“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” Proverbs 16:34 America has been the greatest nation in the age of grace. We share our Christian values with our mother England, but she has fallen from her graceful place generations ago and her favorite son may not be far behind. As we […]
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Author: Rick Shrader
God’s Strength In Our Weakness
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: […]
Marijuana and the Christian
The culture in America is changing quickly, and not necessarily for the good. Christians generally agree that issues such as abortion, pornography, or same-sex marriages are immoral, unbiblical, and harmful to society at large. Not all agree about substance abuse in areas such as alcohol, tobacco, and drugs like marijuana. Churches have long had to […]
The Small Church in Today’s Culture
This isn’t an easy time for small churches. In today’s culture, small often means inadequate, unsuccessful, non-visionary, and unexciting. By today’s cultural standards those descriptions may be right. Our culture sees bigness and excitement as marks of success. By God’s standards, however, any size church may be successful or unsuccessful and may seem boring or […]
Worship and Culture
In the twenty years that I have been writing Aletheia articles, perhaps nothing has been written about more than worship and culture. Worship has become the description of how we “do church,” and culture has become what we are, not what we should strive to become. Ravi Zacharias wrote, “Culture has become like a dress […]
ABM–20 Years of Leadership
In the December issue I gave some of the history of Aletheia Baptist Ministries but I did not tell it all. From the beginning in 1997, when Dr. Peter Slobodian started the original mission board called Baptist Global Mission, this ministry has been blessed to have been led by godly and qualified men who have […]
What Happened To Christmas?
Now that it is January and Christmas is over until next year, I can risk sounding like Scrooge or maybe even the Grinch. I have to confess that I labored through the Christmas season moaning and groaning at Christmas store commercials, Christmas television movies (the new ones anyway), Christmas network specials, Christmas online ads, Christmas […]
Twenty Years of Aletheia
My parents were school teachers so reading and writing was a given in the Shrader household. Participation was also expected in the often protracted, sometimes volatile, but usually hilarious, dinner discussions. My siblings are far more gifted in these things than I which caused me to have to work at school a lot […]
The Virgin Birth of Christ
There is no more precious doctrine in the Scripture than the virgin birth of Christ. The truth that the God of all creation, the Holy One of all eternity, the One Who loved us and became a man in order to redeem us from our sin, is the greatest thought of the human mind. […]
Pilgrims and Strangers
As believers in a country that is fast becoming ungodly, we are at that point where we are wondering what freedom will actually look like in the near future. It is difficult to follow all the details in the news about how the government works and what the issues are that affect us. What seems […]