“Satan does not take innocent people captive. There are no innocent people. Satan has the power where sinful passions hold sway. Judas was a lover of money, and he covered it up with a phony, external relationship with Jesus. And then he sold him for thirty pieces of silver. How many of his ilk are …
I am constantly amazed by my children’s imaginations. They are always seeing things that I don’t see, and hearing things that I don’t hear. For instance, just the other night, Jonathan was certain that the shadows in his room were a dragon that was going to eat him. Nevertheless, the boy survived the night although …
Norman, R. Stanton. The Baptist Way. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2005. ISBN:0805431527 It is frightening to think that one could have been a Baptist, particularly a Southern Baptist, for ones entire life and never have understood the implications of ascribing the title Baptist to yourself. A post-reading reflection of R. Stanton Norman’s The Baptist Way: Distinctives …
I am concluding a series on the Sermon on the Mount that has been ongoing since March. It has been a wonderful experience for me spending so much time studying this incredible sermon from our Lord. I pray that it has also been a wonderful time for our church as they have learned with me …
Total Church was a freebie for me that I picked up at Advance O9. My first reaction to the book in the first fifty pages was less than stellar. It wasn’t that I found the book bad, so much as ordinary. The first few chapters do not stick out as anything different or “radical” as …
“Faith is not built by preaching introspectively (constantly challenging people to question whether they have faith); faith is not built by preaching moralistically (which has exactly the opposite effect of focusing attention on the self rather than on Christ, in whom our faith is placed); faith is not built by joining the culture wars and …
“What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is lack of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as …
My Father-in-law, Herb Ayers, died this past Sunday, August 16 at a few minutes after 7 in the morning. It is always difficult to lose a loved one and Herb was no different. He had struggled with Alzheimers/Dimentia for about the last ten years and to some degree, his death was a welcomed relief because …
Preachers who are faithful ministers of the gospel present the whole glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. That means that we must speak clearly about the reality of the ugliness and penalty of sin, from the pulpits that have been entrusted to us. One of my favorite professors in seminary, Dr. Chad Brand (who also serves …
I’d like to think that reading is truly a spiritual discipline. We certainly know that’s the truth when we think of the Bible. As preachers and teachers of God’s Word, we should constantly be reading, studying, and applying the Bible to our lives and within our ministries. But, we don’t just read the Bible, do …