The Lampstand Magazine

Be content with your wages In an age where everyone around us is constantly seeking more, it is difficult to follow the advice of John the Baptist and be content with our wages. John’s advice to the soldiers is universal in its application. Being “content”: the word carries the idea of ...

“I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant”. This double talk saying is seen in many offices and usually produces a smile since it is true that what we think we said and what people think about what we said are...

Brother Thomas wrote, “God manifestation not human salvation was the great purpose of the Eternal Spirit”. Unfortunately, today the subject is not discussed to the degree that it was one 100 years ago; and yet, it is the cornerstone of our understanding of the Deity. In this article we hope...

There are many scriptural examples illustrating the positive and negative aspects of words and the effect they can have on others. Genesis 1 is a classic example. Through the Word that God spoke, the world was built up from the lifeless chaos it was and a world full of life, order and meaning was c...

In John 17:4 our Lord included this statement in his prayer to his Father: “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Part of this work in glorifying the Father was to evince from those he healed a recognition that God was behind the healing. Anot...

Every day of our lives we assess complexity and the need for the appropriate time and resources to complete some tasks. When you get out of bed you have already considered most of the expected tasks for that day.

Another man worth considering in this regard is Daniel. He and his friends began life as part of the royal family of Judah (Dan 1:3-4).

There is a story about a small-town business owner whose clothing store was threatened with extinction. A national chain store had acquired all the properties on his block and had told him, “We’ll build all around you and put you out of business”.

How those words must have echoed around the court of Pharaoh and in the minds of his listeners. We see a proud monarch, clinging tenaciously to his own beliefs, having enslaved God’s people, yet determined to resist His Hand. The time had come for Israel’s deliverance, and such was the scene from which God would extract a people called after His Name.

Have you ever considered the power a word uttered can have on others? What effect the words we write by way of texts and emails can have on others?

Throughout the four gospels we frequently read of people following our Lord. Many followed out of a desperate need to be cured (Matt 4:24). Others followed him out of curiosity, purely to see miracles performed (John 6:2). Some sought him out for personal gain (John 6:26) and others sought to destroy him (John 5:16).

The relatively recent discovery of ocean currents is attributed to Matthew Maury (1806-1873) who was an American naval officer and oceanographer.

Who do you think you are? It sounds simple, but it's a question that you might not have carefully considered before. How do you define yourself? Who do you identify as? What do you say when someone asks you, “Tell me a bit about yourself?”

When you scour the Bible to examine the lives of men who ‘made it’ in terms of this life, what you find is that those who did, never intended to. Take, for example, the young man Joseph, who shot up to the heights of the Egyptian society (Gen 41:40-45).

“We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it” — Abraham Lincoln.

Leviticus 23 outlines the various feasts celebrated under the law, as well as events observed during that period. Each of the events point forward to prophetic events, which either have happened, or are about to happen. These events are, in fact, a prophetic timeline of the overall sequence of events, culminating in the kingdom of God.

It was around AD90 when the Apostle John sent a letter (which we know as the third epistle of John) to Gaius. The ageing apostle opens his letter fondly, describing Gaius as well beloved and someone whom he truly loves.

One of David’s final battles with the uncircumcised Philistines is described in 2 Samuel 5. He had just been anointed king at Hebron and the enemy seized that opportunity to strike quickly and remove him from his newly acquired throne: “When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold. The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim” (5:17-18). Note that “all” the Philistines came. David had been their arch-enemy for years and now they sought to hunt him out and destroy him before he could consolidate his power and threaten them further.

This year’s Youth Aliyah Evening was held at the Heritage College Gym. A large audience of about 300 brothers and sisters and their families turned up to hear the speaker, Mr Daniel Tuskar from Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, to speak on the subject: “The Absorption into Israeli Society...

In 2 Corinthians 11:21-33 the Apostle Paul enumerates his many trials and afflictions which he had suffered in his service of the Truth. He recalls the humiliating circumstances surrounding his escape from Damascus when he was let through a window and lowered down the wall in a basket. The occasion was the time shortly after his conversion (cp Acts 9:25), and Paul tells us incidentally that at that time there was a governor in Damascus who was subject to Aretas the king.