“Now this understanding radically affects what we are donig when we seek to fulfill the Great Commission. Are we trying to do something, or are we telling the world about what has already been done? Are we fighting the principal battle itself, or are we announcing the victory afterwards? This is not a campaign where …
And That, At Least, Is Plain
“A man who cannot make things plain is not qualified to fill a pulpit” (Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 7).
On Being a Lentendud
A few days ago I posted a little poem — one of my periodic forays into high art — about the affair of the sausages, as a result of which incident the Swiss Reformation began in earnest. It turns out that this poem and other related things generated some excitement on the Internet (and who …
Celibacy and Singleness
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #64 “For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is …
Clouds of Heaven
“When the Son of Man comes in the louds of heaven, He is presented to the Ancient of Days. Authority was then given to Him — described as dominion, glory, and a kingdom. And lest we interpret this as dominion, glory and a kingdom in some invisible spiritual place, the prophecy goes on to tell …
A Noble Task
“It is much easier to be unintelligible than intelligible. ‘Ah, my brethren,’ said Archbishop Usher, ‘how much learning it takes to make things plain'” (Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 7).
Shorter Than a Yard
It was Sen. Eugene McCarthy who said that being a senator was a lot like being a football coach — you had to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it was important. I have written about the dangers of ideology in politics (which addresses the how more than the …
Jesus Was Not After Market Share
“If we begin with all authority, we end with all nations. If we begin with an invisible and very spiritual authority, then we end with small collections, in every nation, of believers in this invisible and very spiritual authority. But Jesus did not want a small collection of struggling churches in Pakistan; He wants Pakistan …
Remembering the Whole Point
“And it is undoubtedly a chief defect in the sermons even of evangelical pulpits, that there is not enough of Christ in them . . . Flavel was right: ‘The excellency of a sermon lies in the plainest discoveries and liveliest applications of Jesus Christ'” (Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 6).
Because Some Scholars Are Stuck, Right Up to the Axle
“Some scholars are so fearful of leap-frogging the original meaning [of the OT] that they never get past it” (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 43).