Thoughts From Dr. Mark Hamby

Dear Friends,

Today I am simply sending you a link to a message I listened to yesterday after a friend passed it along to me. She did that because it related to a part of the message I preached this past Sunday from Acts 9:19b-25. It was a message in which I suggested (from the text, and pointing to the example of Saul himself, soon to be the apostle Paul) that we should not try to keep newly converted people from sharing about their faith encounter with Jesus until they have read more, or studied more, or are more “qualified” to speak.

The title of my message was: “Refusing to Wait! Sharing What We Know, With Those We Know, Without Waiting Until We Know it All.” I would earnestly encourage everyone to take the 10 minutes it requires to listen to this recounting of a true story presented honestly, transparently, and with humor, even though it is serious. I dare say you will not be disappointed. It is an episode from Dr. Mark Hamby’s, “Fastened Like Nails” podcast (and despite the title you see when you open it, it is not about Jonah or cows)! It is the true story of an unexpected move of God coming through the most unlikely of people. Another undeniable expression of God’s amazing grace. Enjoy.

Fastened Like Nails Podcast: Jonah and the Cows

Throughout the Bible God uses the smallest, weakest, most imperfect, and unexpected people, to carry out his work. Why? So that we don’t get the wrong impression and somehow think He only uses the wise or smart or well-schooled or those superior in talent and gifting, to carry out His work of grace in people’s hearts. He can use anyone – and even use them from the moment they come to know Him (and even before that as I myself can testify)!

Yours in the Service of a God that is Able to Use Anyone who Comes to Him in Faith, Pastor Jeff

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Thoughts From Horatius Bonar

Dear Friends, If you are like me, you may have had a bad experience in the past with churches that stressed “holiness.” Not because churches shouldn’t, but because the focus was placed on outward conformity to externalisms, or a prescribed set of moralism’s that sucked the atmosphere of grace out of the church. In fact, the more effort-based versions of “holiness” are stressed, the more grace disappears – and the vacuum left in its wake is filled with even more rigid standards of morality and law-based duties – driving all who truly struggle with sin into hiding or pretending. And of all the books I have ever read on holiness (or godliness) none (in my opinion) hold a candle to “God’s Way of Holiness” by the Scottish minister Horatius Bonar (1808-1889). A book I have given to numerous people to read. If you were one who was turned off, or wounded, by a form of holiness based on what Bonar calls, “constrained externalism” or self-effort, I offer you this selection as a taste of w...

More Christian Quotes

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Dear Friends, Sometimes you come across a story that sticks with you. This particular true story was one I read in 1897 and still remember today. Therefore, I thought I would share it with you. It comes from a book entitled “He Touched Me” by John Powell. Powell was a professor and counsellor at Loyola University in Chicago, with degrees in Psychology, the Classics, and Theology, and at the time when the events of this story transpired he was going through some inner struggles himself – events he chronicles in another book, “Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am?” At that time a lady came to him for counselling – who in the end changed his outlook on counselling. This is her story, and one that changed him. Enjoy. “A neurotic friend was weaving in and out of my life a few years ago. Each time we met there was the same neurotic whine, the same indecision, the same egocentric focus that is born out of deeply embedded pain from past trauma. It became clear that after many counsellin...

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