Preachers, Prayer and Gospel Progress
It should go without saying that preaching, praying and the progress of God’s kingdom through the gospel are inseparably bound up with each other. Jesus taught his people to pray,…
Mark Johnston
The Church in All Her Glory
In the Western world at least, the glory of the church seems to be fading fast. Far from those days when her influence was far-reaching and wide-ranging, her values and…
A very Lutheresque Psalm
In this quincentennial year, marking Martin Luther’s memorable act of defiance in Wittenberg, much has been said regarding his famous dictum about ‘the Word doing its work’. Far from attributing…
Liturgy, Priesthood and Genuine Worship
The debate over worship and liturgy has been both long running and many faceted. Its spectrum ranges from the ultra-free self-expression of certain types of contemporary worship through to the…
“I have Laboured to no Purpose”
I was speaking with some ministerial colleagues recently about a conference one had just attended. The conference had been great, but to his surprise, after one of the sessions, a…
Recurring Failure and Never Failing Grace
The grand storyline of the Bible can at times make depressing reading if we do not pay close attention to the gospel threads that hold it together. After its glorious…
The Groanings of this Present Age
“One of our regular PFT columnists, Mark Johnston, submitted this brief article, which relates directly to the recent attacks in Manchester. We posted it first on our sister site, Reformation21.org,…
The ‘More and More’ of Holiness
Holiness has too often been embroiled in confusion and distortion within the Christian community and, sadly, ends up being neglected rather than cultivated within the church. This is especially true…
Ministers are Human Too
I recently found myself in conversation with a pastor’s wife who was describing some of the grief her husband had endured through a turbulent time in one of his churches.…
The Reverse Logic of the Gospel
The gospel is, without question, the most wonderful message this world has ever heard or will ever hear. If we are Christians we love to hear it and [should] never…
Scripture: God-breathed and God-breathing
A much loved and highly trusted friend spoke to me recently about ‘preacher’s tunnel vision’. He mentioned it in the context of a major preacher’s faux pas I had made…
Ethics for the Common Man
We may well complain that our generation ranks among the most immoral generations of history and that could well be true. But the more sinister issue is the reason that…