Dear Retired Pastor: Off with the Slippers, On with the Boots
Abraham was “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). This life isn’t a stroll but a hike, and a long one at that.
As retired pastors, we have years of experience and wisdom to share with others. Take inventory of what you’ve learned. Don’t think for one moment your ministry is over. Some of your best years have just begun. You’re in new territory with seasoned wisdom ready to be delivered to those coming behind you. Anyone... Continue Reading
Treasuring the Psalms: A Review
If I teach the Psalms again in a classroom or church setting, I will use this textbook. And I will regularly recommend it.
During his exegesis of Psalm 110, Vaillancourt rightly pointed to the uniqueness of the psalm in which YHWH addresses David’s Lord. Given the psalm’s central use in trinitarian theology in the early centuries of the Church and its insight into an intra-trinitarian conversation (between the Father and Son), I wish he spent a bit of... Continue Reading
How to Properly Wrestle a Church Opossum
And other lessons learned in rural ministry.
It was early and no one would be at church for another hour or so. Since I was alone, I jumped down the last two steps, belting out the wrong words to one of the hymns we were going to sing later that morning. As I landed on the sanctuary floor, there was a large... Continue Reading
“You Can’t Use the Bible to Prove the Bible” . . . and Other Stupid Statements
Using the Bible to prove the Bible, in this context, is not just a theological assertion but a necessary historical method.
Consider this: when someone asserts, “You can’t use the Bible to prove the Bible,” they may not realize they’re inadvertently drawing from a Christian perspective. What are they borrowing? The concept of a fundamental unity or single authorship within Scripture. To claim the Bible cannot validate itself implies an underlying assumption of its inspired nature.... Continue Reading
A Misguided Pastoral Motive
As pastors, we can lead our people to a lot of things. Godliness must be at the top of the list, both for ourselves and our congregations.
Leadership is not an end in and of itself; it naturally implies a destination. It’s kind of like application and illustration in a sermon—these elements serve as means to other ends. We don’t just do application in our sermons; we apply something. We use application to demonstrate how the truth is to be lived out.... Continue Reading
A Defense of the Use of the Bible as a Schoolbook
A letter to Reverend Jeremy Belknap, of Boston.
However great the benefits of reading the scriptures in schools have been, I cannot help remarking, that these benefits might be much greater, did schoolmasters take more pains to explain them to their scholars. Did they demonstrate the divine original of the Bible from the purity, consistency, and benevolence of its doctrines and precepts—did they... Continue Reading
It Doesn’t Work: Reformed Church in America
The RCA has a long history of agreeing-to-disagree going all the way back to 1880. Then they hit the buzzsaw of different views on marriage and sexuality. The result was being cut in half.
What happened in the RCA? In the words of one former RCA pastor, the RCA had gangrene in their right foot but amputated their left hand. “What would have made more sense is the progressives to go to the PCUSA or UCC if they were willing to leave,” said Bremer. “They were in the minority and... Continue Reading
Who Did Jesus Die For?
Jesus either died for everybody, died for nobody, or he actually died for a particular people whom he was willing, able and then did effectively save.
If Jesus death hasn’t paid for anybody’s sin then his death was ultimately pointless. He is a failed saviour who was unable to save any of his people. When he said ‘it is finished’ on the cross, he may as well have said ‘I am finished’. Fortunately, the Bible tells us clearly enough that Jesus’... Continue Reading
Israel the Oppressor vs. Hamas the Oppressed: The Inverted World of Western Cultural Marxists (Part 2)
Whether they are willing to admit it or not, for Leftists, their Marxist oppressor-oppressed ideology is their righteous cause, their essential religious belief system notwithstanding the formal religion with which they may identify.
Significant as the combat is between Hamas and Israel, more crucial is the battle for the mind and heart of billions. This is why I have devoted such close and extensive attention to understanding and explaining the true war that is being waged between two antithetical worldviews, the biblical-Christian view and the anti-Christ view which... Continue Reading
Laboring for Christ in Obscurity: Reflections on “The Alpinist”
If you could only accomplish great things for the glory of God but no one but you and God would know, would you still put in all the work necessary to accomplish those things?
At one point in the documentary, Marc-Andre looks up at this massive mountain covered with snow and says, “One of the coolest feelings that a human can experience is to feel so small in a world that’s so big.” When we seek glory for ourselves it crushes our ability to wonder and marvel because we... Continue Reading
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