We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. […] Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things presenting ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labor…

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Radio Program by Ronald L. Dart)

Halloween is an odd event—very odd, in a way, because in its origins it was not evil; it was actually good. A number of you probably know that Halloween is All Hallows Even; in other words, All Hallows Eve—the evening before All Hallows. And All Hallows is All Saints day. And, originally, All Saints Day (November 1st) was the day when all the saint…

The Book of Revelation is a book with a very specific purpose. John who wrote it tells us it is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants things which must shortly come to pass. But, why bother? Why show them things which should shortly come to pass? Well, the logical answer is because he expects you to do something abo…

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass[.] Revelation 1:1 KJ2000 Thus begins the mysterious Book of Revelation. Though, why it should be mysterious remains an open question. After all, it is a revelation. It is expressly given to reveal information about certain thing…

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but…

Was Jesus a liberal or a conservative? Looking around the political landscape today, you would sort of think that he must have been one or the other because there are people out there who are Christians who would take very strong positions on the political left or right. Since they’re Christians and they’re supposed to be following Jesus, then one …

What in the world is God doing? I suspect there are those who would say, Not very much. The world looks like God wound it up, started it spinning, and then walked away from it. And if you should ask, How is the Gospel doing in the world, someone might reply, Not very well. After all, most of the world is not Christian, and never has been. All those…

I had a friend once who allowed that human beings were, to God, like fish eggs. We were sitting in the sun on a bass boat trying unsuccessfully to catch something and he was trying to make sense of the world. A fishing boat is a great place for philosophizing. I know, he said, that there is only one way of salvation, and that is by the name of Jesu…

Many years ago, before I learned better about arguing religion, I was engaged in a discussion focused on people who never even heard the name of Jesus anytime in their lives. How could it be right for God to torture these people forever? Tell me he is just going to leave them dead and we have one picture. Tell me he has arranged for their eternal t…

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Radio Program by Ronald L. Dart)

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without meaning. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaks a foreigner, and he that speaks shall be a foreigner unto me. Even so you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church.…

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Radio Program by Ronald L. Dart)

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

All of us are pretty well acquainted with the fact that the Holy Days, as originally given to Israel, were oriented around the concept of the harvest festival. To some extent, I think some people have tended to dismiss them for that very reason. They have looked at them as agricultural festivals which don’t have a great deal of relevance to 20-cent…

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man for profit. 1 Corinthians 12:4–7 KJ2000 [Paul_Study_Questions_Link]…

In the autumn of every year, the Jews celebrate their most solemn festival—Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Would it surprise you to learn that Yom Kippur is a Christian holiday as well? That the New Testament Church observed the day, only with a different sense of meaning? Very few Christians take any note of the day at all; and that is surprisin…

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

I take great comfort in the goodness of God—in his kindness, his compassion. Being able to rely on God's mercy means more than we could possibly say. But there are moments when I read the Bible that I feel a kind of chill, because there are two sides to this question. I've mentioned it before to you, and I know you understand this: God is not only …

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and…

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 1 Corinthians 15 51–52 KJV There is no idea more central to the Christian faith than the resurrection of the d…

Even if you are not Jewish, you are probably aware of the two main Jewish holidays in the autumn of every year: the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur. But you may not be aware that these are also Christian holidays. Around the end of the first century, there was a lot of persecution of the Jews in and around Rome, and the church began to differentiat…

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Radio Program by Ronald L. Dart)

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and worked: for by their occupation the…

I have been fascinated for some years now by the efforts of many Christians to sort out who they are, politically. For the longest time, they were nobody. Then came Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority; and politics hasn’t recovered from that yet. Now we have a Christian right and a Christian left in this country, and that is somehow disquieting. N…

I have said so many times that if you don’t understand the history contained in the Bible, you can’t hope to understand the prophecy. One reason is that without a grasp of history, you don’t know what part of the prophecy has been fulfilled in the past and what part has not. And then there is this statement from the prophet Isaiah; it is a challeng…

When the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem and took the city, what on earth was he after? What did he want? If you have ever visited the old city of Jerusalem, you have to wonder why on earth that city has been the subject of so many wars. My first impression of the city, as I wandered around its old streets, was what in the world is here that is …

It must be a truly awful thing when a city falls. What happened to Baghdad when the Americans took it was nothing compared to what happened at the end of a siege in the ancient world. The armies of old fought hand to hand, and when they finally breached the wall of a city—often after years of fighting—there was no holding them back until the bloodl…

I have to wonder how a prophet ever rises to prominence. We look back on these men as giants, but in their own generation, they were just ordinary men with an extraordinary message. One of them was a sheep herder and part-time fruit picker. Most of them were very young when first called of God and commissioned–one of them, just a child. Think about…

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which brings forth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is m…

All of us have what some call a worldview. We are as unaware of this as a fish is unaware of water, but we all have a grid through which we view life’s problems and which we use to make decisions about those problems. For the most part, that worldview goes unexamined. We have always thought the way we have and unless something jars us off our platf…

Real prophets are given prominence by God. We aren’t always told how he does it, but in the case of Elijah, he called publicly for three years of drought…and it happened. By the time the three years were up, everyone was looking for Elijah. He had disappeared and had nothing to say for all that time, and yet his message echoed back and forth across…

You wouldn’t want to say that God is stubborn. But would have to admit that he is awfully persistent, wouldn’t you? God’s persistence—in keeping his word, in following through—is actually a saving grace. I’ve told you before that so much prophecy is bad for the simplest of reasons: whenever we are doing the right thing—our duty—there’s no reason fo…

You have probably heard the expression the lost tribes of Israel, but you may not know what people are talking about. Late in their history, Israel was divided into two nations: the house of Israel and the house of Judah. After a little over 200 years, the ten northern tribes (which were called the house of Israel) were carried captive by the king …

It would be wrong to say that the Old Testament prophets bring nothing but bad news; they give us hope. The problem is that the good news they bring is mostly way out into the future. In the short term, they prophesy little beyond suffering and pain. Why is that? Possibly the most obvious reason is that there is no need for God to send us a prophet…

For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's descendants, and heirs according…

Once upon a time, there was a man sitting quietly by a pool of water. He was a very sick man, and doubted that he had very long to live. While he stared into the water, something stirred the water. It was almost as though a hand had swished the water back and forth, but no one else was there. Wondering, the man reached out his own hand and swished …

I heard someone say once, I have had a lot of bad things in my life, most of which never happened. He was trying to say that a lot of the things we worry about never come to pass. It seems to be built into human nature to worry. We even manage to worry about the fact that we are worrying. But, in fact, some bad stuff does happen to us. There’s an i…

By webmaster@borntowin.net (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

I’m sure you realize that there are a lot of prophets scattered around the world—people who claim to speak for God, to foretell the future? Except for a few cult members, no one ever takes them very seriously. Once in a while, one of them will get himself killed, usually because of stupidity rather than his prophecies. Probably more of them kill th…

How many enemies can you make in 23 years of speaking the truth to power? Jeremiah has now been telling it like it is for 23 years and through parts of the reigns of two kings, and as I read him I wonder why people paid any attention to him. His message has a monotonous quality. It is reminiscent of the advice someone gave to preachers about sermon…

One of the things we depend on is that God is not fickle. He isn’t one way today and another way tomorrow. He doesn’t have one standard today and another tomorrow. He doesn’t have one standard for leaders and a different standard for followers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with who…

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Galatians 2:20–21 KJ2000 [Paul_Study_Quest…

Predicting what is going to happen next in the Middle East is a fool’s game…or maybe perhaps a prophet’s task. Not being a prophet, and trying not to be a fool, it still seems necessary to look at what is going on there in the light of the Bible. Christian people pay close attention to what happens in the Middle East, for good reason. The reason gr…

I think a man’s life before God can deteriorate in stages. As he passes through those stages, his options narrow. Suppose there is a man who regularly abuses alcohol and drives his car after he’s done it. His friends have warned him; they have even hidden his car keys. One by one he has alienated his friends as he gets angry with them for trying to…

One of the most persistent, nagging questions that dogs the Christian faith is called theodicy—the defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. If God is good and all-powerful, how is it possible that he would allow the existence of evil in his world? You can explain it to people again and again, but somehow the expla…

I am sitting here reading a document that is 2,600 years old. It reads like the memoirs of man who had an ongoing dialogue with God. Chances are, you have a copy of this same document right there in your home—it is the Book of Jeremiah in your Bible. God first spoke to Jeremiah when he was just a boy, and he sent him down to the gate of the city to…