Note: What follows is an introduction I just wrote to a lesson on Mark 6:1-26 entitled "Changes in the Ministry of Christ." I thought it might be an encouragement to someone who is presently going through some great changes.
Journals can tell us much about the day to day activities of people long ago. August 19, 1781, exactly 225 years ago, was a Sunday. On that day, Hezekiah Smith, the pastor of Haverhill Baptist Church in Massachusetts, recorded that he preached two sermons at his home church on Malachi 3:2. They were the completion of two sermons that he preached on the same text the Sunday before. We do not have these sermons in print, but it would have been interesting to hear four sermons preached on the text: "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap." At this same time, the American Revolutionary is not yet over. However, the British General Cornwallis has already retreated to Yorktown and is building his defenses there. He will surrender to the American Forces under General George Washington on October 19, 1781.
Immutability. That is one of the attributes, or characteristics, of God. A mutation is a change; to be mutable is to be able to...
