Leadership. Preaching. Ministry. theology.
How can I glorify God? Psalm 50:23 names one specific way. God said, “Whoso offers praise glorifies me.” We don’t need to use this as a Saturday night confession, “I’ll fix sinning all week with this one confession.” We can, however, salvage a wasted day of not glorifying God by praising Him.
In Psalm 103:1-2, David starts with three principles of praise before he actually starts praising the Lord.
Read moreIn his journals alone, Muller recorded over 50,000 specific answers to prayer in his lifetime[4]. Given that example, we now want to investigate further to see what it is about George Muller’s faithful prayer that we need to remember.
J. Hudson Taylor has said that the spiritual maturation of a Christian is just the opposite of the physical maturation of humanity. Physically, we move from the cradle to independence. Spiritually, we move from independence to the cradle. Of George Muller, A.T. Pierson writes, “George Muller was never so really, truly, fully a little child in all his relations to his Father, as when in the ninety-third year of his age.” Pierson, 43.
Read moreWarren W. Wiersbe noted, “This is certainly a good lesson for the church today. Prayer is both the thermometer and the thermostat of the local church; for the “spiritual temperature” either goes up or down, depending on how God’s people pray.”[1]
In almost every chapter in Acts, you find a reference to prayer, and the book makes it very clear that something happens when God’s people pray.
Read moreConservatives like John Davis, Rod Decker, and Norman Geisler all agree that even though Scriptures do not explicitly forbid cremation, burial should still be the Christian method of laying to rest our loved ones. The overall pattern of Scripture is interment. G. Campbell Morgan favored cremation.
Read moreWayne Grudem lists many examples of Christians positively and significantly influencing government: “Christians influence on government was primarily responsible for outlawing infanticide, child abandonment, and abortion in the Roman Empire in AD 374; outlawing the brutal battles-to-the-death in which thousands of gladiators had died in AD 404….In England, William Wilberforce, a devout Christian, led the successful effort to abolish the slave trade and then slavery itself throughout the British Empire in 1840” (Politics: According to the Bible, pages 49-50).
Read moreCan Evangelism and Politics Mix?
Put bluntly, America is becoming more secular. Albert Mohler identifies the problem: “Recent studies have indicated that the single greatest predictor of voting patterns is the frequency of church attendance. Far fewer Americans now attend church, and a recent study indicated that fully 20% of all Americans identify with no religious preference at all. The secularizing of the electorate will have monumental consequences.” While constitutionally, the church and the state are separate. But practically, the church has an influence on the state even in the outcome of elections.
Read moreBefore we seek to correct the justification of the murder of abortion doctors like George Tiller by referencing Deitrick Bonhoeffer's plot to murder Adolf Hilter, we must remember our responsibilities to God-ordained human government.
Read moreThe regulative principle of worship (include in worship only what Scripture endorses, which was Calvin’s view) and the normative principle (include whatever is not prohibited in Scripture, which was Luther’s view who wanted to retain much of Roman Catholicism's rituals). Most churches use both principles to varying degrees. We must be regulative regarding the pattern seen in Acts 2:42-47. But normative with parts of our worship not directly addressed in Scripture such as announcements, length and order of service, sound equipment, technology, padded pews, and please don’t forget the nursery.
Does the regulative principle determine the use of musical instruments in a worship service or the style of music?
Read moreW. A. Criswell was pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas from 1944-1991. He demonstrated the importance of preaching through books of the Bible. In Why I Preach That the Bible is Literally True W. A. Criswell wrote that “Soon after coming to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, I made an announcement that I would preach through the Bible. It was my first intention to go through the Book much faster than I finally did. In fact, at first, I did preach rapidly through the books of the Old Testament. But as the days multiplied, I found myself going slower and slower and slower. Finally, I came to the place where I preached for several years on some of the sections of the New Testament. In all, from Genesis to Revelation, I spent seventeen years and eight months going through the Book. where I left off Sunday morning, I began Sunday evening; where I left off the previous Sunday night, I began the following Sunday morning.
Read moreWalter Kaiser, a leading evangelical scholar, issued a simple but striking statement in his commencement address at Dallas Theological Seminary in April 2000. “When a man preaches, he should never remove his finger from the Scriptures, Kaiser affirmed. If he is gesturing with his right hand, he should keep his left hand’s finger on the text. If he reverses hands for gesturing, then he should also reverse hands for holding his spot in the text. He should always be pointing to the Scriptures” (Steven J. Lawson, The Pattern of Biblical Preaching: An Expository Study of Ezra 7:10 and Nehemiah 8:1-18, Bibliotheca Sacra 158 October-December 200: 451).
Read moreAndrew David Naselli gives an excellent review of the top three sets of commentaries for serious students. This review is in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 12 (2007): 81-99 entitled A REVIEW ARTICLE PNTC, BECNT, and NIGTC: Three New Testament Commentary Series Available Electronically in Libronix
The three sets are Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC), Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (BECNT), and New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC).
Here are some excerpts that give a general summary of the three sets just to whet your appetite to read the entire article:
Read moreA. J. Jacobs gave what is now a well-known TED talk on My Year of Living the Bible in December 2007. He turned the speech into a book entitled: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. This book was on the NYT bestseller’s list for three months.
Read moreLike so many theologians, Peter Lombard’s writings originated in his classroom teaching.
Peter Lombard taught theology in the cathedral school of Notre Dame which evidently became The Four Sentences. Gregg Allison notes that The Four Sentences became “a standard textbook of theology until the time of Reformation.”[1] McGrath agreed when he wrote: The first major theological textbook of western theology is Peter Lombard’s Four Books of the Sentences, compiled at the University of Paris during the twelfth century, probably during the years 1155–8. In essence, the work is a collection of quotations (or “sentences”), drawn from patristic writers in general, and Augustine in particular.[2] Lombard later became a bishop in Paris in 1159.
Read moreFor Webb “going beyond” the Bible means “be willing to venture beyond simply an isolated or static understanding of the Bible.” In a footnote Webb explains what he means: “A static understanding is reading the words of the Bible only within their immediate literary context, up and down the page.”[1] This is the historical-grammatical method well defined. Also, going beyond the Bible is progressing “beyond the frozen-in-time aspects of the ethical portrait found within the Bible.”[2]
Read moreWhen a church has need of a pastor they should go courting a potential candidate. Here are some brief suggested guidelines that certainly can be modified according to the need and policy of the church.
Read moreTim Keller writes a book defending the faith entitled The Reason for God. Keller addresses seven objections, which skeptics fire at Christianity.
Exclusivity is the first objections. This objection has been thrown at me when discussing religion with unbelievers. The objectors usually say, with rising blood pressure, something like: “You are arrogant and intolerant to think you are right and all other religions are wrong,” or “Your superior thinking about your religious views is dangerous and detrimental to world peace.”
Read moreLuke who in his Gospel emphasizes the humanity of Jesus stresses the prayer life of Jesus.
1. Jesus SHOWED us how to pray (Luke gives 9 examples of Jesus praying)
1) Jesus prayed before important occasions (Luke 3:21-22).
2) Jesus prayed after a hard day’s work (Luke 5:16).
3) Jesus prayed before important decisions (Luke 6:12, 13).
4) Jesus prayed at ordinary times (Luke 9:18).
5) Jesus prayed and was transformed (Luke 9:28-29).
6) Jesus prayed and provided an example (Luke 11:1).
7) Jesus prayed for others (Luke 22:32).
8) Jesus prayed for strength (Luke 22:39-46).
9) Jesus prayed before his death (Luke 23:46).
2. Jesus TAUGHT us how to pray
A. Jesus taught us one lesson on prayer (the Model Prayer) (Luke 11:1-4)
1) We first focus on God in worship (Luke 11:2)
2) Then we focus on Man’s needs (Luke 11:3-4)
B. Jesus taught us four illustrations on prayer
1) The Parable of the Importunate Friend (Luke 11:5-10)
God answers our intercessory prayers for others.
2) The Parable of the Human Father (Luke 11:11-13)
God answers our personal prayers for our spiritual needs
3) The Parable of the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8)
God answers our prayers for vengeance
4) The Parable of Two Prayers (Luke 18:9-14)
God only answers the prayers of the humble
(See Prayer in the Book of Acts)
In early 2019, the state of New York passed a new abortion bill that effectively legalized abortion right up until the moment of live birth. The new “Reproductive Health Act” even removed abortion altogether from the state’s criminal law, meaning that the murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child is now, in New York, only a single homicide—the murder of the unborn child is not considered murder at all.1. The Scriptures addresses this legislation in New York.
Read moreBruce Ware in his book Bruce A. Ware, The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Questions on the Humanity of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013) teaches the impeccability of Christ, i.e., that Christ in His humanity could not have sinned because of His deity. Bruce A. Ware says Christ could not sin because His divine nature dominated His human nature but Christ did not sin in His humanity totally depended on the Word, the Holy Spirit, and His Father. This is a departure from the way the impeccability has been defended in the past. Before we examine this new defense of Christ’s inability to sin, let’s ask, “What has this theological debate have to do with my struggle with my particular nagging sin?” I mean, you might be saying, “Just yesterday, I lost again the battle with this sin. Today, I am guilt ridden. I need help not a theological discussion of whether Jesus was peccable or impeccable.” Good point. Let’s back up and get a running start on this problem and make it personal.
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