Happy Reformation Day! I hope you make much of this day and the truths it commemorates with you family and church this weekend. My family gathered around last night to listen to Max McLean’s wonderful rendition of Luther’s defense at Worms, “Martin Luther’s- Here I Stand” (available for free download through tomorrow!). He includes not …
Following some request I have posted the print version of the funeral message for my brother. It is basically complete except for the gospel proclamation at the end. I have been delayed in getting this up due some technical issues, and that has caused me to reflect on the fact that it has finally, in …
The Van Neste household has been gearing up for Reformation Day this weekend as we celebrate the work of God through Martin Luther and others recovering the gospel of grace. In thinking about this I returned again to a book which is a treasure in my library, What Luther Says: A Practical In-Home Anthology for …
Many of you have probably already read Spurgeon’s little classic, All of Grace. I have had a copy for years but never read it. Then fairly recently I got an audio copy of someone reading it (from Christian Audio as their free download one month). My soul as soared as I have listened to this …
In his volume on Jeremiah and Lamentations in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Dean Wenthe makes this comment: “It should also be noted that for all their imaginative and intellectual capacities, the Fathers remained pastors. Their use of the sacred Scriptures was not the abstract debate of the academy but the concrete pastoral care …
Justin Wainscott and Matt Crawford have recently posted helpful items on the importance of theology for helping us to live and die well. Justin reflected on the first two question s of the Heidelberg Catechism in light of preparation for a funeral and Matt quoted the trial of several early Christian martyrs in North Africa. …
Here is another quote I used in my paper calling for a renewed emphasis on oversight of souls. This one is from the book on pastoral ministry by Hezekiah Harvey, prominent Baptist pastor and theologian in the 19th century Northeast US. The care of souls is the radical idea of the pastor’s office. he is …
Here is another quote I used in my recent paper arguing for the centrality of the oversight of souls. This one concerns P. H. Mell, a pastor who also served as President of the SBC multiple times. “Very much of his power as a preacher lay in the way he had of getting close to …
Justin Wainscot just pointed me to a recent post by Tim Keller on our theme here. In the post Keller mentions that he fears too many think that expository preaching is a “magic bullet” that will make everything else in a church go right. If you know Tim Keller you know that he is not …
Justin Taylor today posted on John Piper moving to the pastorate 30 years ago. In that post he cited an excerpt which John Piper’s dad sent to him advising him on the realities of the pastorate. There is much wisdom here and it affirms the argument often made here of the importance of involvement n …