Letters From Alistair Begg

Dear Friend,

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” This lyric put to music written by Burt Bacharach dates from 1965, but the message is up to date. The Beatles gave us “All You Need Is Love,” and Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! posed the question “Where is love?”

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Dear Friend,

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” Joni Mitchell was referring to parks being replaced with pavements. Many of us have found the sentiment to be true in terms of our being unable to enjoy friendly gatherings, church services, mealtimes in local restaurants, and more. Even some who live alone have testified to feeling alone in their aloneness. On a recent morning, as I had begun to bemoan another lockdown day, I read Hebrews 13:6: “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” Although we may be in lockdown, Jesus is never locked out!

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Dear Friend,

I am pretty sure that a number of us have found ourselves turning to the concluding verses of Habakkuk during these somewhat daunting days. The prophet, much like Job and sometimes the psalmist, is having a hard time reconciling the difficulties God’s people face with His promise to protect and provide. Resolution comes when he turns to God in prayer and reminds himself that “God, the Lord, is my strength,” and so although he may be faced with a series of material disasters, yet he “will rejoice in the Lord” and “take joy in the God of my salvation.” I encourage you to read the short prophecy. Remember Paul’s words to the church at Rome: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

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Dear Friend,

Warmest Christian greetings to you and your family as, together, we navigate uncharted waters.

Recently, I read an article by Alasdair Groves, the executive director of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF), that I found to be a great encouragement. In sharing this with you, I hope you’ll be comforted as well.

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One of the most perplexing issues of living the Christian life in twenty-first century America is where to go to church. New believers seeking their first church home, long-time Christians relocating to an unfamiliar place, and even those well entrenched in a particular church must face this issue head on. That’s because so much of what passes for “church” today isn’t really church, at least, not as the New Testament presents it to us. Therefore, if you are seeking a church home, the only place to discover what really matters is in the Bible. The Book of Acts offers us a blueprint for church life:

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Dear Friend,

I received a great encouragement the other day. A friend of mine sent me an email in which he included two verses from the Psalms:

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Dear Friend,

I’m often asked how Truth For Life began. As this month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of our daily program, I thought you might enjoy the story…

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Dear Friend,

Warmest Christian greetings for 2020!

I wonder, do you ever feel as I do that the dawning of the new year comes so quickly that we hardly have enough time to digest our Christmas pudding?

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Dear Friend,

I was six years old when Christmas Day became an official holiday in Scotland! That’s right—1958! Until the 1960s, it was the norm for most people across the country to work as usual if December 25 fell on a weekday. The reason for this was not secular but religious. The Scottish Reformation not only removed the dogma of Roman Catholicism but also frowned upon superstitious celebrations of “Yuletide.” In my own city of Glasgow, even singing a Christmas carol was considered a crime, and in 1640 an Act of Parliament made celebrating Christmas illegal. In my lifetime, the headmaster of a local elementary school in the Scottish Highlands was dismissed for having a Christmas tree in the vestibule.

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Dear Friend,

Perhaps my favorite hymn is “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven.” It was written by Scotsman Henry Francis Lyte and it is inspired by Psalm 103. When Susan and I were married in 1975, Susan chose the melody, composed by John Goss in 1868, as her processional music. It served to turn our attention from ourselves to the grace, favor, and glory of God.

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