A ROCKY FOUNDATION

  There are three huge gates that lead into the Cathedral of Milan. Over one gate there is an inscription in marble under a beautiful flower bouquet that says, “The things that please are temporary.” Over the second gate there is a cross with this inscription: “The things that disturb us are temporary.” However, over the central gate, there is a big inscription saying, “Eternal are the important ones.” ( Source unknown ). One of the greatest issues that continually trouble the hearts of all people who believe in a sovereign God is this, “what about the prosperity of the wicked?” Why does it seem that the wicked always win? The corrupt in business overwhelm their honest competitors and drive them out of business. Why do communist governments succeed for decades in crushing Christian house churches? The subject of Psalm 37 is the way and end of the righteous and the wicked. David wrote “ wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked

  Keith was diagnosed with malignant brain tumors. He fought back with all his strength, enduring radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. However he was only 45 years old when he died. After the church service, they went to the graveside where Keith’s pastor made some brief remarks. It is customary to throw soil into the grave; “from dust you came and to dust you return” at the end of the service. But, this pastor did something unusual. He took some petals from a red carnation and scattered them on the coffin while reciting, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. This was symbolic; flowers represent life. Flowers bloom from the earth, life comes forth from death. Looking at the coffin, he said, “Rest well, Keith. Death will not have the last word. We will see you again.” Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 was centered on Christ. His objective was to show his audience that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah th

         Max from Vietnam writes this amazing story ‘My grandfather had an amazing memory. Whenever we came to join him in rural Gansu, he taught us about Christ from fragments of verses he had learned from a pastor. In 1995 my grandfather gathered us all together. He said “I have taught you about Christ for over fifteen years from the memory of a pastor who died so that I might have faith. But I have no more to teach you. I committed about five hundred verses of Scripture to memory from that pastor, and I have expounded each of them to you a hundred ways since then. It’s time for us to find the rest of the sacred texts.” We all looked at each other. This sounded impossible; we asked him who would find for us these texts. He replied “God will; we must pray”. We prayed…and prayed …and prayed. For two years we prayed, nothing happened. But for the faith of my grandfather, some of us would have moved to another faith. He was firm: “God is testing us to see if we are really His. We must