“‘Calvinism’ is often mocked as an austere faith, fit only for ideologues. But in the instructed heart of Anne Bradstreet, and through her pen, we see the loveliness of her Calvinism, which is just a different way of saying the ‘loveliness of her Christian contentment'” (Beyond Stateliest Marble, p. 97).
Actually Count the Shekels
Fourth in a series on ministerial compensation . . . One of the things we have done for men who have completed their studies at Greyfriars Hall, and who have been called by a church, is have some men negotiate a salary on their behalf. This is because certain things need to be said which …
Joy to the World
INTRODUCTION:In this world, joy is a bedrock sort of thing—and not the froth at the top of a wave. Joy is deep satisfaction in the will of God, and this must be coupled with a recognition of the reality that God’s will is everywhere and in everything. There is no place where we may go …
Hot Joy From Heaven
Jesus came to save a dark and sinful world, but it was a world that thought itself glorious. And, to a certain extent, that glory was not a sham. The Lord Himself was tempted by it, when the glory of all the world’s kingdoms was paraded before Him by the devil. The world was grimy …
A Mouthful of Grace
This is the Table of grace, and God has set it down in the midst of a sinful world. Sinful unrighteousness knows enough to stay away, but sinful righteousness is constantly trying to figure out ways to turn this into a Table of law. But God reigns on His throne, and His determinative Word cannot …
The Sin of Not Listening
Father we confess to you that when men have been sent to our nation to speak prophetically, we have not listened to your appointed servants. We have stopped our ears. We have reinterpreted your words to suit our own desires. Our Father, the nation has turned far away, and has not listened to those whom …
Our Fumblo-Rulers
The debate over “don’t ask, don’t tell” reveals that virtually no one understands what is going on. The absence of discipline is impossible in any society, still less in the military. This means that the question is a “not whether but which” question. It means that it is not whether we will discipline servicemen in …
A Necessary Transition
“With the coming of the Christian empire, Christian preaching was bound to change. During the years of persecution the preacher had to gather and nourish the congregation to protect it from the world. Now the Christian preacher had become a bishop responsible for the spiritual state of the empire” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and …
A Short Course in Economics
Obama’s presidency is already a failure, approximating the size of the Bailly Crater on the Moon. If the details of your high school study of astronomy elude you, that lunar hole in the dirt is about 26,000 square miles in size. The great theologian Jonathan Edwards believed that typology was embedded in the natural order …
Always Gospel
“Whenever the beauty and the power and the sheer joy of holiness are proclaimed and God’s people see that this is something for them, evangelism is done. When Christian preaching is done the way it should be done, then it is evangelistic” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, p. 283).