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 […]
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Author: Rick Shrader
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 […]
America in Christian Perspective
“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 […]
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 […]