April 12-13, 2013 the Ryan Center for Biblical Studies will be hosting the conference, “Read, Pray, Sing: The Psalms as an Entryway to the Scriptures.” The conference theme captures two key points about the Psalms. First, the Psalms have been given to us to use in reading, praying and singing. Too often, all we do …
“they who are called to preach the gospel, to teach the flock of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to lead them, cannot do their duty, unless they lay all ambition aside and seek not to please men, not to be seen, nor to be in reputation. They must account all this as vanity, and content …
“For so often as we preach the doctrine of salvation, we show that God is ready to receive all who come to him, that the gate is open to those who call upon him, and to be assured that their inheritance is prepared for them there above, and they can never be deceived of it.” …
Today is the fifth anniversary of the tornado that devastated so much of the campus of Union University. You can see a nice news story from a Tennessee TV station here. Five years ago tonight my family sat down to dinner with Bob Cali, a Union student and a fellow church member. Dinner was interrupted …
Continue reading ‘Tornado & Providence, Union University & William Cowper’ »
I really appreciated this excerpt from Spurgeon, finding that it both challenged and encouraged me personally and expressed what I am aiming for in teaching and preaching. It is so easy to become the overly cautious person he rebukes here. I think he is exactly right that the failure to be loving and gracious often …
As we approach the anniversary of John Calvin’s last sermon (February 6, 1564) I am posting comments from his sermons on 1 Timothy. In the section below, from a sermon on 1 Tim 6:12-14, Calvin provides powerful encouragement for those times of discouragement, opposition and despair. Appropriately, Calvin points us to God drawing especially on …
Continue reading ‘Encouragement for Discouraged Preachers’ »
“Upon what condition has God called us to his service? Is it for one deed or two, and then give us leave every man to rest? No, no; but that we should dedicate ourselves to him, both to live and to die, and to be his, for good and all.” – John Calvin, sermon on …
“If men through vain ambition are so set on fire that they spare not their very lives, what shall we do? What cowardliness is it and how can it be excused if any may spare himself, when God sets not before us any temporal wages, any piece of silver, and fleeting and brittle possession, but …
At this time of year, among other things I’m often thinking of what I might read over the holidays, and I typically have in mind more books than I can possibly get to. So I thought I’d share the books recently purchased or received (often due to the generosity of my colleague, Ben Mitchell) which …