I just finished reading Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching. It is admittedly written to pastors and for pastors. But the principles in the book will apply well to anyone who would teach the Scriptures. Two chapters are particularly worthy of consideration. Sinclair Ferguson considers the topic, “Preaching to the Heart.” This principle […]
Read More Feed My SheepIf God demands obedience, then does Christianity just become a 70-year will-power act of endurance? Absolutely not. The point of obedience is to produce joy in the life of a believer as he learns to find the greatest satisfaction in God rather than in the temporal and vain pleasures of this present age (Titus 2:12). […]
Read More Obedience and joy — another leftoverPreparation for corporate worship is a key component to worshipping in a God-glorifying manner. To that end, I like to say, “Sunday worship begins on Saturday.” That is, the things I do on Saturday will produce either the fruit of worship or the lack of it on Sunday. So on Saturday (and actually throughout the […]
Read More Preparation for SundayP. D. James’ reputation is as a mystery fiction writer, but this Christmas a movie based on a non-mystery book written by James will be making headlines. It’s not a feel-good Christmas movie. But it may be a movie that addresses an important theme. Wheaton Professor Alan Jacobs explains the storyline of The Children of […]
Read More The Children of MenAl Mohler has some insightful comments on the announcement last week that Mary Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, is pregnant. That is hardly exceptional news except that she has lived in a lesbian relationship for the past 15 years and has openly opposed a potential ban on same-sex marriages. Mohler’s blog, “Is […]
Read More Mohler on homosexualityOn Sunday I said that following Christ is hard because Christ is a King who “inconveniences” His children with various demands. And one of the things He demands is obedience. Now you might ask, “Just how is obedience an inconvenience?” Obedience is an “inconvenience” because it requires submission and transformation. Many will take Christ as […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (12/10/06)Puritan pastor John Owens articulated much better what I said about the exact time of a believer’s salvation a couple of weeks ago: “He that is alive may know that he was born, though he know neither the place where nor the time when he was so; and so may he that is spiritually alive, […]
Read More What “moment” were you saved?“Christianity is everywhere in our culture, and yet Christ is so hard to find. We have an institutional Christ, a social Christ, a popular Christ, and a cultural Christ. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ?” asks writer and musician John Fischer. It’s a perceptive question for a church culture where the supremacy of Christ is […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (12/3/06)On Reformation Day (October 31) Dallas Seminary professor John Hannah provided a compelling call to return to the driving force behind the Reformation — a commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture. He concludes with these insights and admonitions: Is the real point of Christ’s redemptive mission to create a body of people who grasp the […]
Read More Another Reformation?Al Mohler offers more thoughts on the state of marriage in America.
Read More More on marriageWhile the reality of indwelling sin in the life of the believer is known by most believers, Calvin was right when he said “No one knows the one-hundredth par of the sin that clings to his soul.” When just external activity is considered, disobedience and sin may seem superficial and peripheral. Yet when the activity […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (11/12/06)In this morning’s devotional from My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers addresses the topic of a purpose-driven life that is rooted in the desires of God. After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Ghost; He is […]
Read More Chambers on “Fellowship in the Gospel”The gospel is not a “one-time” truth, but an everyday truth, as Jerry Bridges has articulated: To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, […]
Read More Jerry Bridges on the importance of the gospelThe truth that a believer may have assurance and confidence in his salvation is rooted in the work of Christ. The believer’s confidence is not in being able to keep himself, but in the power of God and the sufficiency of Christ to keep him. This is why it is essential that the believer keep […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (11/5/06)The complete truth has not yet been revealed about the circumstances of Ted Haggard’s resignation as pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and as President of the influential National Association of Evangelicals. Until that truth is revealed, we would be wise to neither speculate nor gossip about it. Prayer, particularly for the protection […]
Read More Another sad day
