“A man who is to do much with men must love them and feel at home with them. An individual who has no geniality about him had better be an undertaker and bury the dead, for he will never succeed in influencing the living…A man must have a great heart, if he would have a …
As I teach through John’s letters at church we are singing this hymn at each meeting. I only recently came across this hymn, but it captures much of what John says so it is wonderful to sing it together a we begin each study (we’re singing it to the tune, “Beach Spring,” rather thant he …
How should a pastor think of the members of the church he serves? Too often today church members are thought of as customers or potential workers. This is not the scriptural pattern; nor is it the practice of our forebears. Just today I came back to “The Glory and Ornament of a True Gospel‐constituted Church” …
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This is a guest post from John Thornbury, who is currently Pastor of Worship at Bellepoint Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Previously, Bro. John served over 40 years as pastor of Winfield Baptist Church in PA. And, yes, he is the father of Greg. I appreciated this meditation, and Bro. John was kind enough to …
“The role of the priest is to proclaim the truth and suffer for the truth, and if necessary, even die for the truth.” – Polish priest-martyr Jerzy Popieluszko Jim Kushiner from Touchstone Magazine has written a powerful essay interacting with a new documentary on the life and death of Jerzy Popieluszko, a Polish priest in …
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 …
This is a challenging word from Zwingli. He roots this in 2 Timothy 2:23. “[Those] who bring hatred upon the gospel are those who are more inflated with knowledge of the gospel than ignited with love. They exercise themselves more with quarreling than with gentle Christian living. They see in others what is lacking in …
John Gill in his commentary on Titus 1:5-9 speaks of the love a pastor should have for his people. He writes: “…if he is not a lover of them, their company will be disagreeable to him, and he will be of no advantage to them; and if he does not love the souls of men, …
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Last month I finished reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s little book, Life Together. It is truly a spiritual classic. There is so much depth and wisdom here about living the Christian life, particularly living in communion with fellow believers and living in light of the truth having been freely justified in Christ (the imprint of Luther is …
Valentine’s Day puts me off because of what is done with it. The world around us does not know what love is and so many of the attempts are sad and tragic. However, the love between a husband and wife is a beautiful thing, supposed to mirror the love of Christ for His Church. Ray …