In his farewell address George Washington said that a nation is “a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”1 More than two hundred years later America’s greatest animosity is to Christianity, and its greatest affection is to profligacy. On […]
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Author: Rick Shrader
Anointing With Oil
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, […]
The Christian in an Unfriendly World
The believer is in a hard place. James, the Lord’s brother, emphatically declared, “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4). Yet Paul declared that we cannot altogether separate from the world, “for then must ye needs go out of the world” (1 Cor. 5:10). Still, John […]
The Coming Battle of Gog & Magog
Recently I overheard someone talk about the good old days of prophecy conferences when we used to fear Russia and communism. Aren’t we even closer to the Lord’s return today than we were back then? I have often said myself how those preachers from a generation ago could not have conceived a world like we […]
The Humility of Incarnation
A summation of the Christmas message is captured in this “kenosis” passage by the expression “made himself of no reputation.” One of the most difficult things with which humans wrestle is the thought of having no reputation, of being found more as a servant than as a person of great fame and notoriety. Yet as Christians we are specifically instructed in this great passage to let this same attribute of the incarnate Christ be in us, to actually think that to be humble and obedient is good.
Things We Should Not Forget
The apostle Peter explained to his readers that his intention in writing was to “stir you up by putting you in remembrance” (2 Pet. 1:13) and “stir up our pure minds by way of remembrance” (2 Pet. 3:1). Believers have “pure minds” in that we have the mind of Christ revealed in His Holy Word […]
Wandering Stars
Jude, the brother of James and half brother of Jesus, declared that apostates are spots in a church’s gatherings, clouds that can’t hold water, trees that produce no fruit, waves of the sea that foam up all kinds of filth, and wandering stars that appear in the sky briefly and then disappear into the blackness […]
Why Professing Christians Fall Away
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Jeremiah 8:20 We have all seen it and been grieved by it. Someone makes a profession of being saved, stays around for a little while, and then is gone. Correctly, we turn immediately to our discipleship efforts and critique ourselves. Did […]
Discovering Baptist History Tour
Discovering Baptist History from Rick Shrader on Vimeo. These are highlights of our Baptist History Trips to England and Scotland
The God Who Speaks
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” Hebrews 1:1-2 America is quickly leaving a word-based society […]