Taking Sermon Notes
One of the joys of gathering with my local church on Sundays is sitting under the ministry of the Word. This is especially dear to me after having been un-churched for many years. I was spiritually malnourished by the time…
Tag Christian Living
The Unction of the Holy Spirit
What is faithful preaching of God’s word? How does one know whether one has heard, or is hearing on a regular basis faithful preaching of God’s word? The central importance of these questions and their answers hits us when…
Preaching Christ: as the essence of God’s Revelation
Every preacher knows – at least in some sense – that we are called to ‘preach Christ’ as we expound the Scriptures. We heard it in our homiletics classes in Seminary and we’ve been challenged about it in the numerous…
Study and Preaching
I am not sure where I first heard this wisdom, but I have heard it several times: a pastor does not need an office, he needs a study. Spot on. The bulk of pastoral work is not management behind a…
The Peacemakers
With each passing beatitude in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, it becomes more and more clear that a person cannot be a genuine Christian without have their attitudes and actions completely and radically transformed from the inside…
Anne Cooke Bacon – Patron of Puritan Preachers
Anne Cooke Bacon – Patron of Puritan Preachers Anne Cooke Bacon made her mark on the Church of England in 1563, when she translated John Jewel’s Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, which became a statement of faith for the Church of…
Union with Christ: The Westminster Confession
For English Reformed Orthodoxy, the doctrine of a believer’s union with Christ was paramount. John Owen, enunciating the centrality of a believer’s union, exclaimed that our union with Christ is the “principle and measure of all spiritual enjoyments and…
Union with Christ: Imputation: Calvin & Wright
According to N. T. Wright, it is now generally agreed that an overall theme in II Corinthians is “Paul’s defense, not of his apostolic ministry in itself, but of the particular style or character of that ministry.”[1] For Wright, these…
Anne Bradstreet and Her Songs of Daily Providence
Anne Bradstreet and Her Songs of Daily Providence Late in her life, Anne Bradstreet wrote a letter to her children, retelling her story for their “spiritual advantage” and for “the glory of God.”[1] She started with her childhood in…
Union with Christ in Hebrews
When we think of the places in Scripture where we find the doctrine of union with Christ, most people, especially Biblical scholars, immediately think of all the material in Paul’s letters. Paul uses the words “in Christ” numerous times point…