It is becoming common to hear preachers “finding Jesus” in every text of Scripture. Many name recognized Bible Scholars and popular writers advocate a Christological hermeneutic that forces Christ onto every text. Albert Mohler in He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World wrote:
Every single text of Scripture points to Christ. He is the Lord of all, and therefore He is the Lord of the Scriptures too. From Moses to the prophets, He is the focus of every single word of the Bible. Every verse of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Him, and every story in the Bible ends with Him.[1]
Read moreHere is a list of criticisms and conflicts that churches have experienced. It will be good for us to read about the criticisms and conflicts other churches have endured. I am sure you will identify with some of these. In this post, we learn how to handle criticisms and conflicts:
Read moreBart Ehrman, one of the most influential atheists/agnostics today admitted: The problem of suffering became for me the problem of faith. After many years of grappling with the problem, trying to explain it, thinking through the explanations that others have offered—some of them pat answers charming for their simplicity, others highly sophisticated and nuanced reflections of serious philosophers and theologians—after thinking about the alleged answers and continuing to wrestle with the problem, about nine or ten years ago I finally admitted defeat, came to realize that I could no longer believe in the God of my tradition, and acknowledged that I was an agnostic: I don’t “know” if there is a God; but I think that if there is one, he certainly isn’t the one proclaimed by the Judeo-Christian tradition, the one who is actively and powerfully involved in this world. And so I stopped going to church (Ehrman, Bart D., God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, HarperCollins. Kindle Edition, 2009, 3-4).
Read more"The Hound of Heaven" was written by a young man named Francis Thompson over 100 years ago. “The Hound of Heaven” however, is still relevant. It was made into a movie. Songs have been written about the Hound of Heaven. There is a website: thehoundofheaven.com. Prominent Christian leaders and authors refer to the Hound of Heaven.
Read moreJared Wilson was the founder of Anthem of Hope, a non-profit dedicated to mental health and suicide prevention. Jared was a pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. He was also an author who wrote the books Love Is Oxygen: How God Can Give You Life and Change Your World and Wondrous Pursuit. He was known for being an outspoken advocate for mental health and talked publicly about his own struggle with depression. Jared Wilson ended his life on September 9, 2019. He tweeted the following at 5:01 PM on September 9: “Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure suicidal thoughts. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure depression. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure PTSD. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure anxiety. But that doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t offer us companionship and comfort. He ALWAYS does that.”
Read moreW. Y. Fullerton writes that The baptismal regeneration controversy was inaugurated by a sermon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle on June 5, 1864. Before he preached it, Mr. Spurgeon warned his publishers that he was about to destroy at a blow the circulation of his printed sermons, but the blow must be struck. He was mistaken, for there was never such a demand for any sermon as for that one. In these days, when newspapers circulate a million copies a day, it may seem a small thing to say that a sermon had at once a circulation of a quarter of a million, but in those days, and for a sermon in any day, such a sale is phenomenal.
Read moreIt helps to have a sense of humor.
Spurgeon would occasionally find a nasty anonymous letter lying on his pulpit when he would stand up to preach. There would a letter but no name. One day he got to the pulpit and there was a piece of paper with one word written in large letters … “idiot” … So, Spurgeon said, “Normally I get letters without signatures, but today I got a signature without a letter.”
Read moreA. Opposition is not the same as Constructive Suggestions
The title of chapter 4 in From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t is “Confront The Brutal Facts.” Jim Collins contrasts two older grocery stores which responded differently the brutal facts. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company or A&P, was at one point ranked second only to General Motors in the 1950s. Kroger was one half the size of A&P.
Read moreThe powerful influence of music is seen in 1 Sam. 16:14-23 when David, the greatest harpist in Israel, calmed troubled King Saul with his music.
Aristotle said, ‘Music has the power to shape character.’ Satan is clearly using music to do that today. The rock lyrics of the 1960s and 1970s shaped the values of most Americans who are now in their thirties, forties, or fifties. Today, MTV shapes the values of most people in their teens and twenties (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, page 279).
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