Until August 1994 I wasn't interested in God. One of my closest friends became a Christian and tried to talk to me about it, but I just wasn't interested. In fact I felt quite sorry for her.Then I was visited by another lady who offered to read the Bible with me. I politely told…
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The family house in Edinburgh was a very strange place. Almost everything in it was designed by 'father' - a mildly eccentric barrister with a passion for mechanical things and an amazingly inventive mind.Not long after the birth of James Clerk Maxwellin 1831, his father took it into his head to design a new…
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According to a recent UK government survey, more than 10% of the population suffer from neurotic anxiety disorders. Eighty million prescriptions for tranquillisers and antidepressants were dispensed in 1994 - and the number has risen rapidly since then. Some 60% of employees apparently suffer from feelings of insecurity and anxiety. What is the cause?…
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While serving as a submariner in the Royal Navy I often ended up drinking and secretly taking drugs - available from a 'fence' on board my sub. This seemed to fill the emptiness inside me for a time. But no matter how much I drank, or how many drugs I took, the emptiness would…
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Since becoming a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I have experienced peace and assurance such as I had never known. I have found a faithful friend in Christ. I was just looking out for myself. I certainly wasn't looking for Christ and had no idea what joy he would bring. I remember…
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I live in Edinburgh, home of the Scottish Parliament. This time last year there was much debate and newspaper correspondence over a decision by that parliament.What was the decision? That the words 'Season's greetings' should replace 'Christmas greetings' on its Christmas cards! This was not the first time, of course, that our Lord Jesus…
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The quiz show Who wants to be a millionaire? is one of the most popular TV programmes in Britain and the USA. Recently, on the British programme, a man was going for the last question and the £1,000,000 prize. He had sailed through the previous questions easily and with confidence. This man was not…
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Police officers and traffic wardens go to work every day knowing they may face personal danger, but accept that it's part of their job. Missionaries and volunteers at the Waterloo Centre also know they are at risk, but their love and concern for the helpless and hopeless keep them going.Will Thorburn manages the centre…
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Recently a friend told me the moving story of her husband's death a few months ago following a short, uncomfortable illness. Just before he died he opened his eyes wide with an expression of joyful wonder and said: 'What a lovely surprise!' He was a Christian believer looking forward to heaven. It would seem…
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Some questions can be answered two ways. If I ask, 'Is it easy to fit new taps in your bathroom?', a plumber or a DIY man will say, 'Yes, nothing to it'. But others would say, 'No way, I would never attempt something like that'. It does rather depend on your perspective.In the same…
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Stuart Prebble, a former producer of TV's World in Action, is a grumpy old man. It irritates him that quality programming has been replaced by trivial nonsense such as Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, David Beckham the Early Years, and the like.He complained to his friends, his colleagues, his…
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I was 23 when I was converted. I had no Christian background, nor had I ever heard the gospel before. I did, however, know a lot about humanism, hedonism and agnosticism. At the time of my conversion I was living with drug dealers and had lost all hope in everything. There was absolutely no…
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Until I was sixteen, I had never given any serious thought to the Bible, and could count on the fingers of one hand how many times I had been into a church. I was living a typical college lifestyle and trying to find enjoyment in what our society had to offer. I went to…
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How many needs we all have! We must breathe in oxygen every few seconds, eat food every day and sleep for hours every night. Life is impossible unless our basic needs are met. We need to love and be loved – life would be intolerable if everyone rejected us. But that is not all. We need the Lord Jesus Christ too. Let me try to explain why. In 2002 a film was made of the life of the late Jacques Derrida, the French philosopher who originated the philosophical concept of ‘deconstruction’. Trailed by the camera crew, he walked into his library. The interviewer gazed around...
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So why would a small group of men leave behind comfort, security and luxury, and follow a star in search of a king?We have no precise details about the 'wise men' who came to visit the infant Jesus - nor even how many there were. We do know, however, that they were rich, for…
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Charlie's Coffee Shop, early morning. The door swings open and three mothers in their early thirties fall in, resembling a military platoon after a day of heavy combat - and it's still only 9.08a.m!Kate carries a baby strapped in a stroller, Helen a toddler glued to her skirt. Sarah has a lighter load, carrying…
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In 1993, I started to attend church for the first time on a regular basis. God must have been drawing me because I felt that this was the right thing to do. We were driving 50 minutes each way to get to my grandmother's Baptist church every Sunday. We also attended a modern-style non-denominational…
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Christ came 'to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God by which the Dayspring from on high has visited us - to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. To guide our feet into the…
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We are bombarded daily with information and announcements - some relevant, some not. We learn to ignore most of them! But there is one announcement we must heed, for it has eternal consequences.It is the angel's announcement of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. We must look beyond the seasonal…
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My life was not worth living before Ibecame a Christian. I used to phone the taxi rank just to hear another voice. I was so lonely I wanted to die, but I had a daughter so I couldn't commit suicide. I was abused sexually as a child, and wanted to die back then, but…
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A modern artist, attending an exhibition of his own abstract paintings, was disappointed to find that one of his most admired paintings was hanging upside down. My life in the 60s was like that - a piece of upside-down abstract art. It had a lot of movement, energy and colour but no real meaning…
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My whole life is a chronicle of wasted years - of shame and failure. For over fifty years I was a conman, a crook who lived on my wits. I was without conscience or scruple, a hypocrite. I was born in Hong Kong. There were thirteen children - five boys and eight girls. We…
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It is a joy and honour to tell you the difference Jesus Christ has made in my life. While on a business trip to the Bahamas in April of 2003, my life changed for ever. The day I was converted started like any normal day. I wasn't 'looking' for any spiritual revelation. I had…
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Jack the giant killer, Popeye, The Lord of the rings and The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe - what do they have in common? On the surface not much. One is a fairy take, one is a cartoon, one is the nation's favourite novel and one is a children's classic. But they all…
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I thought I was destined for heaven. I believed in God and Jesus, said my prayers every night and led a 'good clean life'. I was christened as a baby, brought up as a churchgoer, and confirmed in the Church of England. What had I to worry about? But one day my brother, Michael,…
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My name is Matthew Abraham. I am an attorney in Michigan where I live with my wife and three children. My journey in Christian faith really began in June of 2001 when I heard a gentleman speak with a conviction and passion I'd never heard before - certainly not on the topic of his…
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Last Summer's Olympic Games were part of a four-year cycle - they aim to be back! You may love them or hate them, but there's no doubt that people all over the world take them seriously.Sport is one of those things that seems to assume a place of prominence in national life and what…
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After several years without a ministry visit there, evangelist and author John Blanchard recently spoke at four separate meetings in the Republic of Ireland. He began with a Saturday night evangelistic apologetics meeting in Springhill Court Hotel, Kilkenny. The suite was comfortably full and there was rapt attention to the message. John told Evangelical Times that the Question and Answer session was the liveliest he had known for a long time. It was an added joy for him to meet two people converted to Christ by reading one of his evangelistic books. The Sunday was spent at Kilkenny Presbyterian Church. Twenty years ago it was...
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Yet atheists always assume they have the intellectual high ground - they give the impression they are the logical ones, whereas Christians are those who have taken the fanciful leap of faith. One of Britain's most distinguished writers and broadcasters, Sir Ludovic Kennedy, said he wrote his book All in the mind - A…
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In the late Eighties, when my rugby-playing days came to an end, I began playing more and more squash. Steve, a frequent opponent, belonged to Bethesda Baptist Church, Stowmarket. One day after a game we began discussing evolution. I had been taught evolution at school and believed it to be the truth - the…
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We are often told by the media that the Christian Church is losing members and dying on its feet. This is not true either in the UK or internationally. Some churches may be declining, but in others God is working powerfully. We bring you the story of one, a once-small Baptist church in the USA where several hundreds have come to a living experience of Jesus Christ during the past three or four years. The story is told by their pastor, Robert L. Dickie. I have been the pastor of Berean Baptist Church for nearly 23 years. They have been wonderful years of teaching the...
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Speaking on BBC television, atheist Richard Dawkins claimed, 'I think science really has fulfilled the need that religion did in the past, of explaining things, explaining why we are here, what is the origin of life, where did the world come from, what life is all about'. He is mistaken. The fact is that…
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If your phone rings in the middle of the night, you don't expect good news. With dulled senses and some foreboding, you lift the phone expecting the worst. But the best good news that ever came did so in the night. An angel sent by God appeared in the night to shepherds in Israel…
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