There is an old joke among preachers that sermonettes are for Christianettes. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Scriptures are our life. Believing what we do about the absolute authority of the Bible, it only makes sense that the sermon would be …
Resurrection Transformation
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #57 “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both …
Heaven As a Colonial Power
“How you take the line of the story matters a great deal. Many Christians believe the cosmos has an upper and lower story, with earth as the lower story and heaven as the upper story. You live the first chapters of your life here. Then you die, and you move upstairs to live with the …
The Public Reading of Scripture
Another practice that is common in CREC churches is that of listening to Scriptures read aloud. This is distinct from the reading of the text for the sermon—it is simply a time in the service where the Word of God is recognized as central and foundational to our lives. We usually have at least one …
The Mother of Shameless Appeals
Here is a clip asking you to consider a gift to CanonWIRED. Thanks very much for your involvement.
Singing in Parts
Another notable thing about our worship services in the CREC is that we are interested in learning how to sing “in parts.” It is a testimony to the damage that has been done in the realm of church music over the last few decades that many young Christians don’t even know what that means. This …
Now Taking Orders for Wordsmithy
My most recent book is at the printer now, and should be on the shelves at Canon later this week, with steam rising off of them, like they was a stack of hotcakes. The book is all about the writer’s craft, and how not to do things with your verbs like was done in the …
Postmodernism and My Neighbor
Please let me take a moment of your time so that I might explain why I hate postmodernism so much. It is the same reason, at bottom, why I hate socialism so much. But I repeat myself — they are at root the same thing, actually. Modernity is a good thing, brought into existence by …
Celebrating Christmas Like a Puritan
INTRODUCTION:Socrates once famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In a similar vein, the unexamined holiday is not worth celebrating. Whenever we do anything on autopilot, it is not surprising that at some point we forget where we are going, or what we were supposed to be doing. And when we are …
A Spiritual Meal
The Scriptures teach us that this is a spiritual meal, but we must exercise great caution as we think of it this way. This is not because there is a problem with how the Bible describes it—obviously not—but rather because a number of false assumptions about the nature of spirituality have crept into our thinking …