Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is from The Christian on the Mount. Christ is as full of love as He is of merit. What was it but love that He should save us and not the fallen angels? Among the rarities of […]
Read More Meditate on the love of Christ“Rituals, Religion, and Transformed Hearts” Romans 2:25-29 June 12, 2016 A few months ago a sealed leather trunk that had been stored in a museum in the Netherlands was opened and what the researchers found was astounding — 2600 undelivered letters, perfectly preserved from the 17th century. About 600 of those letters were never opened; […]
Read More Sermon: Rituals, Religion, and Transformed Hearts“Your Faith…Tested” John 6:1-15 June 5, 2016 Tuesday afternoon Raye Jeanne called me and just in the way she responded to my greeting when I answered, I knew something was amiss: “What’s wrong?” I asked. “The house is flooding again.” “I’ll leave in five minutes to come help you.” I did leave in five minutes, […]
Read More Sermon: Your Faith…TestedThe young boy approached his father. “Dad, let’s play darts. I’ll throw and you say, ‘Great shot!’” Though probably apocryphal in nature, that exchange still bespeaks of a real need — the need to be encouraged. It is a need that is not unique to our day. Even in Scripture we find people of God […]
Read More A word of encouragement“Remember Your Sin…And Christ’s Work” Ephesians 2:11-13 May 29, 2016 Many years ago I called a friend and when he answered his cell phone, he was noticeably quiet and subdued. So I asked him, “Are you ok?” “Yeah — I’m in D.C. on a business trip this week and I’m at the Vietnam Memorial, and […]
Read More Sermon: Remember Your Sin…And Christ’s Work“Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy: Why Practicing What You Preach Matters” Romans 2:17-24 May 22, 2016 A few years ago, Washington state Representative, Jack Metcalf revealed that the U.S. Forestry Service and a Washington state agency were working together to spend $18,000 to dye rocks on a scenic route to the Cascade Mountains brown and gray. It […]
Read More Sermon: Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy – Why Practicing What You Preach MattersWednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Christian on the Mount. The promises of God are flowers growing in the paradise of Scripture; meditation, like the bee, sucks out the sweetness of them. The promises are of no use or […]
Read More Meditate upon the promises of God“The Conscience: What It Is and How to Help It” Pt. 2 Selected Scriptures May 15, 2016 Jerry White provides a picture of how most people think about the conscience: Willie, in the comic strip Moon Mullins, is slumped in a chair in front of a TV set, coffee cup resting on his pot belly. […]
Read More Sermon: The Conscience – What It Is and How to Help It, Pt. 2Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Godly Man’s Picture. This post continues from last week. 6. A godly person weeps because the sins he commits are in some sense worse than the sins of other men. The sin of […]
Read More A godly man is an evangelical weeper, pt. 2“The Conscience: What It Is and How to Help It” Selected Scriptures May 8, 2016 In 2007, a 44-year-old Frenchman — happily married with two children and a white-collar job — went to a hospital in Marseille complaining of some mild weakness in his left leg. The ailment in his leg was remedied fairly quickly. […]
Read More Sermon: The Conscience – What It Is and How to Help ItWednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Godly Man’s Picture. David sometimes sang with his harp, and sometimes the organ of his eye wept: ‘I water my couch with my tears’ (Psa. 6:6).…Grace dissolves and liquefies the soul, causing a […]
Read More A godly man is an evangelical weeper“What Christ Has Done” Colossians 2:11-15 May 1, 2016 Author and publisher Leonard Woolf (husband of Virginia Woolf) lamented near the end of his life, “I see clearly that I have achieved practically nothing. In the world today and the history of the human anthill during the past five to seven years would have been […]
Read More Sermon: What Christ Has DoneWednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Doctrine of Repentance. ‘In that day there shall be a great mourning, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon’ (Zech. 12.1 1). Two suns did set that day when Josiah died, and there was a […]
Read More Godly repentance is a great sorrowIn the past year I have read about six books on the topic of homosexuality and Christianity. I have read many more journal and magazine articles and blog posts. I have studied extensively for preaching on the topic in Romans 1, reading somewhere between 15-25 commentaries on the significant passages. So when I saw that […]
Read More Book Review: Do Ask, Do Tell, Let’s Talk“Is God Fair?” Pt. 2 Romans 2:12-16 April 17, 2016 When I was in seminary, the professor for an introductory missions class had the same assignment for his students every year. They were to write a short paper answering the question: “will the heathen who have never heard and responded in faith to the gospel […]
Read More Sermon: Is God Fair? Pt. 2
Words of Grace 