame of heart – notably humility and meekness – would dissolve without its active expression.” ~Walter J. Chantry, pastor and author “However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.” ~John Calvin (1509-1564), French theologian SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 106 (ESV) 1 Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, or declare all his praise? 3 Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times! 4 Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them, 5 that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance. 6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. 7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power. 9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. 10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. 13 But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. 14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. 16 When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the LORD, 17 the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. 18 Fire also broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. 19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them. 24 Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. 25 They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the LORD. 26 Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness, 27 and would make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands. 28 Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; 29 they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed. 31 And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever. 32 They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, 33 for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips. 34 They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, 35 but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. 36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; 38 they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds. 40 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage; 41 he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power. 43 Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity. 44 Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. 45 For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 46 He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive. 47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 48 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD!

Malcolm Muggeridge once wrote, “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.” Life is not always easy. But through Christ you can overcome every adversity that life throws at you!

"Jesus Friend of Sinners" may mean more than you think.  In this episode we will lean into our text in the Gospel of Mark and see that Jesus was much more than a friend to the sinners he met, he was truly their savior. All while performing his greatest miracle of creation, turning sinners into saints.  

In these week's episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon is joined by Gregory Wolfe, the biographer of famed 20th century British writer Malcolm Muggeridge, a one-time supporter of communism. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When I started this podcast one of my goals was to include people other than just the biggest and most recognizable names in Christian history - the Luthers, Pascals, and Calvins will all have their day but I also want to dive deeper into the vast ocean of Christians that have advanced the Kingdom. Today's subject is one of these "deep dive" Christians, journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge.RESOURCESThe Words: http://www.thewords.com/articles/mugger1.htmCrisis Magazine: https://www.crisismagazine.com/1984/conversion-of-a-cynicChristian Classics Ethereal Library: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/muggeridgeIntro Music: Country Strumstick Mountain Hop, by Andy Slater

American Catholic historian, author, and lecturer. Charles Coulombe explains the "End of Christendom". Charles Coulombe on Tumblar House Pagans Are Wrong and the Christians Are Right The End of Christendom by Malcolm Muggeridge

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), a fresco of Jesus at the church of Santuario de la Misericordia in Borja, Spain by Elías García Martínez c. 1930, altered in good-faith restoration by 81-year-old amateur painter Cecilia Giménez and dubbed by wags on the internet Ecce Mono (Behold the Monkey), or less weightily, Potato Jesus. The restoration attempt breathed new life into the dwindling Spanish town, which saw its tourist trade boom and the resulting revenues benefit restaurants, the church itself, and a local care home for the elderly.Details, credits, errata: Episode 3, The Next Manger Over, is written by Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson, produced by Sam, and distributed by Alissa. This episode is about Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a film made by the legendary British comedy troupe of the title, who personally threw Christians to the lions in ancient Rome and still persecute missionaries in China, all while laughing and screaming the Takbir.A video of John Cleese’s eulogy for Graham Chapman can be found here, as can the full text of the speech. The abridged version is embedded below. Sam made an error in his description of the speech: Chapman did not don a carrot outfit and scream. Rather, after accepting an invitation to speak at the Oxford Union, he arrived in a carrot outfit, took the stage, and refused to speak for twenty minutes. We regret the error. Here’s Cleese and Palin absolutely shellacking Malcolm Muggeridge and, I had forgotten, no less a personage than the Bishop of Southwark. There’s a lovely historical feature article and a gallery of still photos from the film at the Criterion Collection’s website. The movie is currently streaming on Netflix but if you’d prefer to buy a disc it’s readily available for cheap on eBay and elsewhere. The Pythons also cut a Life of Brian comedy album, which used to be a form distinct from stand-up specials, of sketches from the film, containing the James Bond-spoof theme song at its full 19-second run time, the big musical number, and a couple of gags too tasteless even for the Pythons to put into the movie itself. Netflix also has a six-part BBC doc about the troupe called Monty Python’s Almost the Truth. Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. Monty Python’s Life of Brian, both the film and the album, are copyright 1979 Python (Monty) Pictures Limited, something that has always amused me. Brief audio clips are used herein for review purposes. All other content is copyright 2020 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at yammpod.substack.com/subscribe

“I lay on my bed full of stale liquor and despair,” wrote journalist Malcolm Muggeridge of a particularly dismal evening during his work as a World War II spy. “Alone in the universe, in eternity, with no glimmer of light.” In such a condition, he did the only thing he thought sensible; he tried to drown himself. Driving to the nearby Madagascar coast, he began the long swim into the ocean until he grew exhausted. Looking back, he glimpsed the distant coastal lights. For no reason clear to him at the time, he started swimming back toward the lights. Despite his fatigue, he recalls “an overwhelming joy.” Muggeridge didn’t know exactly how, but he knew God had reached him in that dark moment, infusing him with a hope that could only be supernatural. The apostle Paul wrote often about such hope. In Ephesians he noted that, before knowing Christ, each of us is “dead in [our] transgressions and sins . . . . without hope and without God in the world” (2:1, 12). But “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead” (vv. 4–5). This world tries to drag us into the depths, but there’s no reason to succumb to despair. As Muggeridge said about his swim in the sea, “It became clear to me that there was no darkness, only the possibility of losing sight of a light which shone eternally.”

Matthew 16:13b-16 NIV “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” John 16:33 NIV 33 “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 2 Timothy 3:12 NIV 12 …everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, John 6:14-21 ESV 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. Matthew 14:22-33 ESV 22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Mark 6:50b-52 ESV But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV 15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers Matthew 16:22-23 ESV 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Hebrews 12:11 NIV 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.” Malcolm Muggeridge, Homemade, July, 1990. Matthew 28:20 NIV 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Malcolm Muggeridge warned this generation that we have educated ourselves into imbecility, drugged ourselves into stupefaction, and are at the verge of extinction. The church is in danger of exactly that. The church has imitated the world so much that we have become redundant to this generation. In this message Andrew relooks at the fifth essential of the full Gospel of the Kingdom - "the powers of the Age to Come". Observing individuals in the early church, he invites us to imitate them in order to regain the power of God the early church was familiar with.Here is the link for the SERMON NOTES

Page: www.forthehope.org/blog/looking-at-new-old-news-or-new-old-news-john-16-33

Harrison and Laura present essential information for Petersfield and its villages. Malcolm Muggeridge explains how the services available from the Petersfield Coronavirus Resource Hub and we get an update on the TPS laptops appeal from Gary Green of Bohunt Educational Trust. Send information updates to team@petersfieldradio.uk or call 01730 555 500.

Malcolm Muggeridge, conhecido jornalista e crítico social britânico, conheceu a fé em Cristo aos 60 anos. Em seu 75.º aniversário, ele publicou 25 observações muito inspiradas sobre a vida. Uma dizia: “Nunca conheci um homem rico que estivesse feliz, mas apenas muito ocasionalmente conheci um homem pobre que não quisesse se tornar rico”. A maioria de nós concordaria que dinheiro não nos deixa felizes, mas gostaríamos de ter mais só para ter certeza. O patrimônio líquido do rei Salomão foi estimado em mais de dois trilhões de dólares. Apesar de ter sido muito rico, ele sabia que o dinheiro tinha grandes limitações. Provérbios 8 é baseado em sua experiência e oferece a “Excelência da Sabedoria” para todos. “…Levanto minha voz para todo o povo […] pois falo a verdade, e toda espécie de engano é detestável para mim” (vv.4-7). “Escolham minha instrução em vez da prata e o conhecimento em vez do ouro puro. Pois a sabedoria vale muito mais que rubis; nada do que você deseja se compara a ela” (vv.10,11). A Sabedoria diz: “Minha dádiva vale mais que ouro, mais que ouro puro; meu rendimento é melhor que a fina prata. Ando em retidão, nos caminhos da justiça. Os que me amam recebem riquezas como herança; sim, encherei seus tesouros” (vv.19-21). Essas são riquezas verdadeiras! Senhor, obrigado pelas riquezas da Tua sabedoria que guiam os nossos passos hoje. Deus oferece a verdadeira riqueza da sabedoria aos que o buscam e o seguem.

Ep. 01: Stonewall Riots and Gay Liberation Front Join guests Marguerite McLaughlin and Nettie Pollard who speak about their early experiences in NYC and London, respectively. Beginning in 1969 in NYC, Marguerite reflects on what is was like in New York for the gay community at the time of the uprising. Following, Nettie shares her experience as a member of the Gay Liberation Front in early 1970s London. Guests: Marguerite McLaughlin, Nettie Pollard Interviewer: Evelyn Pittman Producer: Lori E Allen Logo: Lesley Greening Lassoff Special Mention: Rachel James and Beverley Hunnybun for help and support with production Marguerite McLaughlin: Marguerite McLaughlin has been a lesbian feminist activist for 46 years years. At 22, she joined 'Lesbian Feminist Liberation', a sister group to The Gay Activist Alliance, where she directed the world's first full length lesbian musical performed at the infamous GAA firehouse in New York City. Shortly after re-locating the UK, Marguerite engaged in student politics and was elected the East Anglia representative for the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign in 1974, where she became involved in a wide range of feminist activity including women's theatre, community arts projects, radical photography co-operatives and writing for the left-wing/ alternative press. In the 1980s, she worked with the Inner London Education Authority and the BBC before moving on to work with some of the UK's first LGBT+ charities including London Lesbian & Gay Switchboard, Kairos In Soho and The Metro Centre, often working in partnership with local Authorities, the Metropolitan Police and the Department of Health. In 2013 Marguerite was awarded a British Empire Medal by the Queen for her services to LGBT and African communities Currently Marguerite is a film programmer for The Vito Project at London's Cinema Museum, a volunteer for Opening Doors London, including its oral history project, a regular contributor to Diva Magazine and a very proud honourary member of the Revolting Lesbians group, New York City. Nettie Pollard: Nettie Pollard has been a member of the Gay Liberation Front since 1971. In addition to her activism with GLF, she also served as Gay Rights Organiser for the National Council of Civil Liberties for over two decades. Her activism spans 50 years engaging in many campaigns organised by the GLF, and including ongoing protest against armaments and supporting migrants. Audio Bibliography (source available on request) Spoken Quotes 1958. The Homosexual in Our Society 1970. Police in New York City 1967. CBS Report with Mike Wallace: The Homosexuals 1993. Dyke TV. Episode 1 1968. The Killing of Sister George 1971. The Festival of Light (year unknown). Malcolm Muggeridge on Equality 1950 (year unknown). Elocution Lessons from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts Songs 1969. Creedance Clearwater Revival. Fortunate Son 1965. Oh Freedom. Shirley Verret 1969. Frank Sinatra. I Did it My Way. 1979. Derek Jarman. The Tempest. Sound FX Foley (available upon request) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lori-e-allen/message

A Biblical Look at Aging (Part 1) - Howard HendricksA Biblical Look at Aging (Part 2) - Howard HendricksFamilyLife Today® Radio TranscriptReferences to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. What is Retirement?Day 2 of 2 Guest:                            Dr. Howard Hendricks From the Series:         What is Retirement?________________________________________________________________ Bob:                Pastor Rick Warren has referred to life as a dress rehearsal for eternity.  Howard Hendricks says that's a perspective we need to maintain even in our retirement years. Howard:         C.S. Lewis said it – "Hope means a continual looking forward to the eternal world."  It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.  If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next world.  It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this world. Bob:                This is FamilyLife Today for Wednesday, January 19th.  Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  There is still a lot of eternal work that needs to be done, even in the retirement years.                         And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Wednesday edition.  I know there's still a few years before you and Barbara hit 65, but … Dennis:          Yes, I was thinking about you, too.  Are you and Mary Ann ready for retirement? Bob:                We're still – we're much younger than you. Dennis:          I was thinking, have you thought about early retirement? Bob:                Are you trying to suggest something?  Pick up your check on the way out the door? Dennis:          You know, there are some people who, if they heard that, and you know I'm kidding 100 percent, but if they heard those words, that would be chilling words – to hear your boss say, "Have you ever thought about early retirement?"  And the reason is, they don't know what they'd do, because they're not sure what they're about today.  And I think, as never before, we, as followers of Christ, need to be on a mission that transcends what we do at work. Bob:                That's right.  We're listening this week to a message from Dr. Howard Hendricks, who spoke to the couples who speak at the FamilyLife Weekend to Remember conferences.  We asked him to come in and help us think ahead to that time as we grow older when we'll face retirement, and we've got some young couples who speak at our conferences – couples in their late 20s and their 30s, but they were taking notes just like everyone else was taking notes, as Dr. Hendricks laid out a game plan for us to think ahead to that time when we may slow down a bit, because our body does slow down; when we may have less vocational work to do.  But it's not a time to just sit on the porch and rock.  It's a time to have a new focus and a new mission. Dennis:          It is, and this message is a part of a three-message series we're offering here on FamilyLife Today on the whole aspect of growing old and thinking through the aging process biblically, and I think there is a need for us to do that.                         Dr. Howard Hendricks was my professor at Dallas Theological Seminary where he's taught for over 52 years.  Now, think about that – he's had a job there for a long time.  He is still teaching there.  He and his wife Jeanne have four children.  I think they have eight grandchildren, and he is a great man and a great friend. Bob:                Well, let's listen together.  Here is part two of Dr. Hendricks' message on getting ready for retirement.   [audio clip] Howard:         I'd like to share with you five principles, but I want to underscore for you every one of them has a danger inherent in it.  Number one, retirement requires intensive prayer and planning and preparation.  It is hard to come up with the statistics, but if you talk to people who are specialists in the field of geriatrics, they will tell you this is virtually nonexistent, and I would say, "Well, maybe that's just true of the pagan community and culture."  I could only wish it were true.                           I spend all of my time in the Christian community, and I'm here to tell you the preparation is in the algebraic minus quantity.  There is a passage of Scripture that I hear, in my judgment, perverted.  It's found in the Book of James, chapter 4 – now, listen, you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a time, a year, there, carry on business and make money.  Why, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  Here is the key – your life is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  You've got a little slice of life in which to make your impact for Christ, and often this is said to be a prohibition against planning – nothing further from the biblical truth.  Look at the last part – instead, here is your option, you ought to say if it is the Lord's will, you will live and do this or that.  As it is, you boast and brag and all such boasting is evil.  Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.  What an indictment.  Not of lack of planning but of planning with presumption that I'm going to do this or that in my retirement and that is guaranteed and no thought of the will of God.                         That's why I say you need to begin by discarding the secular concept of retirement that prevails in your culture, and you need to replace it with the understanding it's not what do I want for my retirement – what does the Lord of my life want for my retirement?  How does He want me to spend those bonus years, which are priceless?  And planning, I am discovering, is a form of spiritual discipline.  Most of us don't plan to fail, we fail to plan, and that's particularly true in the area of retirement.  What's the danger in this?  The danger is the danger of unrealistic expectations.  They're either false or they're shifting or they do not exist and, in any case, they are lethal.                           The second principle I would share with you is this – retirement is always, always built on your personal mission, your calling.  And that's why it's not more productive.  To be productive and rewarding, your retirement must be meaningful to you in your stage of life.  That's why you constantly need to ask the question I hope you have asked prior to this – why did God place me on the planet?  I told you I am a fulfilled human being because thank God for mentors who so built into my life that they helped me to determine early on what was my passion, what was my gift?  And if I do not teach, then I cease having any reason for existence.  And so people constantly ask me, "What are you going to do when you retire?"  I said, "You've got to be kidding.  I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing right now and have been for over 51 years at the seminary and prior to that in a pastorate, and that's building into the life of other people."  But what happens if I become incapacitated?  I can no longer travel, no longer move, no longer speak?  Then I will spend those remaining years praying for those like you that God has left on the planet to fulfill the mission He has given you. What's the danger in the second principle?  It's the danger of allowing your life to turn inward; to become self-absorbed and provincial, and I must tell you, nothing breaks my heart as much.  I said as I did not too long ago with a man who could not control his crying by telling me, "I wasted my life," when everybody in our community celebrates him as the ultimately successful.  Now he spends all of his time with his press clippings, all of his time looking at those awards that he received, but he has no external impact except that which is negative. Number three – retirement revolves around your self-identity and, remember, your self-identity is being continually formed through the whole of your life.  By the way, if you have not learned that you are not indispensable, retirement will teach you that as nothing else.  Like a businessman said to me recently – he said, "Hendricks, I woke up one day after the party, after the celebration, and in the first month I discovered no one ever called me.  I spent all of my time and my life on the phone giving counsel, recommending what others ought to do, and nobody" – and so I decided I'd go down to the office to see, and I said, "How's it going?"  "It is going fantastic.  It's never been this good."  And he said, "I climbed into my car, and I couldn't drive, because I couldn't see.  And suddenly it dawned on me, I'm not indispensable, I never have been." We need to learn to distinguish between our work and our worth.  What you are as a person is not to be equated with what you do.  My friend, you are not a human doing, you are a human being, and our worth ultimately as Christian is what we are in Christ.  The danger is that that image is distorted by other people, and so you depend on what you need, and that's strokes.  But if that's your only dependence, you're in trouble. The fourth one – retirement involves a definite process, and it can easily be summarized in three words – there is a losing, there is a leaving, and there is a letting go.  If you fail to do any of the three, you're in deep trouble.  See, loss is important to all of life.  A number of us were talking before, many of them my students here, and they said, "Prof, what have you lost?"  I said, "How many hours do you have?  Jeanne and I lost our oldest daughter.  You expect to bury your parents, you don't expect to bury your children.  Try that.  We lost my youngest son's wife from breast cancer after seven years of incredible agony, leaving three wonderful kids without a mom."  And in the process of discussion, I said, "You guys need to know I have not lost anything of my drive, of my passion, but I've lost some of my energy.  I no longer can do what I used to do.  Try adjusting to that."  And it's hard for some of you, because you're not there yet, though some of you are moving in that direction and are beginning to see there are losses to life, and your task is to leave them, to let them go.  Otherwise, you cling tenaciously to them, and that's what eats your lunch in retirement.  That's why older people spend so much time in nostalgia.  It's not simply a desire to return to the past, it's a failure to face the future.  The danger in retirement is inertia.  It's passivity.  It's people who just sit, and if they think at all, all they can think of is their past. Number five – retirement demands an eternal perspective.  It was my little brother at Wheaton, Jim Elliott, who used to say it so often when we would meet – "Howie, we must give what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot lose."  So as a Christian you are forced to give up in order to gain what I believe may be the most significant years of your life from God's perspective.  But the ultimate question in an eternal perspective is what is the center of your life around which everything else is organized?  Is it a terminating core or is it a non-terminating core?  Whenever you build your life around a terminating core, whether it's your home or your car or your money or even your family, then you are going to sustain the most severe losses, and it will never fulfill you.  That's why the only adequate candidate, in my judgment, is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.  This is why I believe hope is unique to Christianity.   C.S. Lewis said it – "Hope means a continual looking forward to the eternal world."  It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.  If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next world.  It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.  Aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in – aim at earth, and you will get neither.   When I was a kid, I cannot tell you how many times I heard the statement from pastors and Bible teachers and friends, and that is, "You spend so much time thinking about the next world, that you are no good in this one."  Do you know what we need to do?  We need to reverse that.  We spend so much time in this world, and perhaps this is why we are no more effective in terms of the next one.  What's the danger?  The danger is forgetting where your home is.   Malcolm Muggeridge, in his penetrating way, said "The only ultimate disaster that can befall us as Christians is to feel ourselves to be at home here on earth.  As long as we are aliens, we cannot forget our true homeland." [end audio clip] Bob:                That's Dr. Howard Hendricks, and I remember as he was presenting this material, sitting there thinking of that song, "This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through."  Do you remember that one?  That's the reality.  We've got to keep our eyes focused on where we're headed, and we've got to do all we can in this life to get ourselves and everyone else we know ready for the next one. Dennis:          Yes, and his last point – retirement demands an eternal perspective.  It is all about investing in people.  It's about seeing God use us to change people's lives, and that's why, as we talk about retirement, what ought to be the prime time of our lives, I'm challenging on an increasing basis, in fact, I'm getting on my soapbox, Bob, and I'm challenging folks who are moving into these years of their lives – become a Homebuilder.  Lead a small-group Bible study with a group of married couples, a group of parents, maybe parents of young children or parents of teenagers, maybe the military family.  You know, this is a critical time for our military.  The family has been impacted there.  We have a Homebuilder Bible study that was written just for the military family. Bob:                We've got one for blended families, too.  We've got a whole series for parents and 10 different titles for married couples.  So we've tried to provide an easy-to-use tool.  Now we just need folks who will pick up the tool and go to work. Dennis:          Right.  I personally believe this Bible study is the most effective small-group Bible study for the family that's ever been produced, and you need to know when you support us financially, you make it possible for us to produce these Bible studies and get them translated and published in other languages.  And I want you, as a listener, to know that Homebuilders has now been translated into 200 different languages and dialects around the world.  We have no idea how many millions of copies have been produced and are now in use in other countries.  This is a phenomenal outreach, but it's a very important outreach here in America, and I think anyone who is approaching the retirement years ought to think about leading a Homebuilders' group. Bob:                That's right. We appreciate those of you who do support us and help make this outreach possible, and those of you who would like to become Homebuilders leaders, go to our website at FamilyLife.com.  There's more information available there, or give us a call at 1-800-FLTODAY.  Someone on our team can let you know how easy it is to start a Homebuilders group.  Again, our website is FamilyLife.com or the number 1-800-FLTODAY.  That's also how you would get hold of the message you've heard today from Dr. Howard Hendricks.  It's part of a three-CD or three-cassette series on the subject of aging, and you can contact us for more information on how you can have his messages sent to you. Dennis:          Like I mentioned earlier, Bob, get three copies – one for yourself, one for your parents, and one for your in-laws.  I think we need to be seeding the marketplace – those who are in their retirement years with good, solid, biblical teaching about what it means to age and grow old with a mission. Bob:                Well, again, you can find information online at FamilyLife.com or give us a call at 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY.                         Well, tomorrow we're going to introduce you to some college students who, back when they were in high school, decided to get together and make a movie – I mean a real movie – and we'll meet the woman who directed the effort and helped them make their dream possible.  We'll hear about the movie, "Holly's Story," tomorrow, and I hope you can be with us for that.                         I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.  On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll see you back tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today.                          FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.  ________________________________________________________________ We are so happy to provide these transcripts to you.  However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website.  If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would   you consider donating today to help defray the costs?         Copyright © FamilyLife.  All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com

It's the end of the seventies, and Roger's last gig of the decade finds him at his new favourite watering hole - the Blitz club at The George IV Pub - checking out the much-talked about Artery, with support from Doncaster-based tin foil enthusiasts Shy Tots. Also features Elliott Gould, Malcolm Muggeridge, David Bowie and Jenny Agutter in 'Walkabout'. Intro and outro music by Simon Elliott-Kemp.Artwork by Rionagh.Sound FX by Freesound.org and Zapsplat. With particular thanks to Plagasul (guitar riff), Big Joe Drummer (drum samples), Annerie, Audio Hero, AAJ, PM In Motion and Fox Audio.

Saturday Story People meeting Jesus  The story of Malcolm Muggeridge... Today we are looking into the 20th Century again, this time at Malcolm Muggeridge. He was, by his own volition and renown, a determined sceptic and vocal non-believer. Until that is, he encountered Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Come and listen to his story of faith... Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file~ You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

A deep look at some familiar verses in the New Testament about the arrival of the Messiah; why Malcolm Muggeridge would say that all the success in the world added up to less than nothing when one thing was absent; other miracle births in the Bible; learning the truth found in the statement "The best of men are men at best"; finding the one who looked 'exceedingly awesome' and how his life can change yours; and learning the name that is secret, beyond comprehension, beyond wonderful, and fully yours to know this very day.

REFLECTION QUOTES “Suffering is unbearable if you aren't certain that God is for you and with you.” ~ Tim Keller (1950-present), American pastor, theologian, and Christian apologist “The difference between shallow happiness and a deep, sustaining joy is sorrow. Happiness lives where sorrow is not. When sorrow arrives, happiness dies. It can't stand pain. Joy, on the other hand, rises from sorrow and therefore can withstand all grief. Joy, by the grace of God, is the transfiguration of suffering…” ~ Walter Wangerin Jr. (1944-present), American author and educator “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained… This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.” ~ Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist and satirist “He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace. The greatest good suffering can do for me is to increase my capacity for God. Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God's motives, but in understanding His character, in trusting in His promises, and in leaning on Him and resting in Him as the Sovereign who knows what He is doing and does all things well.” ~ Joni Eareckson Tada (1949-present), Author, artist, radio personality and advocate for the disabled “It's only in the cross that we can begin to harmonize this seeming contradiction between suffering and love. And we will never understand suffering unless we understand the love of God.” ~ Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015), Christian missionary, author and speaker “The real sting of suffering is not misfortune itself, nor even the pain of it or the injustice of it, but the apparent God-forsakenness of it. Pain is endurable, but the seeming indifference of God is not…We think of Him as an armchair spectator, almost gloating over the world's suffering, and enjoying His own insulation from it. It is this terrible caricature of God that the cross smashes to smithereens.” ~ John Stott (1921-2011), English Anglican priest and author SERMON PASSAGE Excerpts from Genesis 37 & 39 (New Living Translation) Genesis 37 2 This is the account of Jacob and his family. 3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe. 4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn't say a kind word to him. 5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!” 12 Soon after this, Joseph's brothers went to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem. 14 “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along,” Jacob said. “Then come back and bring me a report.” 18 When Joseph's brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. 20 “Come on, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.' Then we'll see what becomes of his dreams!” 23 So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. 24 Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it. 25 Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime.27 Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. 28 So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. 31 Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood. 32 They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn't this robe belong to your son?” 36 Meanwhile, the Midianite traders arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard. Genesis 39 2 The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. 3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. 4 This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, 7 and Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded. 8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.” 10 She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. 11 One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work.12 She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. 13 When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, 14 she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.” 16 She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. 17 Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you've brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. 18 “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!” 19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. 22 Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. 23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.

The Death of Jesus Sermon Series: Easter at Istrouma Luke 23:32-46 Istrouma Baptist Church – Jeff Ginn, Lead Pastor  10:45 AM Sermon April 14, 2019 https://www.facebook.com/istrouma.org/videos/2368027016760807/ https://vimeo.com/330572354       Outline:   The cross of the rebel        39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (23:39). His sinfulness His stubbornness         The cross of the repentant        40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”(23:40-42). His repentance His request   The cross of the redeemer        43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise”…46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last(23:43 & 46). The promise he made The price he paid     Now, today, I want you to open your Bible to Luke Chapter 23, Luke Chapter 23. As you’re turning there, I want to draw attention to the fact that you can have two people facing the same dilemma, but they make different decisions, and they end up with different destinies.    You probably have heard the story about a small plane that experienced engine failure mid-flight.  The only souls aboard were the pilot and four passengers – a famous doctor, a brilliant professor, an old preacher and a young student.   As the engine sputtered to a stop, the pilot opened the cockpit door and stepped into the cabin.  He shared the bad news, grabbed a parachute, and jumped.  The shocked passengers did a quick count and discovered that only three parachutes remained for the four of them.    The doctor said, “My medical expertise is desperately needed so I must live.”  He grabbed a chute and jumped.    The professor said, “I am the world’s smartest man, so I must live.”  He grabbed a parachute and jumped.    Now only one parachute remained.  The pastor said to the student, “Son, you are young, you have your whole life ahead of you.  I am old.  I’ve lived a blessed life and I’m ready to meet the Lord.  You take the last parachute.”   The student said, “That’s ok, pastor.  The world’s smartest man just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.”   The people on that plane faced the same dilemma but ended up with different destinies.    This morning we are going to meet the two men who were crucified on either side of Jesus as he was crucified on that Good Friday so long ago.  They faced the same dilemma but they ended with different destinies.    Like them we all face the same dilemma—a brief life of joys and sorrows and then death and judgment.  Eternity awaits us all.  There are two destinies—heaven and hell—and what we do with Jesus Christ determines which is ours.   Would you stand as we read God's word, Luke 23 beginning in verse 32. By the way, it's Easter at Istrouma. We're celebrating for three weeks this greatest of all celebrations. We're going to begin this week by looking at the death of Christ. You really don't appreciate the resurrection unless you ponder the death. So today is the death of Christ. Next Sunday the resurrection of Christ. Then finally, we'll look at the mission of Christ that he’s left to us, his followers. So, with that, we now read from Luke's Gospel where God says: 32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him [that is, of course, with Jesus]. 33And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and [the other]on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, [the]Chosen One!”36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” 44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour [By the way, we don’t calculate time as they did. The sixth hour would be the sixth hour after sunrise, or noon. Then the ninth hour would be 3 PM. So from noon to 3 PM, darkness was over the earth. And so, verse 45 says], 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.   Let’s pray.   [Prayer]   Please be seated.   This morning we're going to take a look at the three men who were crucified at Calvary on that Good Friday so many centuries ago. Each one of these men faced the same destiny. Death was upon them. Yet, two of them made different decisions, and because of their distinct decisions, they ended with different destinies. Now the point of this is not just to talk about the two thieves and Christ. The point of this is to examine our own lives and to see which of the thieves might best represent us and the decision that we have made, because I'll tell you, we too all face the same dilemma. What is that dilemma? Listen. It's a brief life full of joy and sorrow, soon enough to end, and after that the judgment. And we all face that dilemma. But the decision we make with regard to Christ determines our eternal destiny. So with the weight of that upon us, let's look at each of these three men.   I want to begin with the first of these three, and I'm going to call the cross upon which he died “the cross of the rebel.” The cross of the rebel. Now here, I'm thinking of verse 39. Look at it again. Verse 39 says: 39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”   Now, how might we describe this rebel? I'm going to give you two words that describe him. First of all, I could describe him as sinful. His sinfulness stands out. He is called here a criminal. In another Gospel, he's called a thief. So we know the nature of his crime was to steal. However, I would just add in this historical anecdote, it's likely that he was not a petty thief because crucifixion was reserved for the worst of criminals. It was capital punishment, obviously; it meant your death. So it is very likely that this man, when it says he was a criminal, he was much more than a petty thief. He probably wedded to his thievery something like the abuse of his victims. Perhaps rape. Perhaps brutality. Perhaps even murder. Some have theorized that he might have been an insurrectionist, in rebellion against Rome’s authority, perhaps an ally of Barabbas, who was set free, you remember. And Christ died in his stead; figuratively dying in all of our stead. Perhaps he was allied with Barabbas, but this was a bad man. A bad dude. He was a sinner. In fact, the word here when it says “he railed on Christ,” the word “railed on” is literally in Greek, the word “blasphemed.” The man was blaspheming Christ. “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself.” He was cursing him. So he was a sinner.   Now, I want to hasten to make this point. Please don't think I'm looking down my spiritual nose at that thief on the cross, because, the truth is, every one of us is likewise sinful. There's not a one of us that’s without sin. We've all rebelled against God. We've broken his law. And thus we've broken his heart. And so, this man very well might represent every one of us as I describe him as a sinner. The Bible says, in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The Pope has sinned. I have sinned. Your grandma has sinned. Don't mean to bust your bubble, but you have sinned. All of us have sinned. And so we could be represented by this thief.   Now the thing that makes it even worse is not just that he was a sinner, for we all are, but that he was stubborn in his sin. His stubbornness really stands out, does it not? Here he is. His life is literally ebbing away, blood drop by blood drop. The time is ticking. The sand is falling through the hourglass. His moments are numbered. You would think, would you not, that at this juncture of life, or I could say at this juncture of death, something in him would have cried out in desperation, “Oh God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” You would think that there might be some humility in him, some repentance, some remorse, some self-reflection, but none of it. No, instead, he, in a sense, raises his fist to heaven. Very selfishly says, “If you're the Christ, save yourself and us. No interest in a relationship with Christ. Just, “Christ, if you can be my ticket out of this mess, be it for me.” But no surrender to the Lordship of Christ. He is stubborn.   I was reminded of a story that was told by a man named Ravi Zacharias. Ravi is a famous apologist for the faith, wonderful ministry. He had a personal relationship with a reporter from Britain, Malcolm Muggeridge, the legendary English journalist, author, and media personality. Muggeridge had spent some time with Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, while they were working together on a BBC production on the life of her father. Joseph Stalin was, of course, the communist leader who once ruled Russia with a sadistic mentality and an incomprehensible coldness. During his reign untold millions of people were put to death by his command. The numbers are so high that experts can only give broad estimates as to the actual total.   “According to the story that Svetlana told Muggeridge, and Muggeridge in turn told Zacharias, Stalin was plagued by terrifying hallucinations as he lay dying on his bed. Then suddenly he sat halfway up in bed, clenched his fist toward the heavens, fell back upon his pillow, and was dead. It was if his last gesture in life was literally a clenched fist toward God.   “It would be easy to assume that Stalin lived his entire life in steadfast opposition to the concept of God, but that would be a wrong assumption. The fact is that when he was sixteen he received a scholarship to a Georgian Orthodox seminary. He even did well in his classes there until he missed his final exams and was expelled. Not long afterward he began reading the writings of Vladimir Lenin and became a Marxist revolutionary.   “Looking back over Stalin’s life it isn’t hard to deduce that he had an excellent opportunity not only to receive Christ as Savior but also to spend his life in service to Him. That is, after all, what seminary students usually do. But somewhere along the way Stalin came to a spiritual crossroad and chose to reject Jesus.” It reminds me of this thief on the cross. He is a rebel. Sinful, yes, but add to that, stubborn, and refusing to repent and find mercy and grace.   Before I go to the second cross, I'll tell you a story I uncovered this week. There's a fellow who lives in Chicago, David C. Nicosia, a business owner in Chicago. He was outside the Cook County Courthouse there in the greater Chicago area, and he was going to have a court case. While he was waiting outside, there was a very attractive elderly black woman. She's 79 years old. She was sitting outside, and for some reason they got into an altercation. He's about 50-ish; she's nearly 80. And for whatever reason, he got angry with her. He spit in her face. He then slapped her with his open hand and he made some comment along the lines of “You’re no Rosa Parks.”  But, come to find out, the woman he insulted, spat upon, and slapped was none other than the judge herself. She had been outside on a brief break. Her name is Judge Arnette Hubbard. She was the first female president of the National Bar Association and the Cook County Bar Association. Judge Hubbard is a community icon who has served as an election observer in Haiti and South Africa and had long been a voice on civil rights and women's issues. She was the judge. Little did he know, he thought he was just mistreating some insignificant woman, when all the while, she was the judge.   I thought about this thief. He's insulting Christ. Had he been able to, perhaps he would have spat in his face and slapped him. He certainly did with his words and his attitude. Yet, all the while, the one he insulted and the one he pleaded with to come down from the cross was, by his insistence in being on the cross, working out the salvation of that very man. Oh the mercy and grace of Christ. He had said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And this man, Nicosia, didn't know what he was doing when he slapped that woman, and so many of us may not realize that in our rebellion we're slapping, in effect, the face of the one who could bring about our forgiveness and salvation. So that is the cross, first of all then, of the rebel.   Could I just challenge us all this morning; let's don't be rebellious against God. I know we're sinners. Let's just confess that. But we don't have to stay in our rebellion against God. We can come to him and plead mercy and grace and find it full and free in Jesus.   Now, let's come then to the second cross. Remember, two different men, two different decisions, two different destinies. There's the cross of the rebel. He dies in his sin, not repenting. But now I want to come to this cross, and I want to call this one “The cross of the repentant.” The cross of the repentant. Look at your Bible, please, again, and I want us to go down to verse 40. There, the Bible says: 40 But the other [that is, the other criminal] rebuked [the first], saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man [he said, referring to Jesus]has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”   This is one of the most poignant moments in all of the pages of the Bible. This man represents all those who repent of their sins and find salvation in Christ. How might we describe this man? Well I want to speak, first of all, of his repentance. Now, the word “repent” means literally to turn around. If I'm going this way and I repent, I'm going to turn and go 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and that's what's going to occur in this second thief’s life. He was going one way. If you look in the companion story of this in Matthew's Gospel, you're going to discover something very telling, something very interesting, something worth noting, and it’s this, that when they began that trek, when they began the trek up Cavalry, both of the thieves, the Bible says, were hurling insults at Jesus. Both of them. Not just the one on one side, but both of them were, basically saying the same thing, cursing Christ, calling on him to deliver them. But as he makes that journey, something happens in his heart, something radical. Perhaps it was the effect of seeing Jesus cry out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He saw the mercy of grace of God in Christ, and he saw his tenderness toward his mother Mary as he called on John the beloved apostle to take care of her. And he heard the sayings on the cross and saw the mercy and grace in Christ’s eyes, and it did something to the man. He repented.   I heard about a Sunday school class of children, and the lesson that day was on forgiveness. The teacher was instructing them from the Bible about that topic. When she concluded, she said, “Now boys and girls, I've got a question for you. What must we do to be forgiven?” And so one little girl raised her hand and she said, “Well, to be forgiven, we've got to confess.” The teacher said, “That's right.” Then another student raised his hand, and he said, “To be forgiven, we've got to repent.” The teacher said, “That's right.” Then this one little mischievous boy raised his hand, and she said, “Johnny, what do you have to do to be forgiven?” He said, “Sin!” Good point. To be forgiven, you’ve got to sin and then confess and repent.   The reason I bring that little story up is to say this, “Whatever happened to sin?” There was a book written by that title a generation ago by a famous psychiatrist, and basically in the book, he was saying, “What happened to sin?” It’s like no longer is there any sin. There are sicknesses. There are addictions. There are complexes inflicted upon us by those who may have mistreated us, but as far as me personally having done anything that might be categorized sinful, it's as though we know nothing of it. But here's the truth: To be forgiven, we must recognize that we have sinned. And I love what we see in the man hanging on the second cross, his repentance.   I see it in two things. First of all, he confesses his faults. I see his repentance in the fact that he confesses his faults. He says to the other thief, “We’re getting what we deserve.” He's acknowledging his sin. Have you ever done that? Have you come to God and said, “God I know that I'm a sinner, and were I to receive what I deserve, I would be punished. I would be separated from your grace and mercy. God I am guilty.” Have you done that seriously and from your heart? You must to be forgiven. This man confessed his fault. But then, add to it this truth. Not only did he confess his fault, but he confessed his faith, and that's how salvation comes. We confess our faults, and we confess our faith. He said of Jesus, “We're getting what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Now get this, he saw in Christ the sinless Lamb of God, given as a sacrifice for our sins, and he believed it, and he said, “Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” He confessed his faith in the Lordship of Christ. If you’re to be saved, and if you're to go to heaven, you must do as the thief on the cross did so long ago. Repent, confessing your faults and your faith, and then you need to make a request of the Lord, and that's what this thief did.   I see his repentance, and now his request. He said, “Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom.” That's a prayer.   You know, there's a phrase; perhaps you've heard it before. We term a certain kind of prayer the “sinner's prayer.” Have you ever heard that phrase? And fact, someone may ask you, “Have you ever prayed the sinner's prayer?” In modern times, I've actually got a sense that some people disparage that as though somehow that's not appropriate. But I want to stand today in defense of the sinner's prayer, and say to you, if you don't pray the sinner's prayer, not in any kind of like magical incantation of certain words, but a sincere cry of confession, repentance and appeal for mercy, you're not going to heaven. You've got to do like this thief did, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Could I ask you, have you ever prayed the sinner's prayer? Have you ever gotten on your knees, whether physically or figuratively, have you ever gotten on your knees and just said, “Lord, I'm guilty, but I know that you’re sinless and you died in my stead. I'm asking you, Lord, to apply that mercy and grace to me, and save me.” That's the way to heaven. Romans 10:13 says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That's what the sinner's prayer is; it's a sincere cry to God for forgiveness and mercy. If you've never before called on him to be your Saviour, I'm going to invite you to do so today.   So now, let's come to the last cross. I've taught you about the cross of the rebel. He died in his sins, and had a certain destiny. I’ve talked to you about the cross of the repentant. He didn't die in his sin; no, he died to his sin and turned to Christ, and he had a certain destiny. What determined the destiny of both was what they did with the man in the middle, Jesus. His is not the cross of the rebel nor the cross of the repentant because he never rebelled, and he never had anything for which to repent. No, his is the cross of the Redeemer. He didn't die in his sin, and he didn't die to his sin. He died for our sins, the innocent for the guilty. Christ died for us.   I want you to notice the promise he made to that thief on the cross. Look at it now in verse 43: 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”   Oh, if I had the time to just take every one of these words and let each word sit heavily upon our hearts. They're all worth the world. He said, “Truly.” Do you know what that tells me? It's a promise; it's a promise made by none other than the Lord Jesus himself. “Truly, I say to you.” To whom did he make this promise? To the thief on the cross. Listen to me. Some people think that to get into heaven; watch this, watch, some people think that to get into heaven, God's going to have there in heaven a large scale. And on one side, God's going to put all the bad things that you've done – disobedience, lust, pride, jealousy, thievery, abuse, all the bad things you've done – he's going to put that on one side of the scale. Then on the other side of the scale, he's going to put your good deeds. You know, you went to church on an occasion, and you gave something at Christmas time in the red kettle, and you're nice to the little lady across the street, and if you can manage to get enough good deeds to outweigh your bad deeds, then you get to go to heaven. That's what people think. Did you know that you could look throughout the whole of the Bible; you'll never find that to be the case? The best case in point to prove that that is not the path to salvation is the thief on the cross himself. Now, if we were to stack up all the thief’s bad deeds over here, it would be a pretty big stack, would it not? He's lived his whole life a rebel to God. Now on this side, what has this thief on the cross done to merit forgiveness? Had he gone to church? Not that I know of. Had he been baptized? Never. Had he given an offering? No, he had probably robbed from some offering plates, but he had not given anything. No, there was nothing that he had done to outweigh the bad that he had done – except that he had called out to the Lord for mercy and grace, and by that cry of repentance and faith, the scale was tipped.   There's a story that I've loved across the years. It's the story of a man who went to heaven, and Saint Peter met him at the gate. You know it's fanciful because that's not the way it's going to be, but Saint Peter met him at the gate and said, “May I help you?” The man said, “Well, I want to go to heaven; I want to be admitted into heaven.” Saint Peter said, “Well, tell me what you've done on earth, and we'll see if you can come into heaven.” Saint Peter said, “You’ve got to score 100 points and every good thing that you've done has a certain value, and if it adds up to 100 points you get to come in.” So the guy started sweating, and he started thinking of what he had done that was good, and he said, “Well, I went to church on an occasion.” Saint Peters said, “All right, I'll give you a point for that. Then he said, “I gave to charity on an occasion.” Saint Peter said, “All right, I'll give you a point for that.” He started sweating more profusely, and he said, “Well, I went to the soup kitchen on Thanksgiving Day and I served the homeless.” Saint Peter said, “Okay I'll give you a couple of points for that.” He said, “I was married to my wife for 40 years and I never cheated on her.” Saint Peter said, “Okay, three points for that.” He's just struggling, right; he doesn't nearly have enough points. The guy, in exasperation, finally says, “The only way I'm going to get in is by the grace of God.” Saint Peter said, “100 points!”   It's the grace of God. That's the only way you get in, the grace, the unmerited gift of God. His grace tips the scales.  The thief on the cross portrays this so beautifully. Nothing he had done earned his way into heaven, but God in mercy heard his cry, and washed his sins away.   That's good news for us, folks. Now, ought we to do good deeds, ought we to go to church, ought we to give, ought we to be nice to the little lady across the street, and ought we to be a witness for Christ? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. But we ought not do it to earn forgiveness; we ought to do it out of gratitude for having been forgiven.   So, the promise that he made was that the thief would be in heaven, and the price that he paid was he breathed his last. Do you see that? How is it that we get to go into heaven, sinners as we are? We get to go because someone who was innocent paid the price for our sins. The Bible that says we have all sinned also says “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Our Lord.” Someone must die for the sins that have been committed, and the good news is someone did die. Someone did, as the text says, “breathed his last.” When he breathed his last and died for us, the way to heaven was opened for those who would repent and believe.   Two different men; same dilemma. But two different decisions, and thus two destinies.   I'm going to conclude with this. Let me describe for you a feature of our continent. There’s a backbone to the Western Hemisphere. It runs from the frozen tundra of Canada and the Arctic all the way down through the United States down through Central America, on down into South America, and that backbone is largely constituted of the Rockies and the Andes. It forms what is called the Continental Divide. Now do you guys know what the Continental Divide is? It's a curious thing. Every raindrop that falls lands on one side or the other of the Continental Divide. If the raindrop happens to fall on the western side, every one of those raindrops runs to the Pacific Ocean. By whatever tributary, it makes its way to the Pacific. If a raindrop falls, by contrast, on the eastern slope of the continental divide, that drop of water will eventually make its way to the Atlantic Ocean. It may come through the Gulf; it may go through the Hudson Bay, but it's going to the Atlantic Ocean. It is all determined by on which side of the Continental Divide it falls.   Now, what's my point in telling that? Jesus is the Continental Divide of humanity. Jesus is the Continental Divide of all of human history. Where you end up determines on which side of Christ you fall. If you fall on the side of the cross of the rebel, sinful and stubborn, your destiny is separation from God. If you fall on the side of the cross of the repentant, your destiny is heaven, Paradise, to use Jesus' word in this text. Could I ask you, “On which side of Christ do you stand today, rebel or repentant?” Before you leave this room today, if you’ve not made the decision to get on the right side of Christ, confessing your fault and your faith, I'm going to invite you to do so, so that your destiny might be with him in Paradise when you leave this life, so that you might have joy as you do live this life in obedience to him.   Let's stand together with our heads bowed. I want you to join me in thanking God for his word.   [Prayer and Invitation]   Thank you for having come today. We celebrate the victory of Christ. Here's what the Bible told us today: “He breathed his last.” Were that the end of the story, we'd have nothing to celebrate, as great as his death on the cross was.   Next Sunday, we're going to tell the rest of the story. Until then, have a great week. God bless you.  

Thursday Story People meeting Jesus   The story of Malcolm Muggeridge... Today we are looking into the 20th Century again, this time at Malcolm Muggeridge. He was, by his own volition and renown, a determined sceptic and vocal non-believer. Until that is, he encountered Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Come and listen to his story of faith... Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file~ You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

In seinem Buch “The Last Superstition – Der letzte Aberglaube” erwähnt Edward Feser einen Spruch von Malcolm Muggeridge, demzufolge man ohne Gott nur die Wahl habe, der Megalomanie oder der Erotomanie zu erliegen. Feser erliegt allerdings beidem gleichzeitig.

点击每期节目可以看到具体文稿内容Attachment to placesBy Andrew Sullivan…I've always been unusually attached to places. It's one reason I still call myself a conservative. Travel doesn't attract me. I've now lived in the same loft in D.C. since I bought it, in 1991 (apart from an ill-fated year and a half in New York City); I've spent 20 consecutive summers in the same little town at the end of Cape Cod, and have no desire to go anyplace else. Even when I go home to England, I tend to spend around half my time near where I grew up.I wouldn't go so far as Malcolm Muggeridge, who famously said: “Travel, of course, narrows the mind.” (Don't you love that “of course”?) But I would say that the reverse can also be true. Staying put allows you to really get to know a place deeply at different times and in different seasons, to capture, often serendipitously, a small detail you'd never seen before, or arrive at a street corner and suddenly remember that this was where you first met an old friend.But staying home brings grief with it as well. Everything changes, and when your beloved tree at the end of the street is cut down, or a new Safeway replaces the corner baker, or, more fatally, the factory that used to be the linchpin of the place lies empty and crumbling, it stings and wounds and demoralizes. When I've visited my own hometown in England, so much is the same. And yet, on closer inspection, many of the once-vibrant shops are selling secondhand clothes, or given over to real estate offices. My old church has a broken window where the rain comes in. The services have dwindled to near nothing. Maybe it's being away for so long, but it seems familiar and yet a little empty, as if something in it has somehow died, a continuity somehow lost.968重庆之声每周一至周五8点56分每天三分钟养成良好英语听说习惯

Ramon Williams has served as a missionary with WEC in Indonesia, he's worked with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and he's photographed and reported on many major events all over the world! He's worked with the likes of Julie Anthony, Dionne Warwick, Nana Mouskouri, Shirley Bassey, Malcolm Muggeridge, Pat Boone, and Mother Teresa. He's photographed musicians including Barry McGuire, Leon Patillo, Cliff Richard, Andre Crouch, Keith Green, DeGarmo and Key, Colin Buchanan, Darlene Zschech, Idea of north, Rebecca St James, Steve Grace and Marina Prior. Listen in to hear his story and the highlights of this amazing career!

In A Twentieth-Century Testimony, Malcolm Muggeridge wrote: “The true purpose of our existence in this world‚ which is, quite simply, to look for God, and, in looking, to find Him, and, having found Him, to love Him, thereby establishing a harmonious relationship with His purposes for His creation.” The post RHBC 339: The Preciousness of Faith appeared first on RHBC.

Historian Peter Frankopan and Classicist, Edith Hall, join the author and drama practitioner Kwame Kwei-Armah in a Free Thinking session, chaired by Anne McElvoy, on the concept of success. Success was scrutinised in a documentary on the Third Programme in 1967. Personal or public - how do we imagine success in the contemporary world? Have our hopes for a successful society grown or diminished, is a sense of personal integrity as strong as it was? Archives from the Third Programme include a transcript from 5 June 1967 of a programme produced by Douglas Cleverdon in which Philip Toynbee, Sir Michael Redgrave, Malcolm Muggeridge and John Berger talk to host Philip O'Connor about the nature of success. Have our definitions changed at all?Peter Frankopan from Worcester College, Oxford is the author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World Edith Hall's latest book is called Introducing The Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind Kwame Kwei-Armah, author, actor and Artistic Director of CENTERSTAGE Baltimore directs One Night in Miami by Kemp Power at London's Donmar Warehouse October 6th - December 3rd 2016Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

REFLECTION QUOTES “Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” ~Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness…. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo … the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal or trivial to be endurable. This of course is what the cross [of Christ] signifies, and it is the cross more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), British journalist “For whatever reason God chose to make people as they are – limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death– he had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from us that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it all worthwhile.” ~Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957), English writer and playwright “Affliction is a pill, which, being wrapt up in patience and quiet submission, may be easily swallowed; but discontent chews the pill, and so embitters the soul.” ~John Flavel (c. 1627-1691), English clergyman and author “There is no sweeter fellowship with Christ than to bring our wounds and our sores to him.” ~Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), Scottish pastor, theologian and author SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 119:64-88 (NASB) Teth. 65 You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word. 66 Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word. 68 You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes. 69 The arrogant have forged a lie against me; With all my heart I will observe Your precepts. 70 Their heart is covered with fat, But I delight in Your law. 71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. 72 The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Yodh. 73 Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments. 74 May those who fear You see me and be glad, Because I wait for Your word. 75 I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. 76 O may Your lovingkindness comfort me, According to Your word to Your servant. 77 May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight. 78 May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts. 79 May those who fear You turn to me, Even those who know Your testimonies. 80 May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, So that I will not be ashamed. Kaph. 81 My soul languishes for Your salvation; I wait for Your word. 82 My eyes fail with longing for Your word, While I say, “When will You comfort me?” 83 Though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget Your statutes. 84 How many are the days of Your servant? When will You execute judgment on those who persecute me? 85 The arrogant have dug pits for me, Men who are not in accord with Your law. 86 All Your commandments are faithful; They have persecuted me with a lie; help me! 87 They almost destroyed me on earth, But as for me, I did not forsake Your precepts. 88 Revive me according to Your lovingkindness, So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.

Today Ken welcomes singer/songwriter/author/all around talent Marshall Crenshaw to the show. Ken and Marshall discuss how the third time is the charm, seaside music venues, Club Passim, Marshall's book "Hollywood Rock", The MTV age, the hub of hitchiking, That Thing You Do, La Bamba, Buddy Holly, the early 60s, The Adventures of Pete & Pete reunion, Beatlemania, SCTV, being surprised by Robert Gordon doing your song on your favorite show, The Merv Griffin Show, Wayland Flowers and Madame, The David Letterman Show, Detroit Rock and Soul, The MC5, The Stooges, Jackie WIlson, Jack Scott, scored due to failure, growing up in the anonymous suburbs, watching shocking amounts of television, getting a classic cinema education via TV, showing your children Citizen Kane, realizing that the Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special is 30 Years old, Gilligan's Island vs. The Monkees, Jack Parr, Anglophilia, Steptoe & Son, Malcolm Muggeridge, The Beverly Hillbillies, the variety of true classic top 40, Solid Gold, no dancers but a Beach Boys' studio backing track, your children revisiting your work, Wild Guitar with Arch Hall Jr., Ray Dennis Stecklar, Psychotronic Video, Johnny Cash in Five Minutes to Live aka Door to Door Maniac, Jonathan Ross' Incredibly Strange Film Show, Night Flight, Catalina Caper with Little Richard, That Tennessee Beat, the power of documentaries, Hail Hail Rock n Roll, Let the Goodtimes Roll, MC5: A True Testimonial, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, The Blacklist, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Larry Wilmore, John Oliver, and talking to Dr. Licks.

Revd Sally Muggeridge * memorial service at St Mary Magdalene

“I’ll never be happy. I believe I’ll die alone. I would want it that way. I’ve been a loner all my life with my secrets and my pain. I’m really lost, but I’m trying to find myself. I just want to escape. I’m really embarrassed with myself and my life...

REFLECTION QUOTES “All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.” ~James Thurber (1894-1961), American cartoonist and writer “I remember my father telling me, ‘The eyes of God are on us always.' The eyes of God. What a phrase to a young boy. What were God's eyes like? Unimaginably penetrating, intense eyes, I assumed.” ~Judah Rosenthal in Woody Allen's “Crimes and Misdemeanors” “If pride is a sin … moral pride is the greatest sin.” “Being wrong about important things is exhausting.” ~John Irving, The Cider House Rules “If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be punishment – as well as the prison.” “Here a strange thought came into his head: perhaps all his clothes were covered with blood, perhaps there were stains all over them, and he simply did not see, did not notice them, because his reason was failing, going to pieces…his mind darkening.” ~Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), Crime and Punishment “Mental health is an on going process of dedication to reality at all costs.” ~M. Scott Peck (1936-2005), American psychiatrist “The most terrible thing about materialism, even more terrible than its proneness to violence, is its boredom, from which sex, alcohol, drugs, all devices for putting out the accusing light of reason and suppressing the unrealizable aspirations of love, offer a prospect of deliverance.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist “Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him, and say, ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not.'” ~Marin Luther (1483-1546), 16th century Reformer SERMON PASSAGE Acts 10 (NASB) – Peter in Caesarea 39 We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. 40 God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. 43 Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Acts 17 (NASB) – Paul In Athens 30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 24 (ESV) – Paul before Governor Felix 24 After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” 26 At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. 27 When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

REFLECTION QUOTES “One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century, which we've developed to a very high level, is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist “We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held [and] we…had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares. But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another…equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required…. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think…. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity…. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.' In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.” “When two human beings get together, they're co-present, there is built into it a certain responsibility we have for each other…. You can't just turn off a person. On the Internet, you can.” ― Neil Postman (1931-2003), New York University professor and author of Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business “As Michel Foucault pointed out in his detailed study of the mechanisms of power, nothing suits power so well as extreme individualism. In fact, he explains, political and corporate interests aim at nothing less than ‘individualization,' since it is far easier to manipulate a collection of discrete and increasingly independent individuals than a community.” ~ The New York Times, December 16, 2012 SERMON PASSAGE Acts 17:2-4 – Paul in Thessalonica 2 And according to Paul's custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. Act 17:16-17 – Paul in Athens 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. Acts 18:4-5, 11 – Paul in Corinth 4 And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 11 And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Acts 19:8-10 – Paul in Ephesus 8 And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Acts 28:23-24, 30-31 – Paul in Rome 23 When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening. 24 Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe. 30 And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.

REFLECTION QUOTES "This horror of pain is a rather low instinct and…if I think of human beings I've known and of my own life, such as it is, I can't recall any case of pain which didn't, on the whole, enrich life.” “I can say that I never knew what joy was like until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared to live until I chose to die. For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist “It is almost taken for granted throughout the New Testament that tribulation is the normal lot of Christians in this age: it is those who suffer for and with Christ now who will share his glory. ‘No cross, no crown.'” ~F.F. Bruce (1910-1990), noted biblical scholar “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi, 13th century Persian poet “…as concerning faith we ought to be invincible, and more hard, if it might be, than [a] stone; but as touching charity, we ought to be soft, and more flexible than the reed or leaf that is shaken with the wind, and ready to yield to everything.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546) “Suffering, then, is a badge of true discipleship.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), pastor-theologian executed for his opposition to the Nazis “Paul paid dearly for his loyalty to the freeness and universality of the gospel.” ~John Stott (1921-2011), British theologian and pasto SERMON PASSAGE selected passages from Acts and Luke (NASB) Acts 9:11,13-16 - The Calling of Paul 11 And the Lord said to [Ananias], “Get up and go…inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul…. 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake.” Acts 14:19-22 - Paul's first missionary journey 19 …having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. 20 But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 16:22-25 - Paul in Philippi 22 The crowd rose up together against [Paul and Silas], and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; 24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them…. Luke 19:37-41 - Jesus's entry into Jerusalem 37 As soon as [Jesus] was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” 40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” 41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it….

REFLECTION QUOTES “We are at the classic-romantic barrier now, where on one side we see a cycle as it appears immediately… and this is an important way of seeing it… and where on the other side we can begin to see it as a mechanic does in terms of underlying form… and this is an important way of seeing things too.” ~Robert M. Pirsig, American philosopher and novelist in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance “Materialism is a conviction based not upon evidence or logic but upon what Carl Sagan…called a ‘deep-seated need to believe.' Considered purely as a rational philosophy, it has little to recommend it; but as an emotional sedative, what Czeslaw Milosz liked to call the opiate of unbelief, it offers a refuge from so many elaborate perplexities, so many arduous spiritual exertions, so many trying intellectual and moral problems, so many exhausting expressions of hope or fear, charity or remorse. In this sense it should be classified as one of those religions of consolation whose purpose is not to engage the mind or will with the mysteries of being but merely to provide a palliative for existential grievances and private disappointments. Popular atheism is not a philosophy but a therapy.” ~David Bentley Hart in The Experience of God “Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality…The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” ~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in “Is Theology Poetry?” “I am not ashamed to own that I believe that the whole universe, heaven and earth, air and seas, and the divine constitution and history of the holy Scriptures, be full of images of divine things, as full as a language is of words…there is room for persons to be learning more and more of this language and seeing more of that which is declared in it to the end of the world without discovering all.” ~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), famed American theologian “In the end, coming to faith remains for all a sense of homecoming…of responding to a bell that had long been ringing…” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), British journalist SERMON PASSAGE Acts 18:23-19:7 (NASB) 23 And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; 26 and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Chapter 19 1 It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. 2 He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John's baptism.” 4 Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. 7 There were in all about twelve men.

sermon transcript The History of the Resurrection Essential to Our Faith Counterfactual History Amen. Amen. When John Calvin, the 16th century reformer, was making a defense for why yet another commentary in Romans was needed, he talked about the ones that were out there and he wanted to write, he always had a desire to write, a commentary that was characterized by lucid brevity. Lucid brevity. That means being really, really clear and being short. Well, I'm hoping you're gonna get clarity, I don't know about brevity today, dear friends. I have no idea. We'll see. But this text brings, at least has brought me into the consideration of the issue of apologetics and the defense of our faith against the lies that Satan spreads concerning the resurrection, and this is a huge topic. And so my desire as I've labored all week and gotten into conversations with staff guys and called them on the phone and bugged them, and we've just been talking and talking about the role of apologetics, what it is, how we can defend our faith. My thinking is still in process and probably will be even after I'm done preaching the sermon, but I'm hoping for at least some clarity because I've been told by those that are experts on preaching that a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew. So my desire is to be as clear as I can so I can help you as well. And now I begin by asking this question: What if...? What if…? It's actually the name of a book, an edited collection of essays by prominent historians on counterfactual history. The idea is that you choose some moment in history in which some significant thing happened, and they asked, “What if that thing hadn't happened? What if it had gone a different direction?” For example, in the first battle that Alexander the Great ever fought against the Persians, he was struck from his horse and was on the ground, and a big, huge Persian was about to put an ax through his head, and one of Alexander's body guards killed this guy right before the stroke fell. What if he had died at that point? How would history be different? Now, those of you that are in Seminary studying Greek, you may have wished that Alexander had been killed at that moment 'cause you wouldn't be studying Greek right now, but it was the Lord's will for him to live. What if? What if George Washington's army, his continental army, had been trapped in New York City in the summer of 1776, as it almost was? It was very, very close, and only a fog allowed him to escape. What if Hitler had never invaded the Soviet Union and just been content to protect what he had already conquered by that point in 1941? Various questions of counterfactual history, very popular with history buffs. It makes it interesting to kind of wonder, historical speculations. History is a tapestry, different fabrics weaving together to make an incredible picture, and what if that moment had gone a whole different direction, what different colors would have been woven? Paul’s Assertion But the most important counterfactual ever asked is actually asked in Scripture, in 1 Corinthians 15. What if Jesus Christ had never been raised from the dead? What if? What if the resurrection didn't happen? Paul makes some very strong assertions about this issue in 1 Corinthians 15, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,” listen to this, “our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. More than that, we are found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; and you are still in your sins.” The Historicity of the Resurrection is Central to the Christian Religion We believe that the resurrection is essential to all of human history, it's essential to our faith, to Christianity. There would be, should be, no Christianity without a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We proclaim a God who rules over all of history, and we believe that before the foundation of the world, God had woven out in his own mind the complexities of redemptive history before he said, “Let there be light,” all of it worked out in his own mind, with the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the culmination of that redemptive history, the high point of all that God was doing. So therefore, all evangelists and all missionaries begin their work as they go to a lost people, and they preach a biography, really a history of Jesus, of his birth and of his life and his miracles, his teachings, of his substitutionary death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection from the dead. Their hearers will be saved if they believe these things are true. Saving faith always moves in two stages. First, stage one: belief that, and second stage: belief in. So we move from belief that, that the facts are this way, this is how it is, it's an actual historical record, that it's true, into a personal saving faith in Jesus Christ, who's at the center of this story. And faith in the resurrection is essential to salvation. Without that, you cannot be saved. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So you must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be saved from your sins. Alternate Explanations Now, because of the importance of this, Satan has been active from the very first day, from that day, active in sowing seeds of doubt and lying about the resurrection. And that's what we see in the text that you heard Nathan read for us just a few moments ago. From the very beginning, Satan has been spreading lies and alternate explanations so that people will not have certainty about the resurrection and then they will not be saved. Skeptics have mocked the preaching of the resurrection from the early stages of the spread of the gospel. Just read, for example, in Acts 17, when the apostle Paul was in Athens, the intellectual center of the world, some of the most brilliant people who ever lived lived around that time and there are philosophers and thinkers there in Athens, and Paul presented the gospel to them on Mars Hill, and he culminated with a clear proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And it says in Acts 17:32, “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.” That's just mockery. That's pure mockery. They sneered. “But others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’” So there were some people that were intrigued and interested, but others just mocking. Since that time, many intellectuals throughout history have sought to come up with plausible theories for the resurrection and for the elements of our faith other than a bodily resurrection. And it's really almost humorous if it weren't so deadly serious, it's humorous to try to find out what some of these theories have been. In no particular order, because they're all junk, but I'll go ahead and share with you some of them. For example, this one: the fake death theory. I hadn't heard this one until just a few days ago. The theory goes: This was a German skeptic, Carl Fredrik Bahrdt, in 1780 he lived. According to this theory, Jesus was fed certain drugs by the physician Luke and went unconscious on the cross. The soldiers were convinced he died, and they took him off of the cross, and he was later revived by Joseph of Arimathea who got him out, and he resumed his life in ministry. That's closely related to 20 years later, by Karl Venturini, the swoon theory that some of you have heard before. I have a hard time believing anyone ever thought this could even be possible, but many did, they're looking for something. Again, similar to this, that Jesus became unconscious, but not dead on the cross, and the soldiers just thought he was dead. I don't know how much of the biblical story we'll take here, but he had a lance shoved up into his side and all that, survived that. Was put in the tomb, was wrapped up with all the sticky linens, and inside the tomb, the cool air and the spices revived him, he came to, swung his legs around, took off the wrapping, pushed the boulder out of the way, walked through the guards and then convinced his disciples that he was alive and had been raised from the dead and Christianity started that way. What do you think of that theory? Again, I have a hard time believing that intelligent people would ever think this, but this was actually presented as a possibility. Or that the authorities maybe moved the body, like Pilate did or the Sanhedrin moved the body. The problem with that is, why in the world would they do that? What motive would they have for doing that? And once the preaching of the resurrection started, why wouldn't they just produce the corpse? Or that the tomb was never visited or they went to the wrong tomb. The women went to the wrong tomb, or they just didn't know where it was. The most common now, as I've been trolling around in atheistic websites, and I'll be glad to stop doing that now that this sermon time has come, but just reading what they're saying out there. The most common now is just general skepticism about almost whether Jesus ever lived. And if he did, I guess we'll take some of the story and he was crucified and thrown in some common burial ground, which is what the Romans would have done, and so any argument from the empty tomb makes no sense. There wasn't an empty tomb, they wouldn't have really even been able to find the body. And then stories about the resurrection came up as legends or myths do much later, decades later, etcetera, and none of it ever happened. Or perhaps the post-resurrection appearances were mass hallucinations caused by people intensely desiring something and then somewhat producing them. Or, I like this one, the case of mistaken identity. They thought it was Jesus, but it really wasn't. Because of this some liberal theologians claiming to be in the Christian camp have tried to so-called “demythologize” Christianity, tried to strip it of its myths, the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And frankly, in the end, everything is gonna come down to those. Friends, we don't know anything about Jesus apart from the written word of God. Every true statement, everything we really do know about Jesus has come to us by Scripture. God intended it that way, and I'm gonna end up kind of ending up there. But they try to strip it of myth. In 1950, psychologist Carl Jung linked Christianity with the Egyptian myth of Osiris, the dying and rising God myth, you're gonna hear a lot of that. And so they attempt to strip down the myths, get away from it and find the historical Jesus. The problem with that is that it just doesn't line up with how the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John present themselves to us. They don't read like myth. Do you remember during Jesus' life, at one point, they thought Jesus was insane, he was possessed by a demon? Do you remember how some of the people at that time said, “You know, these are not the sayings of a demon-possessed man. He's not acting like, he doesn't sound like, someone who's insane.” And Matthew, Mark, Luke and John don't read like myth, friends. There are supernatural elements, but what ends up happening is that the skeptics are just exposing their own predisposition. It's interesting how they say, “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all wanted you to believe, so therefore their accounts are not valid.” But they want us not to believe; why should their writings be valid? Do you see what I'm saying? They're coming to it not believing, and in the end, they expose their own hearts. They cannot believe in any supernatural things in these histories, and so therefore there can't be any explanation for it other than these that I've given. And it neglects the way that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John present themselves to us, as carefully written out history. Like Luke 1:1-4, it says, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who were from the first eye witnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,” listen to this, “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” Primarily, my ministry to you who are believers here today could be summed up in those words. I want you to know the certainty of the things you've been taught. I want you to have an absolute certainty of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I want you to take that with you to the hospital, if you go to the hospital this week. Or to a Christian funeral. I want you to take that certainty with you. As you minister in this hurting, sin-cursed, suffering world, I want you to know the absolute certainty of the things you have been taught. And so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do not read like myth. They do record supernatural things, but they don't read like myth. And frankly, if you can accept Genesis 1:1, you can accept miracles, can't you? If you can believe that an intelligent being, God, created heaven and earth, then I don't think a resurrection is too difficult to imagine. So if God can create all things, he can make someone walk on water and he can certainly raise the dead. Skeptics Who Have Been Converted Other skeptics have investigated carefully Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Acts, other things, early documents, 1 Corinthians 15. They've looked at it trying to debunk Christianity and they've been caught by it. Jesus said, “I'll make you fishers of men,” and they end up getting caught and becoming one of Jesus' fish. I love it when that happens, like Frank Morrison who wrote Who Moved the Stone? It's just a pen name for Albert Henry Ross, and he was trying to debunk it and trying to get to the historical Jesus, he ends up converted and becoming a genuine believer in the resurrection. Malcolm Muggeridge was the same. Josh McDowell did the same thing. He eventually wrote Evidence That Demands a Verdict trying to debunk it. Lee Strobel, who wrote this book that I carried up here with me, The Case for Easter. He was a reporter, hardboiled, skeptical, of a Jewish background. His wife converted to Christianity, he wanted to investigate it so he could show her the truth of it. He ends up getting drawn in and believing in Christ. And The Case for Easter, and there's a bunch of them out there that Kyle Mercer put out there, they're free, take them. So take them and read them or give them out to people, there shouldn't be any left. As a matter of fact, if it's like 12:45, 12:50 and you're there and there's like 15 of them left, take all 15. Give them out to people. We mean to give these things out. But Lee Strobel was just drawn in by the evidence, the evidence. Satan’s Strategies: Lies, Money, and Murder Now, in our account today, we have the account of the bribing of the guards, Satan's strategies, lies and money and murder. That's what Satan is going to try to do. He's gonna entice people and try to bribe them away from the truth, try to get them to lie. If they don't go his way, then he'll start to beat them up, incarcerate them, take their freedoms away, eventually kill them. That's what he's tried to do to stop the spread of this story of the resurrection. These are Satan's strategies. And so plausible theories, explaining away the resurrection, this is just the first of many, many attempts there have been. “The disciples came during the night while we were sleeping and stole them away.” Part of the Gospel Ministry: Apologetics… Reasonable Answers to Satan’s Lies And so this brings us to the topic of, how do we answer that? How do we understand apologetics? That's just from the Greek word “to make a defense for.” How do we make a defense for our faith and what role does it play? And I've asked a lot this week, what are the limitations of it? There are certain limitations to apologetics, so I've been just wrestling with that. First, I wanna tell you as a Christian, from one Christian to another, God commands us to do this kind of work. He commands us to do apologetic work. 1 Peter 3:15, he says there, “But in your hearts set apart” or sanctify “Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you, give a reason for the hope that you have.” Now, I don't think there's anything wrong in the context of today's sermon to take the word hope and just link it to resurrection. I have hope in a resurrection. I know that this world is not all that we're gonna experience. I will live forever. And even though worms devour this body, yet in my flesh, I will see God. And I believe in that. That's my hope. If someone wants to say, “Well, give me a reason for that,” you should be ready for that. It is a reasonable thing that I have this hope, it's reasonable, it's not insane, it's not irrational, it's reasonable for me to believe in the resurrection, and I wanna give you a reason, so part of it is to help you folks be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have. In 2 Corinthians 10, it says the weapons we fight with are powerful to the demolishing of strongholds and we demolish arguments, we are in the word business. Unlike other world faiths, Christianity hasn't advanced on the edge of the sword, true Christianity hasn't. We advance by the truth, by proclaiming the truth, and by being willing to die for it. That's the way that martyrs advanced and conquered, really, the Roman Empire. How powerful is that? And so we have arguments and we're destroying arguments, and we're making a case, we are making a case. It says in Philippians 1:7, Paul's in chains, he says, “For the defense and confirmation of the gospel.” He's defending the Gospel there. Jude 3, the author Jude writes, “I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” One of the central ministries of an elder or a pastor is a defense of the faith, and we do it according to Jude 22, to be merciful to those who doubt. We wanna lift up those who are flagging and failing and struggling in their faith. I'm trying to do that for you today. If you're a Christian and you struggle with the idea of the resurrection, I wanna bolster your faith. So therefore, one of the requirements in Titus 1:9 for an elder candidate, for somebody who's gonna be an elder, is this: “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” So that's just part of being an elder, you need to be able to give a refutation just to give a defense. So there is a purpose, ours is a historical and reasonable faith. It's historical, it's rooted on actual events in history. It's not a myth, it's not a legend. It's historical and reasonable. So I was working on this sermon last night, I usually don't work on sermons on Saturday nights, but I was just - I said to my wife, “It's like I'm baking a cake, and all the ingredients are out and the cake isn't baked yet.” And so I was working on it last night. And this was in my mind, I woke up this morning, my alarm went off, and the first words in my mind were straight from scripture. I didn't know the reference, I looked it up. It was from Acts 26:25, and there the apostle Paul on trial before Agrippa and before the Roman Festus, says these words in Acts 26:25. Festus, after he proclaimed the resurrection. Festus said, “You're out of your mind, Paul, your great learning is driving you insane.” He said, “I'm not out of my mind, what I am saying is true and reasonable.” Those were the first words in my mind this morning. So I figured the Holy Spirit was saying, put that in the sermon. So here it is. I wrote it out along the side, it wasn't in the printed thing, but... “What I am saying is true.” What does that mean? It actually happened, it's historically accurate, really happened, and it is reasonable, it's not insane to believe in these things. And then he says, “These things were not done in a corner.” These things were done in a very famous place in front of lots of people, lots of eye witnesses to this, And then he appeals directly to the Jewish King Agrippa. He says, “Do you believe in the prophets? I know that you do.” And so what's he doing there? He's saying look at the scriptures, ultimately that's what's gonna cinch the deal. Only by believing in the Word of God will you come to a genuine faith in the resurrection. So that brings me to the limitations of apologetics. Our text, which talks about what John MacArthur called “the lie that proves the resurrection.” We'll get to that in a minute. But it's also a lie that proves the limits to apologetics, there's a limit to it. It will only bring you so far. What do I mean? Well, none of us here that are alive today will ever have the kind of access to the physical evidence of the resurrection that the Sanhedrin and the Roman guards did, and they didn't believe. But concocted a lie. So how do you put all this together? I remember I was just reading a lot of Evidence That Demands a Verdict and all that. I was a relatively new Christian, graduated from college, I was trying to be a workplace witness, trying to evangelize, and there was this guy there named Larry, and so I was like, I gotta share with Larry, I'm gonna get Larry, I'm gonna... I'm gonna bring him in. Apologetics, we're gonna do it. And so we sat down and I wanted to talk to him about evidence for the resurrection. He probably thought we're gonna talk about the Red Sox, but we talked about evidence for the resurrection, the empty tomb. And so I was gonna zero in on this one thing. What explanation could there be for the empty tomb? And so I went step by step by step by step. I feel sorry for the guy now, I don't know what happened, he was probably just eating a sandwich saying, “What is this?” It was an interesting moment, but we got done and I said, “What do you think happened to the body?” And he shrugged and said, “I don't know, I guess Jesus rose from the dead.” Is that it? End of the line, Jesus rose from the dead. But there was no faith, no love, no regeneration, nothing. You can't checkmate people into the kingdom of heaven, friends. I liken it to basically Elijah on Mount Carmel, and you can build the altar and you can get the wood and you can put the animal and you can pour water on it, but then you need to wait for fire from heaven. And so what this does is it assembles everything needed for faith, and then the fire has to come from heaven and that person will be saved, because faith is a gift from God, it says in Ephesians 2:8, but it's based on that which is historical and rational, and it's our job to get that history out and that reason out, and that's what we're doing. Physical Evidence of the Resurrection Three Key Facts About Saving Faith So we have physical evidence for the resurrection, we talked about it, and I'm harkening back at this point to the first part of the chapter. If you look at Matthew 28, we have the account, which I preached on last week from, of the empty tomb. You have the empty tomb, you have the angel coming down, we'll get to all of that in a minute, but then you have the statement by the angel to the women: “Come and see the place where he lay.” You see that he's inviting them to investigate the evidence. So in effect, that's what I'm doing. Now, I'm saying this to believers. Notice he doesn't say it to the Roman soldiers, first of all, they were unconscious, I think at that moment, they shook with fear and became like dead men. It says in verse 4, but he didn't come for them. He's saying to the believers: “Come and look at the evidence.” It's for you. The evidence is for you. The unbelievers are just gonna explain it away. But the evidence is for you, so come and see the place where he lay. Physical Evidence of the Resurrection Well, it's better described for us in John's gospel, in John 20, you have the stone moved away from the entrance entirely lifted up and moved away. You have the grave clothes there, undisturbed in their original position. I don't know if that's like a chrysalis or something like that, or if he was unwrapped. Commentators go different directions on that, we don't know. Greek just says, “keimai,” just “set there.” And then you've got the head covering folded up separate by itself, it does not speak of a grave robber, does not speak of haste at all. It just speaks of a logical, rational process where somebody folded it up and set it aside. And best of all, of course, no body, there's no corpse. There was one before and now it's gone. So it leaves that question of the empty tomb, where is the missing body, what happened to Jesus? Personal Evidence of the Resurrection: Eyewitness Testimonies Then, even better, in the account last week as you remember we have personal encounters with the resurrected Christ. Post-resurrection appearances, and there are many of them. Eleven separate accounts in the four gospels, probably also including Acts as well, of post-resurrection encounters with Jesus, one after the other, I'm not gonna list them for you, but they're one after the other. Paul lists who receives such post-resurrection encounters. In 1 Corinthians 15, “What I received, he said, I also passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,” and now come the appearances, “and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve, and after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born.” Lots and lots of post-resurrection appearances, 500 of them, God spread them out throughout Palestine, and they became the original witnesses to the Jews in that region of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Christianity was built on their testimony, and the eyewitness testimony it sprang up out of those witnesses, out of those eye witnesses, read about it in Hebrews chapter two, it talks about eyewitnesses of the word, and they talked about that. Paul mentions it in Acts 13, these were now, these eyewitnesses, were now giving the witness to our people, the Jews. So this is overwhelming, the eyewitness accounts. The Lie that Proves the Resurrection Now we come to the text, the lie that proves the Resurrection as John MacArthur calls it, I like that statement. Look what it says, “While the women were on their way,” they have this encounter with Jesus and they're on their way, “some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened, when the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” The Enemies of Jesus Sealed Their Fate by Posting the Guard So there we have the account. First of all, isn't it marvelous how the enemies of the resurrection sealed their fate by posting the guard? It would have been better for them if they had not done it. Do you understand why? Because it's just a lot easier to say, the disciples stole him with the guard not there. The guards make it difficult for them. And so I think that's beautiful. Remember in chapter 27 verses62 and following, this is what it says, “The next day, the one after preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘We remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said, “On the third day, I will rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.’ Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’ So Pilate answered, ‘Take a guard, go make the tomb as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.” Now, the whole thing is blowing up in their face. They just ended up being hostile witnesses indirectly to the actual resurrection. It's not what they wanted. And isn't it beautiful, how God turns Satan's weapons against himself. The clearest example of that, is the crucifixion of Christ itself, he meant to kill Jesus because it was Satan that entered into Judas, and in killing Jesus, he destroys his own dark kingdom, and it's been a 2,000-year destruction. Slow-mo destruction, I love that. Step by step, Satan's kingdom being destroyed by the preaching of the gospel, isn't that marvelous? But he did it to himself by crucifying Jesus. And now by the posting of the guard, they actually ended up being hostile witnesses to the fact. The Guards Could Not Stop the Resurrection Now, first of all, the guards couldn't stop the resurrection, how could they? This is the second person of the Trinity. This is Almighty God taking on a resurrection body, this is the centerpiece of all that God's doing in the world. There's no way the Roman guards could have stopped that. And you know the account of what happened. “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,” this is Matthew 28:1-4, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb, and there was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow, the guards were so afraid of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men.” So the guards were there to keep some tricky, conniving disciples from stealing the body, but instead God sends an almighty powerful angel, radiant, glowing like lightning, and he moves the stone and sits on it and they're out, they're done, and they could not stop the resurrection. The Guards’ Problem: They Failed in Their Mission So fundamentally, the guards failed in their mission, they couldn't stop the preaching, the ultimate mission is, let's stop the preaching of the resurrection, there's no way they could stop that. They failed to do it. And isn't it beautiful that some day Jesus will return from heaven, come to earth, and no earthly power will be able to stop that either? Nothing can stop that. Well, at that moment, what happens is really a spiritual tragedy, that the guards, some of the guards, not the whole group, but some of the guards went back to the Sanhedrin to the chief priest and reported what had happened. They told the story, they told what I just read Matthew 28:1-4, they told about the angel, the appearance of the angel, his clothes like lightning, the rolling back of the stone, the fact that - I don't know if they said, “Then we went unconscious,” I don't know if they included that. But when they came to, they looked in and the body was gone, and then they went and reported all of this. Jesus’ Hard-Hearted Enemies What Should Have Happened: Faith and Repentance Now, let me ask you a question, what should the Jewish leaders have done at that moment? Well, I'll tell you what they should have done, they should have fallen on their faces and worshipped Jesus as the Son of God, the resurrected savior of the world. That's what they should have done. That was the right thing to do. It was predicted by the Old Testament prophets, it's the very thing he said he would do. It was the sign that he gave to that generation, you remember they asked him for a miraculous sign? “A wicked and an adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign,” Jesus said Matthew 12, “but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish. So the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” That was the sign to the Jews, but they did not believe. They would not believe; it was their regular pattern. This is the limitation to apologetics. It's not seeing is believing, it's believing is seeing to some degree. Now we have the history first, but then there's the evidence, and you will only see it if God gives you faith. They didn't have faith. We saw it with the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, you remember that? And then Lazarus was going around testifying to the resurrecting power of Jesus, and so the Jewish authority said, Now we have to kill him too. I would have suggested repent and believe in Jesus. But nothing was going to convince them. and Jesus knew it. He wasn't under any illusions about this. You remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus? Remember that? And the rich man gets sent to hell in the parable, in Jesus's parable. And he's suffering there, and he wants to warn his brothers who are still alive, so that they don't end up in this place. He wants to leave and go warn them. But Abraham, Father Abraham, says, “You can't leave, there's a great gulf, you're there, and nobody can come over to you.” “Well, then send Lazarus to go warn my brothers.” Abraham says, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” Then comes the answer, from hell, “No.” See, that's the whole thing. It's gonna come to Scripture, if you believe the scripture, you'll have eternal life. If you're gonna say “no” to Moses and the prophets, there's nothing that can be done for you. “No, father Abraham. But if someone rises from the dead, they will listen.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.” Jesus said those words before he was crucified. He knew they wouldn't believe. What Did Happen: Hardness of Heart and Rebellion And so we see their hardness of heart and their rebellion, they confer together, it's an official meeting of the Sanhedrin, it's a Greek word that implies they had an official meeting. They all came together and they came to a three-fold conclusion. First, bribe the soldiers, “a large sum of money,” the text says, I don't know how much that would have been, but it would have been a tidy sum. They bought off Judas for 30 pieces of silver, but the Romans, I'm sure each one of them would have cost a lot more than that. And we don't know how many guards there were, only some of them went, so my guess is lots and lots of silver went. Large amounts of money to bribe them. Secondly, they fed them the lie, this is what you are to say. The disciples came and stole his body while we were asleep. Thirdly, they reassured the guards that if this report got back to their governor - because they were Romans, their governor - they would satisfy him and keep them out of trouble. Well what trouble? Well, how about execution for falling asleep on guard duty? How are they gonna do that? How are they gonna satisfy him? They're gonna tell him what really happened. They're gonna say, an angel came down. What could they do? Alright, fine then we won't kill them. Here We See the Limit to the Converting Power of Evidence That's the three-fold decision of the Sanhedrin, and Matthew tells us the story has been circulated to this very day. We see therefore, as I've pointed out, the limited impact of evidence. Do not put all your eggs in that basket. Tell the truth. Give the evidence. And let the Lord work. Apart from that, there is no conversion, there's no salvation, and so these folks had all the evidence, they still didn't believe. Matthew: A Story Circulated “To This Day” (and Beyond) And the story has been circulated to this very day, so that it implies maybe a number of decades has passed, Matthew writes his account, and he says, it's still going on. Well, according to Patristic study of church fathers, there was a church father named Justin Martyr, and the story was still circulating a century and a half later. The Jews were still using it, because it's actually... It's at least a plausible explanation for a big problem, and that's what happened to the body, all the other things don't answer what happened to the body, and so at least we have some explanation for what happened to the body. But Justin Martyr said, “You Jews selected men and sent them into all the world proclaiming that a certain atheistic and lawless sect had arisen from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb and deceived men by saying that he is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.” So the story was still going on. But There Are Immense Problems with this Lie But there are all kinds of problems with this lie, aren't there? There's problems with the Jewish leaders. If this is really what happened, why didn't they make a search for the corpse? If he was under Peter's mother-in-law's bed or something, I don't know what they would have done with it. What do you do with the corpse of Jesus? But don't you think the authorities could have found it, wasn't it in their best interest to produce the corpse? But they made no effort, there's no record of them making any effort to search for the body. There's problems with the Roman guards. How could those Roman guards be such heavy sleepers that none of them woke up, especially during the moving of the boulder? I mean, I've had some people, there were some guys in college, you couldn't wake them up if you lit their feet on fire, it was unbelievable. So I know there's some heavy sleepers, but my goodness, the moving of a huge boulder, somebody would have woken up. And they were trained soldiers. You don't fall asleep on guard duty, you understand that the life, the survival of the entire army depends on some people staying awake through the night. So that's why they executed people for falling asleep on guard duty. So if you happened to meet one of these Roman guards and they say this to you, just say, then why aren't you dead - actually, they would be dead by now, wouldn't they? But if you had been alive back then, say, why didn't they kill you, why are you still alive? Because you fell asleep on guard duty. Can you explain that to me? And then there's the lie itself. There's the lie itself. Can you sniff this one out? “The disciples came while we were asleep.” Look, Don't say that. Can I give you a coaching on lying here? What you should have said is, “We fell asleep, when we awoke, the tomb was empty. We have no idea what happened to the body.” That's a better lie. Would you guys all agree that's a better lie? If you're gonna do the lie, say that. Say “the disciples,” what, did you have one eye shut and the other eye... “Oh it was the disciples who did it.” Could have been the Jewish leaders, could have been Pilate, who knows? It could have been the Swoon Theory, I mean, a lot of other explanations, they knew it was the disciples. The whole thing just doesn't work, and worst of all, the disciples themselves. Why would they do it? What did they get for it? There's gotta be motive. There's motive and opportunity. What do they get for it? Could they have done this? Would they have done it? They were running for their lives. Peter denied Jesus three times that night. You don't have a bunch of courageous, conniving, scheming powerful guys trying to take over the world. You have people that just probably wanna go back to the tax collector's booth and the fishing net at this point; they are not believing in a resurrection. They didn't think it would happen, and they're terrified. And they don't wanna die. So why would they do it? And what did they get for their troubles? They got persecution - every one of them but John, martyred, and he exiled. That's what they got for their trouble. It just doesn't make any sense. There is no motive. Three Powerful Questions So this brings me to three powerful questions. Anyone following the outline in the bulletin? Good thing this sermon wasn't in two weeks, there would have been like six powerful questions or something like that, but I'll just give you three, and this is what I want you to hang your hat on. These are the apologetic issues that the skeptics have to deal with, they are three. These are the three strongest issues. Number one, how do you account for the empty tomb? What happened to the body? Number two, how do you account for the eyewitness accounts of personal encounters with the resurrected Christ, of which there are many, many, many? And number three, how do you account for the beginning and spread of Christianity? A version of the third is, how did these folks get so courageous as to preach a resurrection in downtown Jerusalem when their lives were in danger if they should continue preaching, and they kept preaching every one of them even when they were being killed for doing so? How do you account for that? The incredible courage and boldness. Question Number 1: What Happened to the Body? So how do you account for the empty tomb and the tomb was empty. We have these accounts, we have the Acts sermon in which Peter's preaching Psalm 16, “you will not let your holy one see decay.” And then he says, “David's tomb is here to this day, but he was a prophet, and he predicted that Jesus would rise and he has risen, we are witness to the fact.” Now, they say there's no reference to the empty tomb there. I find a reference there, David's tomb is full, Jesus rose again. Go check the tomb. It's empty. Now, as I was swimming, unfortunately in a sea of skepticism this week, not my own skepticism, but that of other people. They said, “You can't use part of a story to prove the rest of the story.” It's a valid observation. For example, can you use the yellow brick road to prove that there is a Wizard of Oz? Or as one guy said, he comes up with a story, this is just like a parable or something like that. I live in China, my friend Joe shows up from Southern California. He tells me it's unbelievable, but a dragon burned the city library to the ground last week. I'm skeptical as I hear it and say, What proof do you have? And he says to me, What other answer is there for the burned library? And you're like, I didn't even know the library was burned, you're the one telling me the story. How much of the story are we gonna accept, how much are we gonna disbelieve? That's the whole thing that's difficult. I think you accept it all or you really accept nothing. Accepting part of it is really the mark of liberalism, that's where you start picking and choosing what you're gonna believe, what you don't. I understand some apologists have to kinda say, “Well, these things we can work with,” and they'll argue from that to prove the resurrection, but the fact is the whole account not only testifies to a tomb and a burial, but it also testifies to a resurrection. You get the whole thing. So I think it's valid, but still we have this issue: what about the empty tomb? How do we deal with it? How do we deal with the account in Matthew and in John of the empty tomb, and the fact that the resurrection was preached in the place where Jesus was killed, why didn't they produce the corpse? Question Number 2: How Do You Account for the Eyewitness Accounts? Secondly, the eyewitness accounts, how do you account for them, one after the other? What do we say about them? These are valid accounts of not hallucinations, etcetera, but over many times, Thomas putting his finger in the wound, all of these things, these are not hallucinations. Question Number 3: Why Did the Apostles Lose their Fear of Death? And then very powerfully, where did Christianity come from? How did it spread? How is it that they're preaching so boldly and they're completely unafraid? I love Peter and John in Acts four when they're arrested for doing a miracle, remember that? And they say, “If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel. It is by Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead that this man stands before you healed?” How were they so courageous? It's because they'd seen the resurrected Christ. Challenge to the Skeptics: Handle the Historical Evidence the Same Way You Treat Any Historical Event So fundamentally, I wanna say to the skeptics this: treat our historical records the same way you treat everybody else's historical records, and don't discount them because they have miracles in them. If you do, you're showing your predisposition and your bias. If you say it’s at least possible that there is a God who can do miracles, let's look at the history as it is. Simon Greenleaf, Harvard professor of law, said this, “All that Christianity asked of men is that they would be consistent with themselves, that they would treat its evidences as they treat the evidence of other things, and that they would try to judge its actors and witnesses as they deal with their fellow men when testifying to human affairs and actions and in human tribunals. The result would be an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability and truth.” That's the way they read. They read like history. Applications Come to Christ So applications: first and foremost, I don't know all of your spiritual situation, you may be here visiting today, I thank God that you are. I prayed for you today, I don't know your names, but I prayed if there would be any people here that had not yet made a commitment to Christ, that the Lord would bring them. And that they would repent and believe in him. Look again at Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” You may be asking, saved from what? Saved from your sins, saved from eternal death in hell, saved from judgment and condemnation by Almighty God. Saved by confessing Jesus is Lord and believing in the resurrection. Christians: Know the Certainty of What You Have Been Taught If you're a Christian already, I want you, as I said from Luke, know the certainty of the things you've been told - ours is a historical and rational faith - and let it feed your faith. It says in Acts 1:3 Jesus over 40 days gave his apostles many infallible proofs of his resurrection. We're not eyewitnesses. We get their record as we read it. Feed your faith on it. Understand the Indissoluble Link Between the Scriptures and Faith in the Resurrection Understand thirdly, the indissoluble link between scriptures and faith in the resurrection. If your faith in the resurrection is waning, I wouldn't urge that you read Case for Easter, I'd urge that you read John 20 or Matthew 28. Rekindle your faith by reading scripture, strengthen your faith. The scriptures are written to give us faith. Faith comes by hearing. Get Ready to Make a Defense for What You Believe Fourthly, Christians get ready to make a defense for what you believe. Three things, alright? Empty tomb. Eyewitness accounts. Where did Christianity come from? How did it spread so fast? How did the Emperor Constantine declare himself to be a Christian, three centuries after Christ rose from the dead? How did that happen? How did Christianity win? It's by the proclamation of the resurrection. So get ready to make a defense. Get this book, don't let any of them be left there. I'm gonna say it to my family, if I haven't gone out there yet, and there's still some left, pick them up, please, because I'll feel terrible if there's still some books there, I think people aren't listening to me. Pick up these books. They're free, you can't beat the price. They're right out here in the north tower, you walk through that door. They're on the table, get them. But now that I've been so strong on it, if you're the first one there, just take one or two, alright? Rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus And finally understand and let's get at the true significance here. What's the significance of the resurrection? If you're a believer in Jesus, you will live forever. Do not fear death. Do not fear death. Not from a heart attack. Not from cancer, not from a car wreck. Don't fear death at all. Live fearless. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said, “he who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Rejoice, you're going to live forever. Secondly, the resurrection of Christ is a picture of the spiritual life of triumph you should live. Because we're united with him in his death we're united in his resurrection, and by the Spirit, we can live a holy life. We're not slaves to sin and death anymore, and we can live a holy life. And let's encourage one another with these words, let's build each other up. We have suffering people in our congregation, let's build each other up with the resurrection. Close in prayer, please. Father, thank you for the time we've had. I hope that I've been clear. I pray, oh Lord, that you take all of this and press it to our hearts that we would know the certainty of the things we've been taught and be filled with joy and power for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.

REFLECTION QUOTES “If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. Similarly if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all.” ~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Abolition of Man “Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.” ~Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949), American journalist and author of Gone with the Wind “…[The seeker knows that] he cannot go to God, but that God must go to him in His inconceivable grace.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1909-1945), German pastor-theologian, executed for his opposition to the Nazis “Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace.” ~Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895-1960), late pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia “In the end, coming to faith remains for all a sense of homecoming, of picking up the threads of a lost life, of responding to a bell that had long been ringing, of taking a place at a table that had long been vacant.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist “Secularism doesn't produce secularism; it produces pluralism. The challenge is not that God is dead, but that there are too many gods.” ~Peter Berger (1929-present), famed Austrian-born sociologist “For [the book of] Acts the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming…Any attempt to reject its basic historicity even in matters of detail must now appear absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted.” ~A.N. Sherwin-White in Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament (Oxford University Press, 1963) SERMON PASSAGE Acts 1:1-9 1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

REFLECTION QUOTES “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” ~William Bruce Cameron, American professor of Sociology “Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist “…there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don't. We say with our mouths that we believe in him, but we live with our lives like he never existed. That is the ever-present danger confronting religion. That's a dangerous type of atheism.” ~Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) “In situations of high stress, fear or distrust, the hormone…cortisol floods the brain. Executive functions that help us with advanced thought processes like strategy, trust building, and compassion shut down. And the amygdala, our instinctive brain, takes over. The body makes a chemical choice about how best to protect itself — in this case from the shame and loss of power associated with being wrong — and as a result is unable to regulate its emotions or handle the gaps between expectations and reality. So we default to one of four responses: fight (keep arguing the point), flight (revert to, and hide behind, group consensus), freeze (disengage from the argument by shutting up) or appease (make nice with your adversary by simply agreeing with him).” ~Judith Glaser in “Hooked on Being Right” in Harvard Business Review “People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist “Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.” ~Karl A. Menninger (1893-1990), famed American Psychiatrist “I suffer fools gladly, for I have always been on good terms with myself.” ~Christopher Morley (1890-1957), American journalist, novelist, poet, and editor SERMON PASSAGE 1 Peter 1:22-2:5 (NASB) 22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, 25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you. Chapter 2 1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. 4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Romans 12:1-5 (NASB) 1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Ephesians 4:1-3 (NASB) 1Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 1 John 4:10-11 (NASB) 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Pastor Todd preaches on the culminating characteristic of a real Christian—the perfect love that is made possible in and through us by the presence of Christ in us. Learn what is the Bible’s consistent teaching on this characteristic of perfect love...

With Kirsty Lang. Tamsin Greig, who plays Debbie in The Archers, returns to the stage in Jumpy, a new play by April De Angelis which focuses on the relationship between a mother and her difficult teenaged daughter. Tamsin discusses why she doesn't see herself as a comic actress, and reflects on the uncertainties of the actor's life. In 1979, Monty Python's film Life Of Brian caused outrage around the world. Michael Palin and John Cleese took part in a televised debate with Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark, to defend their film against charges of blasphemy. A new TV drama, Holy Flying Circus, tells the story of this encounter. Writer Peter Stanford reviews. Former Python turned director Terry Gilliam has made a short film which was wholly financed by an Italian pasta company. Wholly Family is being screened as part of the BFI London Film Festival. He talks about the making of the film - and why he feels he wasn't selling out. A new documentary Blood In The Mobile examines how minerals commonly used in mobile phones are extracted in illegal mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and could fund the conflict there. The film's director Frank Poulsen, who appears on screen, discusses his approach to this difficult subject. Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

Roy Plomley's castaway is writer, journalist and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge.Favourite track: Exultate Jubilate by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Writings by Dr Samuel Johnson Luxury: Beehive

Roy Plomley's castaway is writer, journalist and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge. Favourite track: Exultate Jubilate by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Writings by Dr Samuel Johnson Luxury: Beehive