I was born in 1950 with two grandfathers. I loved them both. “Grandpa Doc” Shrader was a dentist in Iowa, my father’s father. “Grandpa Sam” Condren was a simple man, a butcher in a local grocery store in Springfield, MO, my mother’s father. Both were WWI veterans, grandpa Doc in the medical core, and grandpa […]
You are browsing archives for
Author: Rick Shrader
Merry Christmas 2018
The secularization of our society over the last twenty five years is nothing short of amazing. I remember vividly traveling to Russia during Christmas of 1991 with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. The old Soviet Union had fallen and that country was trying to pull itself out of a communist economy that had failed miserably. The […]
Walking With God in Death
We end our series about walking with God where it should end, considering the time of our death. I don’t know why the topic should seem morbid to us, all of us will die and the only thing that can change that is the rapture of the church at the end of the age. That […]
Walking With God in Judgment
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 11:13-14). The words judge and judgment and their cognates appear […]
John Adams on False Accusers
“We find in the rules laid down by the greatest English judges, who have been the brightest of mankind: We are to look upon it as more beneficial that many guilty persons should escape unpunished than one innocent should suffer. The reason is, because it is of more importance to the community that innocence should […]
The Meekness of Wisdom
“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13) Who wants to violate the first characteristic of meekness and write about it? Who wants to appear to be like the one who brags about being humble? […]
The Greater Virtues
It is the selfish part of our human nature to place our energies on the showy but lesser virtues rather than upon the more difficult and greater virtues. Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the […]
A Big Wall with a Beautiful Gate
(On the final day of the month. Reading the last chapters of Revelation.) In the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, God describes the final country (or city if you will) that is to be built. A city “foursquare.” A city that would be about half the size of the continental […]
Our Sanctification, Part 2, A Reset
In part 1 we explored the subject of sanctification in its various aspects including the failures of legalism and license. We also asked the questions, Why do we have to continually fight against sin? How is the power of sin removed from us? Do we ever get to a place where we have victory over […]
Our Sanctification, Part 1
No series on walking with God would be complete without some explanation of the Biblical doctrine of sanctification. The Biblical word comes from the same root word as “holiness” and “saints.” It basically means to be set apart. Although sanctification has been discussed and debated as long as the church has been around, there is […]