“No pastoral suffering is senseless. No pastoral pain is pointless. No adversity is absurd or meaningless. Every heartache has its divine target in the consolation of the saints, even when we feel least useful. How does a pastor’s suffering achieve the consolation and salvation of his flock? The context of Paul’s words suggests the following …
Co-Laborers With God
“What the preacher must be out to do as he exercises his pastoral office in the pulpit, is to be a co-laborer with God in making God’s people more spiritual so that their spiritual life may progressively dominate their natural life in all its earthly relationships” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 43)
God’s Helicopters
“No Christian is pessimistic about final glory. But most Christians are pessimistic about the course of history prior to the Second Coming of Christ. In this view, the world is God’s Vietnam, and the return of Christ consists of the few lucky ones helicoptered off a roof during the fall of Saigon” (Heaven Misplaced, pp. …
Pastoral Ministry as Saving Grace
“For only by feeding on the Word can you grow, and only by growing can you persevere and attain final salvation. A steady diet of gospel messages which do not help the saints grow out of infancy only only stunts their character but also jeopardizes their final salvation” (Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, p. …
Generation, Degeneration, Regeneration
One of the reasons the doctrine of regeneration is so important is because the doctrine of generation is so important. God fashioned man out of the dust of the ground in the first place, but it was the breath of God that established us after His image. “And the LORD God formed man of the …
An Intro to a Book for Writers, Coming Soon
Wordsmithy | Why Christians must write, and what they must write about | Doug Wilson from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.
Called From Where?
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #55 “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). When Paul tells …
The Need to Be Thankful
“One of the principle failings in atheism is that it leaves us with no one to thank for the countless blessings we encounter daily. This extends from trivial things, like the pleasure we get from pulling our socks up, to more amazing gifts, like food, and music, and marriage” (Letter From a Christian Citizen, p. …
The Pastoral Nature of Systematics
“Another reason it is hard to spend hours probinjg for the roots of coherence is that it is fundamentally unfashionable today to systematize things and seek for harmony and unity. This noble quest has fallen on hard times because so much artificial harmony has been discovered by impatient and nervous Bible defenders” (Piper, Brothers, We …
Caring for God’s Children
“Mark it well: the preacher has pastoral charge of God’s children; he must nurture ‘the divine nature’ in them; he must help them to conform to the image of God’s Son. What is a caretaker of animals or even of a garden like Paradise when compared with a shepherd of the flock of God, of …