INTRODUCTION:I am fond of saying that grace has a backbone, but I think it is time to explain what I mean by that. The context of these remarks is the general and current ongoing discussion about the worrisome trajectories of all those incipient legalists and antinomians out there. The incipient legalists are the ones the …
Spark Plugs
“Preaching is to the ministry of the church what spark plugs are to a car engine. Spark plugs are not the whole engine — and preaching is not all there is to ministry — but without the spark plugs the car will not work” (Edwards, Deep Preaching, pp. 21-22)
The Touchstone
“When my preaching is true to the biblical text it is automatically true to life” (Edwards, Deep Preaching, p. 18).
21 Words for Fathers
21 Words for Fathers from Canon Wired on Vimeo.
Mechanics of Fatherhood
INTRODUCTION:In this series, we have been emphasizing the gospel of free forgiveness, and we have also noted that God is the kind of Father we want to become. This means that perfect love casts out fear—we are liberated by the blood of Christ to a life of imitation. Always remember that being precedes doing, and …
Which Has Both Pros and Cons . . .
“Your parishioners listen to other preachers on the radio, watch them on TV and on the Web, and download pdcasts to their iPods. Like it or not, you are not the best preacher that your people have listened to this week. Your congregation has compared and contrasted you with the best-known preachers of the day …
Grace At Our Level
“Any fool can preach like a genius, but it takes a genius to preach simply” (David Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 146)
Honoring Fathers
INTRODUCTION:Human flourishing depends in large measure on the faithfulness and happiness of families, and this depends, in its turn, on the honor rendered to the parents by the children. This is, the apostle Paul tells us, the first commandment with a promise. The promise originally applied to the land of Canaan, as it was spoken …
Nadab and Abihu
Nadab and Abihu were the sons of Aaron who were famously incinerated because they tried to approach the Lord with strange incense (Lev. 10:1-2). It seems to me that they were trying to accomplish something, or see something. I don’t think they were judged just because they got the formula wrong when they were mixing …
Preaching Preferred to Reading
“The debate between Anglicans and Puritans on the relative merits of homilies and sermons, demonstrates the high value, indeed the indispensable value, which the Puritans attached to preaching” (Davies, The Worship of the English Puritans, p. 188).