A Superior Who Takes Our Blame and Gives Us the Credit
In the workplace one may be unfortunately familiar with the dog eat dog dynamic often experienced with a superior within a tiered …
Mercy Requires Justice
Mercy requires the establishment of the terms of justice – or else it’s not mercy. The person receiving mercy after a judgment …
Jack Hayford On Tongues
Jack Hayford has a wonderful post on speaking in tongues that is valuable as a corrective for his own Pentecostal/Charismatic community, as …
Spurgeon Wasn’t a Wesley Hater
Justin Taylor (via Spurgeon on Why You Should Read Wesley on the Christian Life – Justin Taylor.) has some great quotes from …
The Church as Inn for the Weary Pilgrim
Weary travelers have, for some time, stopped at inns for rest. An inn would provide a bath, meal, and good cheer in …
You ARE the Church…if
All this talk about “doing” church instead of “being” the church seems to be resurfacing and will continued to do so until …
The Church as a Garden-Temple, Field and Building
Commenting on 1 Cor. 3:9, Beale/Carson make the following observations (which unites the organic and building metaphors for the church/temple): The comparisons …
Jesus or Paul: Who Founded the Christian Faith and Church?
N.T. Wright offers this brief explanation concerning whether Jesus or Paul founded the Christian faith and church: There is a sense in …
Hades, Hell, Sheol, and Abraham’s Bosom
John MacArthur offers this helpful description of Hebraic understandings of the afterlife from his comments on Luke 16:23 (MacArthur Study Bible): ““Hades” …
The Two Marks of a Valid Christian Church from J.I. Packer (Concise Theology)
J.I. Packer offers these brief definitions of the two marks of a church: 1.The faithful preaching of the Word of God. This …
Ben Witherington, a Pentecostal?
Not quite, however, he does acknowledge speaking in tongues. I love how candid and open he is about his experience, tracing it …
Simple Faith or Super Faith? Credible Faith or Incredible Faith? What’s Necessary for Baptism?
Baptist churches often struggle in what amount of faith is adequate before one should be baptized. Some prefer super faith, while others …
Should Church Membership be Based on the Lowest Common Denominator?
From John Piper: Local Christian communities, called churches, are built around shared Biblical convictions, some of which are essential for salvation and …
Jesus Dining with Sinners and the Salvific Significance in the Communal Meal
Table fellowship anywhere in the world is a relatively serious matter. This is especially true in the Middle East. In his most …
The Communal Elements of Lostness and Salvation in the Parable of the Shepherd and Lost Sheep
The shepherd rejoices in community. As we have noted above, this joy in community is quite likely due to two factors. First, …
Repentance as “Being Found”
For first-century Judaism repentance was a way of bringing in the kingdom. In the preaching of Jesus repentance was a response to …
John Piper on the Spiritual Gift of Tongues
Desiring God has been releasing quite a few videos recently featuring John Piper on a wide range of topics relating to supernatural …
Sam Storms on Spiritual Gifts
We discussed Spiritual Gifts tonight at home group and it prompted me to post this video of Sam Storms discussing them. Pastor …
Party Pranks, Class Humiliation, Jean Valjean, and the Genuine Invitation from Jesus
Luke 14:23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, …
“Grace is more than some benign, sweet syrup poured over us…”
Will Willimon is a retired bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and professor of Christian ministry at …
David, Mephibosheth, Jesus, the Disabled and the King’s Table
Luke 14:21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and …
Pastors Need an Off-season
Earl Weaver once said: “A manager wins games in December. He tries not to lose them in July. You win pennants in …
Healing Through Caring More than Curing
The church should think of healing in terms of caring more than in terms of curing. The first aspect of Luke’s healing …
Recovering the Ministry of Exorcism: 3 Steps
Luke Timothy Johnson lays out a helpful framework for how the church should “practice exorcism.” A few preliminary thoughts: 1) His use …
The Debate on Baptism that Wasn’t
In the preface to the volume The Glory of a True Church by Benjamin Keach, William Cathcart notes an incident that I …
“I am a big fan of the church”
I appreciate Greg Stier’s words, pasted below, which is a response to the post, Spiritual but Not Religious Persons More Likely to Have …
Prayer of Racial Reconciliation
Father in heaven, we praise and thank you for your wonderful gift of life, as we acknowledge you, the one Creator and …
Catholic Baptists, Baptist Catholics, and Immersion
The Catholic Church recognized immersion as the preferred mode of baptism throughout the majority of their history. To be fair, the church …
4 Things to Know About Pentecost
This extended excerpt comes from John Stott: Yet this reality is multi-faceted, and there are at least four ways in which we …
’Twas the commission of our Lord – A Baptism Hymn
Here is a little baptismal hymn I found in my research to compile as many hymns on baptism as possible. This is …
A Great Baptism Hymn by a Great Baptist, Adoniram Judson
There aren’t a whole lot of great baptism hymns out there. And when I saw baptism hymns, I mean hymns that are …
The Rule of God – Intensely Personal and Political
Most of all, Christians differ concerning the location of God’s rule. Some claim to find it solely within the heart of the …
Charismatic Politics
The prophetic character of Luke’s politics has less to do with the specific arrangements of human society than it does with the …
Matthias, Circle of the 12, and the True Israel Wrought by the Spirit
…the gift of the Spirit is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and establishes the restored Israel. This is indicated by …
Ebionites and Docetists, Sadducees and Pharisees, and Interesting Bedfellows
The resistance to Jesus was so strong that it created a temporary alliance between the Sadducees and Pharisees. Politics make interesting bedfellows …
Baptism by Immersion and Justification by Resurrection
John Gill on “remission of sins” from Acts 2:38, for the remission of sins; not that forgiveness of sin could be procured …
How Strong Must Justifying Faith Be?
John Calvin on justifying faith (Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.18.8): The power of justifying which belongs to faith consists not in …
Did Infants Speak in Tongues?
Joachim Jeremias (Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries) argues that household baptisms included infants because “entire” and “all” in reference to …
Anglican Revisions on Baptism – Believer’s Baptism as the Preferred Archetype
Beasley-Murray notes in his excellent volume on baptism (cited below) how the Anglican Church revised their liturgy and tone on baptism after …
Infant Baptism Lacking “Direct Proof”
Below is an excerpt from Beasley-Murray’s excellent work (cited at bottom) on baptism, noting the shift of theologians’ apologia of infant baptism …
Lifting Up Your Hands During Prayer
This study note is from the ESV Study Bible on 1 Timothy 2:8 Lifting … hands is a typical posture for prayer …
You Are Not a Sinful Wretch?!?!
Jake Belder, has penned a great post, “You Are Not a Sinful Wretch”, (HT: Anthony Bradley) over at his blog and I …
John Gill on Jesus’ Baptism (Luke 12:50) and the Symbolism of Baptism by Immersion
Luke 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with,…. Not water baptism, for he had been baptized with that already; …
Culture as Liturgy? You Become What You Worship
This is a highly recommended lecture from James KA Smith on Culture as Liturgy. He lays the foundation by exploring anthropology and contending that man …
How to Encourage Others in Sanctification Without Robbing God of His Glory in Grace
From John Stott’s The Message of Thessalonians: There is an important practical lesson to learn here. What should our attitude be to …
John Stott (et al.) on the Doctrine of Election
John Stott comments on the doctrine of election from his commentary on Ephesians: a. The doctrine of election is a divine revelation, not …
Richard Gaffin on Election as Means to Holiness (not just Justification)
Appreciate these clarifying words from Dr. Richard Gaffin, who exhorts us all to better understand that the aim or telos of electing …
The Cross: Victory and Defeat
“This pattern of the Cross means that the world’s glorification of power, might, and status is exposed and defeated. On the Cross …
John Stott and N.T. Wright on the Temple
In my sermon preparation on Ephesians 2:19-22, I found the following two excerpts to succinctly represent the significance of the new temple that Jesus …
Ligon Duncan – Defending the Tota Gospel (Indicative and Imperative)
I try to be a faithful expositor of the word. Unfortunately, in reformed circles, this subjects one to the dreaded accusation of …