The Urban Reformation shares this great quote from the 20th century’s greatest English-speaking preacher. We need to listen to this as he explains what is wrong with so much of our preaching. It reminds me of some of my ten conclusions on preaching, and some of the posts in the series of which that post was the summary. Page 93 from the book “Preaching & Preachers” states— “. . . Modern sophisticated man may laugh at this, but it is... Read more
I should say before I start—there is a reason why I don’t usually blog about politics. It’s not normally something I feel strongly about. But right now a thought is welling up within me—something I suspect many people are feeling and few are willing to ask: Is it time for the Labour Party to fire their new leader and our prime minister? There — I’ve asked the unthinkable. Although, of course, since I am not a Labour MP, nor even... Read more
You can count on John Owen to bring some light and clarity into a debate. The following lightly edited quote was sent in by a reader and is really helpful: “That which we affirm is that our sins were so transferred on Christ as that thereby he became responsible to God and liable to punishment in the justice of God for them. He was perfectly innocent in himself; but took our guilt on him, or our liability to punishment for... Read more
It is now almost a week since I made the decision to stop comments here on the blog. In the next few days I will also be deleting all the old ones. I have to say that, so far, I have not missed them. It’s not so much that I don’t want interaction with my readers—that, in any case, continues in other ways. Rather, I’m glad that the immediacy of that interaction is less, and its constant demands on my... Read more
The following passage from the Doctor is a bit reminiscent of an old post of mine entitled, “I Want It All!” “. . . the trouble has generally been . . . that people have emphasised either experience or doctrine at the expense of the other . . . This is something that has been happening in the church from almost the very beginning . . . When the whole emphasis is placed upon one or the other, you either... Read more
The following notes are based on a sermon I preached yesterday at Jubilee Church, London. It draws to a close our series on Ephesians. You can download the mp3 or listen right here: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against... Read more
John Stott’s Bible Speaks Today commentary on Ephesians has the following quote on the work of the devil. It was reading the last paragraph of this quote that gave me the idea of how to approach Ephesians 6 in the sermon I will be preaching this morning: “We have had occasion several times in our study of this letter to marvel at the breadth of Paul’s horizons. He began by unfolding God’s purpose, conceived in a past eternity before the... Read more
We have been speaking about Ephesians a fair bit recently on this blog. I thought today I would share the following quote from the Doctor, which summarizes the book’s message. “. . . we can say of the first three chapters that the Apostle is reminding these Ephesians . . . who they are, what they are, and how they have become what they are. That is his theme. All the major doctrines of the Christian faith are to be... Read more
Over at our church’s website we continue to post our sermons, working through the book of Ephesians. We are discovering just how full of goodness it really is! This book is surely the message of the Bible condensed. Who needs a doctrinal statement when you can have Ephesians instead? One man who plumbed the depths of Ephesians was, of course, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones as Ryan of Light and Heat (not to be confused with Heat and Light!) has discovered: “Over... Read more
I am thankful today. It may not be my holiday, we may not have anything even remotely like it here in the UK, but as I said last year, I am very glad of the reminder this American holiday represents. I know that at times I still have a sinful tendency to focus on things that are not going the way I want them to rather than to be thankful for everything that has gone well. I know that even... Read more
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