Like many pastors my age, if you were to ask who influenced me I would be tempted to list the men whose books I read and whose sermon tapes I listened to in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Men like John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Steven Lawson, D.A. Carson, Mark Dever, and Tim Keller are great gifts to the church and I benefitted greatly from their writing and teaching, but these men have never been my flesh and... Read more
(We are currently in a series on the life of David at Chelsea Village. As I’ve written before I attempt to write a full manuscript of my sermon before preaching. Throughout this series I’ll be posting some of the sermons I think will be helpful. If you would rather listen to the sermon, you can find it here.) I once read a quote from Charles Spurgeon on the benefits on knowing God and have not been able to shake it... Read more
“Theological Triage and the Doctrine of Creation” Bring up the age of the earth around a group of Christians and you are sure to get a heated debate. Writing at The Gospel Coalition, Samuel Emadi analyzes Genesis 1 and shares the truths about creation on which all people who take the Bible seriously can agree. In doing so he provides a great example of how to sort through first-order, second-order, and third-order issues. “many American evangelicals can get a bit... Read more
“Have you ever heard of Thomasville and Jackson? Okay, it’s between them.” “I live about an hour north of Mobile. On the interstate? No, you get off the interstate and drive another hour.” “You know the town where Harper Lee grew up? It’s about thirty minutes from there.” “You ever driven from Mobile to Tuscaloosa? Then you went right through it.” “I’m from south Alabama. No, it’s still about two hours to the beach.” This is just a sampling of... Read more
Our church worked through the first half of David’s life during our Sunday morning sermons over the last few months. I found I had been guilty of neglecting the Old Testament historical books in my preaching and devotional reading. In sermons I had only covered the book of Ruth since our church started in 2010 and in devotional reading I usually read these books at a faster pace. By approaching Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther... Read more
“50 Rules for Dads with Daughters” It looks like this post is several years old, but it is loaded with practical wisdom for fathers of daughters. We have three girls between the ages of 10 and 2, so this post gave me some helpful thoughts and apparently got something stuck in my eyes. “Quality time doesn’t happen without quantity time. Hang out together for no other reason than just to be in each other’s presence. Be genuinely interested in the... Read more
(We are currently in a series on the life of David at Chelsea Village. As I’ve written before I attempt to write a full manuscript of my sermon before preaching. Throughout this series I’ll be posting some of the sermons I think will be helpful. If you would rather listen to the sermon, you can find it here.) Ten years ago I first read a book by Neil Postman titled Amusing Ourselves to Death. Written in the days before social... Read more
Many times phrases which sound good but aren’t grounded in the message of the Scriptures work their way into Christian lingo. Many times they sound like good wisdom and even sound spiritual, but betray what the Scriptures teach. This may seem like a ridiculous trifling over phrases, but if we believe things that are not true it produces a low standard of Christian living and ultimately detracts from the glory of God and hinders the progress of the Gospel. One... Read more
(We are currently in a series on the life of David at Chelsea Village. As I’ve written before I attempt to write a full manuscript of my sermon before preaching. Throughout this series I’ll be posting some of the sermons I think will be helpful. If you would rather listen to the sermon, you can find it here.) All of the good music I have discovered in the last few years I found because of a couple of... Read more
“Tips for Reading Better While Retaining More” A constant struggle for those of us who like to read is making time to read more and remembering what we have read. Trevin Wax offers some suggestions in this post which should lead to more and more effective reading. “It’s not possible to retain everything an author says, although multiple readings can aid you in retaining the book’s main thrust. Your goal is to get the author’s main point, and then to look for additional... Read more
One Degree to Another
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