[On Eccl. 11:1] “The business of generosity is governed by the Lord with predictable results. Casting your bread on the water is not about feeding the ducks” (Joy at the End of the Tether, p. 102).
Almost an Abomination
“But what of Lloyd-Jones’s system? Here, we must be careful. He eschewed methods and was curtly dismissive of homiletics. Before forty ministerial students, he unveiled his suspicions when he put up the rhetorical question — ‘What can be said for homiletics?’ His revealing reply was ‘Not much’! On another occasion he was to refer to …
More Recent Vintage
This one was recorded within the last year — my one and only basement tape. {audio}Watch_the_Sun_Down.mp3{/audio}
That’s the Way You Do It
One of the things I used to do in the Navy was let the guys know, as soon as I got to a new assignment, that I was a Christian. I figured that if I did that right off, they would help hold me to it. So somehow, some way, on the first day, I …
Champion of Our Freedoms
There is a crucial point to be taken away from Peter Hitchens’ last chapter in the The Rage Against God. This issue of whether God must be recognized by us collectively is at the heart of the culture wars, and culture means generations, and generations means that the education of the next generation is right …
Which is Hard to Do
[On Eccl. 10:15] “Some are overwhelmed by nothing. We see here some more understatement. That boy could get lost on an escalator” (Joy at the End of the Tether, p. 100).
Two Pulpit Strengths
“There is a sense, as Lloyd-Jones would have affirmed, in which a man cannot be taught to preach. He is a preacher or he is not a preacher. But assuming that he is, his skills can be enhanced by a studied attempted at the two strengths which DML-J exhibited above all others: an enlightened mind …
My First Sermon and Welcome to It
I joined the Navy when I was still seventeen, and still in high school. It was a delayed entry, so I did not have to report until the next November. That allowed me to graduate (from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor), and to help my family use the summer to move out west, to …
Schlock and Awe
Perhaps you have seen the thesis advanced by the t-shirt that maintains that “Obama is in over his head”? It is a point of view that becomes more compelling by the day. One of the reasons why conspiracy theories are so prevalent on the hard right is that it is assumed that those doing whatever …
The Black Swan of Revival
Hunter’s next chapter, “The Challenge of Faithfulness,” was quite good, and was a helpful way to see the ways in which modernity is falling apart. (Modernity falling apart is called postmodernity.) The place where I would take issue with Hunter is over how permanent this pluralistic and confused situation is. The house of cards has …