“When God speaks, he acts. His word does more than explain his action; it is active in itself. God achieves his purposes by his word (Is. 55:11).”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 19
Just Not When It Mattered
Jack was in many ways an ideal parishioner. He was married, gainfully employed, and with two young children in upper elementary school. He was happily married, and conscientious in church attendance. In addition to this, he was the kind of church member who would diligently seek out pastoral counsel. If he had a situation with …
A Theology of Christmas Presents (3)
Introduction: As we continue our consideration of the whole question of gift-giving at Christmas, we have been studying the background. What does the Bible teach about giving and receiving generally, and how can we apply these general principles to specific situations—like our Christmas shopping and our presents? So we started with the ultimate gift of …
Permanent Word
“Grasping the truth that God still speaks through what he has spoken protects us from two opposite errors. The first is the belief that God’s voice is silent today. The second is the belief that what God is saying today has little or nothing to do with Scripture. The truth is that God speaks through what he spoke”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 19
No Museum Piece
“On the contrary, [Scripture] is a living word to living people from the living God, a contemporary message for each generation”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 18
Not an Exercise in Wish Fulfillment
“We study each text as it is instead of as we might wish it to be”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 18
Heidelfog
Introduction: So a gent named Brandon Adams recently tackled the whole Federal Vision thing as it relates to some of our Reformed Baptist friends. It is clear from how he writes that he means and intends well, and is trying hard to get it right, but unfortunately he is stymied in this admirable effort by …
Audio Reading of Post
Avoiding Homiletical Strip Mining
“Once we are convinced that the literary form of the Bible is important, we who preach it should look at it even more closely. We are not just miners extracting ore and leaving the landscape desolate.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 17
Making It Concrete
“Scripture aims to get the reader to share an experience, not just to grasp ideas. This may seem obvious, but many preachers need to be reminded of it for they treat the Bible as a mere storehouse of ideas.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 17
Something Else to Look At
So I wanted to let you all know about a pilot project we have underway. We are calling it Reformed Basics, and we currently have 3 episodes posted on Amazon Prime. Here is the link: The episodes are about twenty minutes long, and are geared at high school level (although I believe that both younger …