A common name for this meal that we share together weekly is communion. This is a rendering of the Greek word koinonia, which has a range of meanings and possible translations. God gives to us in this meal, and ultimately, He has nothing to give but Himself—and so that is what He in fact gives. …
On Not Finishing Lame
“The peroration should be distinguished by vehemence, by the utmost intensity, energy, vividness, and motion” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p 203).
Drawn Out to Apply
“Hence, inferences should be entirely free from a theoretic aspect, and from abstract elements. Neither is it enough, that they be practical in the moderate sense of the word. They should be intensely practical. By this is meant, that their address and appeal should be solely and entirely, to the most moral, earnest, and living …
Risking the Plug-Uglies
“Think of the countless human acts, acts of copulation, spread over millennia, that led to the birth of Plato, Attila, or Napoleon. Yet it is on these unpredictables that human history largely depends” (C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, p. 39). We look around ourselves and we think we see solid things. We look at them …
True Exegesis
“For truth is always self-consistent. It always agrees with itself. Hence, all matter that is really derived from the very substance and pith, of a fundamental truth, is homogenous and harmonious. Nothing is then drawn out, that was not first inlaid” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, pp. 201-202)
Eighth Decade of Psalms: Psalm 76
Introduction: This psalm, also by Asaph, pairs nicely with the previous psalm. If you recall, Psalm 75 is a psalm of anticipatory thanksgiving for deliverance. This is a psalm of gratitude and gladness after the fact. The Text: “In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, …
Excuses and Forgiveness
We have been addressing the issues surrounding self-government, and this includes our emotional deportment towards others. People without self-control collide with one another, because their vices collide and because their emotions follow suit. In a selfish world, people often grab for the same thing. This leads to the plainest and most obvious litmus test for …
Altogether Lovely
The Lord Jesus is present here with us now, and He is altogether lovely. He visits us in our imperfections, but in the grace of God He does so in His perfections. God has not given us an adequate savior. He has not given us a “good enough” redeemer. The salvation that has been brought …
But Not the Fist of Ranting
“Milton speaks of the close palm of logic, and the open palm of rhetoric” (Shedd, Homiletic and Pastoral Theology, p. 193).
Don’t Just Point at the Point, Make It
“When a rich and fertile argument has been discovered, the preacher should not leave it, until he has made the common mind feel the whole sum of its force” (Shedd, Homiletic and Pastoral Theology, p. 190).