Letters From Alistair Begg

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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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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Dear Friend,

I remember the occasion as if it were yesterday. It was a Monday lunchtime in the early weeks of 1975. A handful of us had braved the opportunity to eat at the faculty table, and the conversation was lively. But I was completely unprepared for one of the lecturers to send in my direction what was virtually a “prophetic” word.

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Dear Friend,

The school buses are running but empty of passengers. I assume they’re testing the routes for the start of the new school year. How did summer go so quickly? Was it something that we said?

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Dear Friend,

Are you a melody person or a lyric person? I’m always surprised when people tell me that they don’t know the words to a song because, they say, “I only listen to the music.”

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Dear Friend,

I just finished reading David Brooks’s latest book, The Second Mountain. In it, he records the impact that John Stott had upon him. Years ago, my friend Michael Cromartie (like Stott, now in heaven) told me that he had suggested to Brooks that he should read Stott. Clearly, he did, and then met him. You can read his reaction in the book.

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