“Too many sermons are written ‘in the imperative mode’, whereas the religion of the Bible ‘is written largely in the revealing language of the indicative mode’ . . . The power of the religion of the Bible is to be found in its affirmations” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 57)
Pulpit Words
“Common usage of pulpit words reflects this distortion. ‘To preach’ has come to mean ‘to give advice in an offensive, tedious or obtrusive manner’, while to be ‘sermonic’ is to inflict on someone a patronizing harangue” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 52).
The Evangelical Center
“Consequently, we are never to look for salvation in mere externals like physical circumcision or water baptism. We cannot manipulate Him through the things that we can do on the outside. The Lord is sovereign in salvation. From the time of Abraham until now, it has been clear that only He changes the one thing …
Our New Bird Feeder
The besetting sin of conservatives who see what is going on around us is the sin of being strident and shrill. The besetting sin of most other conservatives is to react against that shrillness by adopting a posture of cluelessness. For has not experience shown us that as soon as someone gets a clue, they …
Three Elephant Ears and a Corn Dog
I am really excited about the release (today) of the DVD project for Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl. I have seen different iterations of this over the course of the filming and editing, but just sat down to watch the final cut the night before last. This is theology that does what theology really ought to …
Water Does Not Replace the Word
“In 1 Corinthians 1:17, Paul makes a special effort to show that water baptism is not to be included as a part of the gospel. ‘For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lesty the cross of Christ should be made of no effect” (1 …
Because the Old Sermons Weren’t Pink Wine Coolers
“Even ‘sermon-tasting’, a reprehensible kind of ecclesiastical pub-crawling, which involved erratic churchgoing merely with a view to sampling and subsequently comparing the eminent preachers of the day, has gone out of vogue” (John Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 50).
Taking Their Controversy Into Account
“This objection misses the point that Peter is making. The issue with Cornelius and his household was not whether they were old enough to receive water baptism, but whether they were Jewish enough. If this household had contained an infant, the members of the ‘circumcision’ who were there would not have objected to baptism on …
The Basic Recovery
“It stands to reason that every recovery of confidence in the Word of God, and so in a living God who spoke and speaks, however this truth may be defined, is bound to result in a recovery of preaching. This must be why so many great preachers have belonged to the reformed tradition” (Stott, Between …
Reusable Crud
So recently some pesky researchers decided to investigate reusable shopping bags. They offered new reusables to shoppers leaving a grocery store, asked them a few questions about their treatment of the bags, and sent them on their way. Then they toted the bags off to the lab to test them. Turns out the warm, dark, …