The Puritan John Flavel, tireless (and fearless) servant of Jesus Christ, insisted that the only preaching which would do him good must be ‘hissing hot’” (Allen, The Preacher’s Catechism, p. 44).
One Task
“Preachers have a single calling, to express who and what God is” (Allen, The Preacher’s Catechism, p. 35).
Cheerful Clear Through
“God loves a cheerful preacher . . . The reason is that joy, like nothing else, shows whether we really believe the gospel. Joy is gospel authenticity” (Allen, The Preacher’s Catechism, pp. 31-32)
Aaron and Elin
There is a reason why we see so many unhappy marriages today, and that reason has to do with the impotence of idols. Idols always promise to hang the moon, but idols uniformly fail to deliver. Not only do they fail to deliver, but one of the first things they usually fail to deliver is …
Psalm 107/Let the Redeemed Say So
Introduction: If there is one lesson that the psalmist would like for us to take away from this particular psalm, it is the desire that men would learn how to praise God for His goodness. This ...
Remain Lovers
“Our challenge as preachers is to remain lovers, to refuse to let our calling, however important and exciting, obscure our primary calling to be captured ourselves by God’s love in Jesus Christ . . . You can only preach what you love” (Allen, The Preacher’s Catechism, p. 30)
The Ultimate Model
“And God is a preacher. He declares himself the loving Lord. He commanded creation into existence and upholds it all by his Word. His Word governs the planets, and he speaks to our consciences. In his book, the Bible, he shows us what he is like and how we should live. He preaches, in other …
Not Trivial
“Preaching, the declaring of God’s eternal Word to time-bound but eternal creatures, is serious work, and its triumphs and disasters echo into eternity” (Allen, The Preacher’s Catechism, p. 17).
Psalm 106/The Salvation of Ingrates
The Eleventh Decade of Psalms: Introduction: God is always to be praised for His wondrous works, but we also need to remember to make sure to catalog our praises. God works wonderfully in creation, ...
Israel and the Tabernacle of David/Psalm 105
Introduction: What we have here is a glorious retelling of God’s deliverance of Israel in and through the Exodus. In addition, we find that it is a retelling that is theologically sophisticated, and that on several levels. The Text: “O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: Make known his deeds among the …