Deciding Not To Be Cool – A Sermon for All Preachers from Dr. Ray Ortland
I have not posted a link to a sermon on this site for quite some time. The reason for this pattern (or lack thereof?) is my awareness that time is precious and most of you do not have the time to listen to, read, and assimilate all the stuff that is constantly recommended to you. [...]
Dogma is the Drama
In a recent article in the Kairos Journal, we are reminded of the late Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957). Sayers was a well-known British playwright, author, and scholar. Graduating from Oxford University in 1915, she was among one of the first groups of women to achieve this distinction. Sayers had a knack for unmasking misperceptions of the [...]
Book Review – ‘The Expository Genius of John Calvin’ by Steven J. Lawson
Steve Lawson, senior pastor at Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama, has started a project – a big project. The project, A Long Line of Godly Men is a book series that will survey the doctrines of grace as they have been taught and defended from the time of Moses, to the apostle John, to Augustine, [...]
Calvin’s Humility in Preaching
This was a particularly moving quote about John Calvin from T.H.L. Parker: There is no threshing himself into a fever of impatience or frustration, no holier-than-thou rebuking of the people, no begging them in terms of hyperbole to give some physical sign that the message has been accepted. It is simply one man, conscious of [...]
Study Devotionally
Last week I was asked to give the devotional in our Basics of Biblical Greek class at seminary. I chose the text from I Timothy 4:16 where Paul exhorts Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself [...]
Let Gunner Preach at You
My good friend David “Gunner” Gundersen is an excellent writer. This is because he is an excellent thinker–and the reason he is such a solid thinker is because he writes so often (see the pattern?). I encourage you to read one of his latest posts about how we can tend to fall into the temptation to despise preaching if [...]
Expository Preaching: Encouragement from my Wife
This morning, before my wife, Amy, and I sat down to breakfast, we spent some time in opposite ends of the house, thinking, praying, reading, and writing in our journals. After breakfast Amy asked me if she could read me an excerpt from her journal. Of course I said yes (I love to hear from [...]
Expository Preaching: Encouragement from Mark Dever
Two nights ago, my wife and I had a conversation with Mark Dever. He did most of the talking. In his book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (2nd ed.), Dever discusses nine essential characteristics a church must pursue and establish in order to be truly (Biblically) healthy. The first mark of a healthy church is expository [...]
Preparing for the Pulpit: Piper and Edwards on the Ministry of Preaching
I’m a high school pastor. During the course of any given week, I usually teach/preach, on average, 2-3 times, one time being during our Sunday morning fellowship group. But this week I get the special opportunity to address the whole church body. I will continue in our Summer’s series on the Psalms with a message from Psalm 63 entitled, Satisfied [...]
Contradictions or a Perfect Balance: Thoughts on Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes, Part III
Secondly, we must maintain a canonical understanding of these three texts. Kidner writes, “Some of these dissonances…urge us forward to the New Testament; others again are still with us, putting into words the ‘groaning in travial [Romans 8:23] which the New Testament itself accepts as irreducible in the present age” (Kidner, 124). Otherwise, how can [...]
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