Do Not Worry

Matthew 6:34

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Lamentations 3:22–23

"Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness."

There is a natural and strong impulse in our hearts to want to feel sufficient strength and ability for the future encounters we might face. We want to be able to look to the future dwell on it. What will my life be like in 10 years? Will I have a wife and children? What will my health be like? What will our church be like? What will tomorrow bring? Will I have the strength to live the day wisely and to the glory of God? So often we can be uncertain and worrisome about the future. We can go on desperately needing to feel the strength for tomorrow. However God has given us a great secret to the Christian life that will get us over that.

This Is My Name Forever

Exodus 3:14-15

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’ ”


In Exodus 3, we’re given a special revelation about God’s personal name. When Moses tells God that the Israelites will want to know His name, God responds by firstly calling Himself ‘I AM WHO I AM’, then ‘I AM’, and finally ‘The LORD’. What significance is it that God has a name essentially meaning ‘I am’, and wants that name to be a memorial to all generations?

Reasons for Suffering

Acts 14:22

“We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”


All Christians suffer. You have suffered, you are suffering, or you will suffer (Acts 14:22). This reality is a stark reminder that we have not reached the new heavens and new earth. The New Jerusalem of no tears and no pain, of no mourning and no death, hasn’t arrived yet (Revelation 21:1, 3-4). But just because we experience suffering as we await the redemption of our bodies, it doesn’t mean that our suffering is random or without purpose. Here are five important biblical truths about the possible reasons behind your suffering:

I Will Not Cast Them Away

Leviticus 26:40-42, 44-45:

“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me…if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”


Judgment and exile are the consequences of disobedience to the Lord’s covenant (Leviticus 26:14–39), but they are not the whole story when it comes to looking at how God deals with the world and especially His covenant children. We can see from many scripture passages that our Creator promises to deliver from His wrath all those who put their hope in Him alone (Exodus 6:1–8; Psalm 130; Mark 10:42–45). And He does not stop acting for His people once He has delivered them from judgment, for He also promises to restore what they have lost in their exile. This is the great hope promised in Leviticus 26:40–45.

Evangelism: Prayer and Labour (2)

Wise Walking and Salty Speech

Colossians 4:5-6

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Paul, having dealt with prayer for the spreading of the gospel in the previous verses, now turns to each believer’s responsibility to labour in his or her own life for this dispersion of the gospel. 

Evangelism: Prayer and Labour (1)

Praying for the Open Door

Colossians 4:2-6

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.


This passage from Colossians outlines so clearly our personal involvement in evangelism and missions. Paul speaks as a missionary himself, and instructs the Colossians to engage themselves in earnest prayer for missions, but also to be actively involved in the important task of spreading the Gospel. This text is naturally split into two parts: verses 2-4 about each person’s involvement through prayer, and verses 5-6 depicting our direct involvement in evangelism through wise conduct and seasoned speech.

Article: Loving Heralds of Good News

First published in Contender 13th July 2014


I come with a dream. A dream where we as a people are filled with a love for the unbelieving people around us and earnestly desire that they be saved. I dream that the power of God would make us loving, outreaching and soul-saving. I dream that Christ would work through us that through our ministry more unbelievers may be converted. I dream that the Holy Spirit would come upon us so that we have no fear or guilt in our evangelism.

Hearing, Obeying and Waiting

Abraham’s Example of Faith

Hebrews 11:8-10

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

Hebrews calls Abraham one of the heroes of the faith. There is a lot to learn from Abraham’s example of faith and obedience. He listened to God’s call, actively obeyed Him at high cost and waited for God to reward Him. He did all this through faith, and by it obtained salvation. 

Perseverance and Assurance

2 Timothy 2:11-12

This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.
If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.


In order to obtain salvation we must persevere to the end with an obedient lifestyle springing from faith. God tells us that He will preserve us until the end (1 Peter 1:5). However, we also know of many Christians who fall away from the faith and seem not to be saved. What should we think of all this? Should we be worried that we are one of these? Can we be sure that we will persevere if we see that others don’t?

Choices for God

Luke 14:28-31

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?"

Unfortunately, in today’s Christian environment the whole idea of thinking has become undermined. It’s as if using our natural abilities of intellect—particularly in areas of career choice—somehow represents a lack of faith. The concept is that we’re supposed to entrust our career and our vocation to God, and God will do the thinking for us; God will show us through some kind of miraculous sign what He wants us to do.

I think the most significant thing we’re called to do when we’re seeking the will of God in our lives, whether it’s for our vocation or for our choice of a mate or where we’re to live, is to think. However, how are we to think? In what way are we to think?

Springs of Living Water

John 7:38

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.


I have meditated before on the importance of relationships within the church and especially small groups. I often came from the viewpoint that we need relationships. We need people. We need edification and encouragement from those around us. But this time I am going to come at it from a different standpoint.

A New Glorious Earth

Revelation 21:1-5

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”


The purpose of God, for those whom He has shaped from the dust (Genesis 2:7) and redeemed with Christ’s blood (Ephesians 1:7), is not that they should return to the ground as we often hear at atheistic funerals. He desires that they receive glory. It is important as God’s people to maintain a taste of the glory that He has laid up for us in heaven. 

Righteous Anger

John 2:13–17

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”


Both Ephesians 4:31 and Colossians 3:8 tell us that anger is wrong. According to Paul we must put it away from us. It is also included in a list of despicable sins in 2 Corinthians 12:20. But what about Psalm 4:4 and Ephesians 4:26, which say, “Be angry and do not sin”? That implies there is a way to be angry and yet not sin, that there is a kind of righteous anger. Is that really true, and what then are its characteristics?

He Gives Rain

Job 5:8-10

“But as for me, I would seek God,
And to God I would commit my cause—
Who does great things, and unsearchable,
Marvelous things without number.
He gives rain on the earth,
And sends waters on the fields.”


When I see rain I might think that it’s a blessing as it’s beneficial for the farmers, or I might even complain because it inconveniences me. I certainly wouldn’t think that it is a great and incomprehensible wonder. But Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, does. In his mind, rain really is one of the great, unsearchable wonders that God does. Why this difference in reaction? What can we learn from Eliphaz’s words? What can we learn from the rain?

Glorifying God in Entertainment and Hobbies

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”


Some people waste their life playing. Their whole life is jumping from one fun to the next, it’s about all they ever talk about and think about. Those people give little thought to the Biblical truth that their life is not their own. Paul says, “You are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Nevertheless, some act as if they can do whatever they please with no reference to the One who bought them and owns them.

This Present Evil Age

Galatians 1:3-4

“Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”


Today we live in an evil age. “This present evil age” is an age where Satan is given freedom to deceive and destroy. John says, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). This “evil one” is called “the god of this world” and one of his aims is blinding people to truth. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). However Paul says that Christ has delivered us from this, according to God’s will. 

In Three Days I Will Raise It Up

John 2:19-22

"Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said."


Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world from the Father, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, did wonderful miracles, and loved people. Nevertheless He was crucified for our sins, and on the third day He was raised from the dead, never to die again. Forty days later He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and intercedes for us there, reigning until He puts all His and our enemies under His feet. He has all authority in heaven and earth, He will never die again, He has the keys of death and hell in his hands.
So what’s the Easter implication of all that for us, especially in our suffering here on earth today?

Our Citizenship is in Heaven

Philippians 3:20-21

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.


Paul quotes from Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 2:9,

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

What we shall experience in heaven is beyond our imagination. But God in His Word has given us some clues, some very encouraging indications, of what is in store for us. Coming from the Bible, these things are absolutely authoritative, absolutely true. 

An Eternal Weight of Glory

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.


We read in 2 Corinthians 4 that all our affliction is light and temporary compared to the glory we shall receive. Not only that, but they actually contribute towards that coming glory! But which of our afflictions bring an “eternal weight of glory”? Do the sins that we commit every day? Does something small like missing an airplane flight add to the glory I shall receive? 

Glorifying God in Singleness

"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
(1 Corinthians 10:31)

There are glories that can’t be shown in marriage, but only in singleness. If God has called you to a life of singleness, perhaps temporarily, there are ways to display God’s glory that those who are dating and those people who are married can’t.

Glorifying God in Thanksgiving

Psalm 69:30-31
I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull,
Which has horns and hooves.


We see God’s power, wisdom, love, and other attributes every day. However they often go ignored—in one ear and out the other. We are forgetful. We are insensitive. We are sinful. So many reasons, but not one of them is acceptable. Paul says we are without excuse for our lack of thankfulness (Romans 1:20-21). How does thankfulness glorify God? And how do we change our sinful hearts to thank Him unceasingly? How do we glorify Him so that we please Him “better than an ox or bull”? 

When I Fall, I Will Arise

Micah 7:7-9

Therefore I will look to the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
My God will hear me.
Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;
When I fall, I will arise;
When I sit in darkness,
The LORD will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD,
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my case
And executes justice for me.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I will see His righteousness.


Every one of us is faced by the darkness of the world around us, and even unfortunately sometimes in ourselves. The sins of the world are all too often replicated in ourselves. It is so easy to conform to the evilness of the world. Listen to the same music, speak the same ungodly language, drink the same amount of alcohol… the list goes on. Micah faced this in his time. We face it today. So how do we react? 

Behold, the Day is Coming!

Malachi 4:1-3

"For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,"
Says the LORD of hosts,
"That will leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves."


Like Malachi, we can sometimes feel dejected when we look around us and see the seeming prosperity and joy of those who reject God. Their lifestyle seems so attractive. But God answers through His prophet. He warns that those who proudly resist God will be completely consumed by a burning furnace. They will be utterly destroyed on the coming day of judgement. But something much more wonderful awaits those who fear God.

Lost and Found

Missions and Evangelism

2 Corinthians 4:3-6
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.


Jesus came into this world to save us from being lost. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). We confess in the Canons of Dort (I.5), “Those who receive [the gospel] and embrace Jesus the Saviour with a true and living faith are delivered by Him from the wrath of God and from destruction, and are given eternal life.” I once was lost, but now am found!