“The true usefulness of our preaching will not be known to us until each fruit on all the branches on all the trees that have sprung up from all the seeds we’ve sown has fully ripened in the sunshine of eternity . . . God will hide from you much of the fruit he causes …
Foundational Ministry
“Accordingly, preachers of the Word are not so much teachers who afford intellectual satisfaction or orators who delight the people after an artistic fashion, as shepherds who see to it that the sheep have food and drink to sustain their life” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 68).
Not Compassion at All
You have a button in front of you, placed there by a helpful genie. But instead of giving you the standard three wishes (and why doesn’t anybody ever wish for ten wishes?), the genie has limited your options. If you push the button, the real income of all the “have-nots” in the world will double …
Reagan and Mao
Conservatism is not a static ideology. It is not an ideology at all, actually, but it is especially not a static one. But ostensible conservatives today like to act as though the decision of the ages rests upon whether we want Obama in or out. Everything rides on the consequences of this election. This is …
One Spirit, One Flesh
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #58 “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined …
In the Works Now
“The striking thing about the Second Coming is that it will be the culmination of what is happening right here, right now. The new humanity is going to be finally and completely formed and born, but it is this world that is pregnant with that glory. The relief will be great, but it will be …
Christ Vocal in the Assembly
“So the preacher’s voice is, in effect, Christ’s voice; that is, the voice of Him who came to save and gather and feed and protect His father’s sheep and lambs and to bring them to the heavenly fold eventually. On this score, too, preaching is a thoroughly pastoral function: it is the work of the …
Feeling Like a Confrontation
One of the ways we have allowed egalitarianism to flatten everything can be seen in how we apply trial procedures to everything (to everything that is, except those situations when actual trial procedures would actually be called for). Determining that somebody is a security risk is not the same thing as finding them guilty of …
Child Communion
At the very center of the strong family emphasis that you will find in our churches, you will also find our practice of communing our children at the Lord’s Table. This is unusual in Protestant churches, and in some places it is even controversial. A few words of explanation here would probably be helpful. Children …
Pies, Heavenly and Earthly
“We have two directions in which we may look, and they are as follows. From the vantage point of our present suffereings, we may look back at the old creation, a creation which ends in the death of all living things. We may look to the way of the flesh, but the days of the …