“We don’t want to find ourselves in the curious position of requiring people to bear fruit before they are attached to the tree” (To a Thousand Generations, p. 96).
Forgetfulness and Disloyalty
“Since the resolve of the expositor is to be faithful to his text, the two main pitfalls may be termed forgetfulness and disloyalty. The forgetful expositor loses sight of his text by going off on a tangent and following his own fancy. The disloyal expositor appears to remain with the text, but strains and stretches …
The King of Missions
Missionaries should know the gospel, and be trained in the great doctrinal themes of the Bible. They should also be good-hearted people, but the good-heartedness does not supplant the need for craft competence. This is also true of the other areas that surround mission activity. Missionary pilots should be really good pilots. It is not …
A Really Important Virtue, In Fact
Many thanks to those of you who entered the Psalm-Off deal. We had some really good ones. We hope to announce something by Friday, August 19, 2011. Because we (meaning I) didn’t specify what particular electronic form the submissions should take, we have had a few headaches trying to get all the submissions to all …
Strike Three
INTRODUCTION: Saul falls away from his position of favor with the Lord in a series of three falls. In chapter 13, he did not wait for Samuel to sacrifice, as he had been instructed to. In chapter 14, he makes a rash vow concerning the battle, and doubles down with a self-maledictory oath. And here, …
Acceptance Moves Both Ways
Allow me to speak a word of exhortation to the covenant children who are growing up in this church. For as long as you can remember, you have been welcome here at this Table. You are baptized, and you are invited to be here, invited to partake. This means that you are just as much …
Our God Makes Provision
In the grip of unbelief, we love to pretend that the passage of time makes it unnecessary to trust in Jesus. We think that the modern era, or the postmodern era, or whatever unbelievers cook up after that makes simple trust, simple faith, somehow outdated. This is how the immaturity of every form of rebellion …
Gnosticism and the Supper
Matt Colvin does a good job advancing our discussion of the Lord’s Supper here. I am talking, obviously, about his description of our disagreement, and not about the side he takes in that disagreement. He is quite right that I am simply following Westminster at this point. I would only add two things about that. …
A Little Bit of Fatherly Kvelling
Often when the kids were little, Nancy and I would have to go check on what they were doing. And they were inevitably . . . doing. Sometime soon I am going to write a little something on the remarkable people they all married, but for the moment, let me just talk about my kids. …
Ashtown Burials
Hey, everybody. If you want to see the book trailer for The Dragon’s Tooth (yes, book trailer), then I would encourage you to head on over to Entertainment Weekly and take a gander or two. For that, click here. Joel Courtney from Super 8 is Cyrus Smith, descendant of . . . oh, just get …