Hymns for a Kid’s Heart, by Bobbie Wolgemuth & Joni Eareckson Tada (Crossway, 2003), hb. 92 pp. As the previous posts should attest, I love hymns and want my children to do so as well. Thus, this title appealed to me about a year ago when I saw it. However, I was disappointed with the …
The church of God in our day is in dire need of reformation once again. I believe that is a given among us. Yet, this is a daunting task and if we put our hands to it we will face exhaustion, desperation, despondency and frustration in addition to open resistance. In this then we ought …
Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation, Douglas Bond (Christian Liberty Press, 2000), pb., 240 pp. This second volume of the Mr. Pipes books lived up to the standard set by the first volume. It was a great read which was eagerly anticipated by my boys each day and taught them great lessons. …
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Too often in our churches today we fail to appreciate the importance of the corporate aspect of our worship. We are encouraged to “forget that anyone else is around”, to “tune everyone else out,” or to “pretend it’s just you and God.” Have we forgotten that the Scriptures envision our worship as involving “addressing one …
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I am currently teaching my class on John’s gospel and letters here at Union. In dealing with John 2 I came back across this quote I had gleaned earlier from Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), a prominent Scottish Baptist preacher. This is a long quote, but I kept it all because it makes a good point about …
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This past Sunday during corporate worship one of my boys tapped my arm as the next hymn began. He pointed to the bottom of the page where there was written, “Author: William Cowper.” With a knowing look he whispered, “We read about him!” As we talked about the service during lunch, my two oldest boys …
Having just commented on people yearning for substantive preaching, I came back across this quote from Al Mohler which I read a few years back. He says it well- as usual. 🙂 When you hear people speak about how to grow a church, how to build a church, and how to build a great congregation, …
Preachers are often told that people really are not interested in substantive content in sermons. I know of pastors who have been severely criticized for dealing with texts that people did not find easily digestible, or useful enough in drawing crowds. Shallow, generic “life-thoughts” will appeal to some, but there is an increasing number of …
People often think that a firm belief in the sovereignty of God in all things including the salvation of souls will undercut evangelistic zeal. History is full of examples to the contrary, and the Puritans are key examples. I previously mentioned Richard Alleine’s book Instructions About Heartwork . In this book Alleine has an entire …
One of our Wednesday night classes at church is studying J. I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life. I am enjoying going back through the book because it is so good. Here is a quote from Packer about how the Puritans viewed the Bible. I have elsewhere, in a …