“Two lines a quarter of an inch apart on your first anniversary can be three yards apart by your fiftieth” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 133).
Because Most Word Pictures Don’t Even Have Hands
“Do not try to hold your word pictures by the hand. Put them out there and let them do their work” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 146).
Assumed With Authority
“Yet in preaching we need not act as if everything had to be proved. Some things cannot be proved; some do not need to be, and others have been sufficiently proved before, and should now be taken for granted” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 160).
Poking at a Dead Bird with a Shovel
He who defines, wins. He who successfully redefines, wins. And this is why Christians are not faring well in the current battles over homosexuality. We will not reverse this trend without some imaginative warriors. Not only do our adversaries want to redefine marriage, they want to do so because they have already claimed the right …
Making It Flow to the End
In the Syria saga, we are getting a good glimpse of how political decisions are made in a gargantuan democracy, and we are also getting quite a cash payout — worth a great deal to me at any rate — of Ron Paul’s apparently quixotic presidential runs. Let me state the conclusion first. I am …
Marcion After a Couple of Beers
Robert Farrar Capon has gone to be with the Lord (1925-2013), and there are a couple of nice retrospectives here and here. For sheer exuberance in writing, that man had few who could keep up with him. In the great cross country race for the colorful metaphor, he was the kind of runner who could …
You Are the Man
Introduction David sinned grievously, but his repentance went as deep as his sin had gone. We see complete forgiveness in this portion of the story, offered to David, and received by him. We also see that the reality of ongoing consequences is not the same thing as lack of forgiveness. We must learn to stop …
The Grace of Seeking Grace
This meal is one of God’s appointed means of grace. We come to Him wanting that grace to be multiplied to us. But as it is multiplied, one of the things we must remember is that what is multiplied must come in a certain order. As a multiplication problem, if we just throw things down …
Tell At a Glance
“Sometimes constant medical care is necessary, for example, and a nursing home is unavoidable. But all faithful family members should be able to tell at a glance the difference between abandoned and loved, and all outsiders should remember the difference between having all the facts and not having them” (For a Glory and a Covering, …
And Should Therefore Be Ransacked
“The wisdom literature contains the largest yields of metaphor and simile found anywhere in the Bible” (Hughes, Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, p. 115).