Loved ones, these are strange and troubling times! When well over one billion people prefer Mohammed to Jesus Christ, when many of us know more about baseball than about the Bible, and seem to care more about current affairs than about Christ.
These are the days when this world's self-proclaimed free-thinkers dismiss the virgin birth of Christ and His resurrection from the dead as "unreasonable" and "unscientific" while seriously considering such new-age nonsense as reincarnation and communication with the dead. Yes, and with good being painted all around us as bad and bad as good – who can deny that these, indeed, are strange days?
What will it take to turn things around? What will bring back the balance, the stability, the sanity so desperately needed in a world gone awry? What our world needs, yea, what we all need, is more of Christ and a more ardent determination to follow His example. Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).
Congregations today need: Not great plans and programs, but more of Christ! Not more up-to-date schemes and gimmicks, but more of Christ! Not more business meetings, but more of Christ! Not more highly educated preachers, but more of Christ! Not a more pleasing image, but more of Christ! Not a more elite and socially-minded people, but more of Christ! Not great numbers, but more of Christ.
Only in Jesus Christ, only by drinking deeply of His Word, and thus of His mind of the Spirit, will we find the direction, the perspective, and the insight needed to make sense of a seemingly senseless age. The world is crying — dying for moral and spiritual leadership. Jesus is that God given Leader. God is so good. Love you. Samuel – 6 September 2026
