The medical, moral and social case against assisted suicide
Over the last 20 years there have been many unsuccessful attempts to change the law on physician assisted suicide. The recent debate and vote on this showed that there is much ignorance about the problem of death.
I was a surgeon with particular interest in Surgical Oncology, so often had to face issues of people who were facing death. The word ‘euthanasia’ literally meant ‘good death’ and this is something every caring physician wants for his patients who have a terminal disease. It is unfortunate that many now understand it to mean an accelerated death, a form of physician assisted suicide.
A plea for better sermons
One of the directives in Scripture is that church elders must be didaktikos – able to teach.
Many are satisfied with understanding theology or caring for people, but sometimes not so great at motivating others to have a passion to live for Jesus. Good preaching is much more than good theology – there must be urgency and passion.
Mysticism in the local church
Bernard Palmer discusses the place of feelings and the desire to be close to God
Mysticism is the belief that a direct knowledge of God or of ultimate reality is attainable ‘through immediate intuition or insight and in a way differing from ordinary sense perception or logical reasoning’ (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary).