But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. ~ 2 Timothy 2:23

Possibly, once more, some may be much beset on the road to heaven by mental difficulties. I do not often say much about these things; because there are plenty of preachers who, by mentioning difficulties, are really spreading them. Certain clever gentlemen of the cloth may think it their duty to sow doubts among their hearers; but I have no such ambition. They may imagine that they are answering the questions which they suggest, but it seems to me that they are merely advertising them to many of those who were previously unaware of them. This is an age when men assail the inspiration of the Bible, the atoning sacrifice, and the election of grace. I need not enlarge. Everything is now attacked. There is no part of the Bible which some critic would not take away from us.

It may be, young friend, that you cannot answer all the objections which you hear. Do not wonder if you cannot. You would be wiser than Solomon if you could reply to all objections that cavillers may invent. A friend came to me with a great difficulty, supposing that I could answer it off-hand; but I replied, “He who fashioned this piece of criticism took time in the making of it, and you must allow me the same time to demolish it. I will do my best with it; but remember, if you find a thousand difficulties which I cannot meet, that fact will not prove that they cannot be met; for I do not profess to be omniscient, nor do I assert that faith is a grace which has no difficulties to surmount.” If there were a thousand more objections which could not at this present be answered, they might confuse our feeble minds, but they would not shake the eternal truth itself. God’s Word is sure, be the difficulties what they may. Know what you do know, and believe what you do believe, and get a firm grip of undoubted verities; and though, when you are worried with the doubts and hypotheses of philosophers and the like, Satan will say, “They are entangled in the land,” let him see that your worry is soon ended by a childlike faith in the living God. Real faith will find a way out of perplexity, or will make one. True faith will sooner set aside the conclusions of human reason than the declarations of God: in fact, faith teaches reason to be reasonable by setting before it the highest of all reasons, namely, the testimony of God. God send us such a childlike faith, and then we shall not be “entangled in the land”!

- Charles Spurgeon
From the Sermon: Entangled in the land

Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed. ~ 2 Corinthians 6:3

A curiously strong tip for preachers.

You probably recognize those little white mints. You probably also think I am going to say something about fresh breath. I wouldn’t want to disappoint you.

Here are three blessed benefits of those curiously strong peppermints.

1. Fresh breath. The preacher will be engaged in many conversations before and after a service. Out of a desire to “give none offence” even in this small matter, a small peppermint will make the conversations more pleasant for everyone involved.
2. Helps dry throat. Preaching tends to dry out the throat and mouth. This leads to the strong and near irresistible desire to cough. However, in a crowded foyer, a cough may be difficult or impolite to execute. Some would choose a cough drop to soothe the throat. An admirable choice, particularly if the flavor is honey lemon or black cherry. Cough drops tend to smell overwhelmingly medicinal, so a peppermint is an better choice in this situation.
3. Soothes a nervous stomach. Ah, the little known power of the peppermint. It does have the ability to comfort an upset stomach. It is probably not going to help much if you are actually sick. But, if you have a little case of the jitters, peppermint can help. For this to work, you need strong peppermint and the less like candy, the better. Not that I know anything about nervous stomachs.

But, what are the drawbacks? I see primarily two.

1. Noisy. When that little tin is about half full, it makes a lot of noise when you are walking. In the preacher’s pocket, it can beat out quite a cadence while you are walking to the pulpit. Add to this the fact that the crowd is generally quiet while waiting on you to ascend, and the noise can be amusing or embarrassing depending on your temperament.
2. Numbing. Too many mints too close to fellowship mealtime and you are not going to be tasting your food well. I suppose this could be a blessing depending on where you are.

A little lighter post than usual, but a practical tip nonetheless.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? ~ Matthew 6:30

We generally consider a prayer unanswered if we do not receive the thing we asked for. Or, we might suppose there are only two answers to prayer—Yes or No. If yes, we have what we asked for. If no, we do not receive what we sought.

Those assumptions are overly simple. The Bible actually teaches much more than that about prayer and the answering of it. I do not propose here to go into a full theology of prayer, but to call your attention to four ways God answers prayer from the Scripture.

1. God answers prayer by giving the thing sought for right away. Daniel received this answer when he set himself to pray and beseech the Lord to show him the meaning of the seventy weeks in prophecy. God gave the object sought even before Daniel was finished asking for it.
   

   At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. ~ Daniel 9:23

2. God answers prayer by withholding the object sought for a time, and then giving it later. Christ told an illustrative parable to His disciples to teach them to pray in light of this truth. He told them about a widow and an unjust judge who refused to relieve the widow. The widow finally received her relief because of her continual coming to the judge. Christ said that men ought always to pray likewise.
   

   And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? ~ Luke 18:7

3. God answers prayer by refusing the blessing sought and giving a better one in its place according to His own will. Moses received this answer concerning his request to enter the promised land. It seemed a reasonable request after giving himself in service as he had to lead Israel there. God did not grant this request, but gave him a better blessing instead. He let Moses view the promise land and then took him home to the better country to be with the Lord.
   

   O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. ~ Deuteronomy 3:24-25

   And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. ~ Deuteronomy 34:4-5

4. God answers prayer by refusing the object sought and rather giving grace to bear the loss or want of it. Paul received this answer concerning the thorn in the flesh. He prayed three times for it to be removed. God refused to grant the request, but He supplied grace sufficient to bear it in this life. Paul rejoiced at this answer.
   

   And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9

This is one reason why we pray, “If it be your will.” We don’t know the best answer to receive (Romans 8:26). Rather we trust God in faith to do what is right, good, and glorifying of His name.

(This list is adapted from A Token for Mourners by John Flavel)

That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am he LORD, and there is none else. ~ Isaiah 45:6

What is idolatry? Stated one way, it is the having of any other god(s) before the true and living God of the universe, i.e. bowing to and serving them above God. Stated another way, it is not having God as supreme in all things.

Sometimes we deal with things grammatically, exegetically, theologically, contextually, though hopefully never ecumenically. So, let’s take this one algebraically.

Let the supremacy of God be expressed thus,

G > g

where G is the true God of the universe and g is any number or combination of false gods (including idols, apparitions, the state, man, etc.).

It then follows that idolatry would be expressed as,

g ≥ G

where g and G have the same value as in the previous expression but their proportional relationship is changed.

It is observed then that there is a constant and a variable in both inequalities. The constant G is always the same entity though infinite in value. The variable g is every other possible entity and varying in value. What we learn from this is that the identity of the entity g does not matter.

In other words, what makes idolatry what it is—sin—is not the “other gods”, regardless of who or what those are. What makes idolatry what it is, is God. If there was no God, there would be no idolatry, no matter that there were billions of gods worshiped across the globe. Idolatry is what it is because of the being, existence, and nature of Almighty God. God is eternal and immutable so that when He brought any being into existence, idolatry was immediately possible. We know this is the case, else how could Satan have sinned before man?