Over the next few months, many of us will take dips in pools and head to lakes, rivers or any other body of water that we can swim in…but I also fear we are going to be prone to swim in the waters of assumption and judgments this summer, too. And the currents found in... Continue Reading

It was a small step, but it was the step that was needed to make Fuller and Carey’s sermons a reality. These two sermons were able to provide the foundation for the organizing of the Baptist Missionary Society. According to historian Christopher Smith, “Nothing less than a grand, God-glorifying, mission-oriented ‘theology of hope’ was entrusted... Continue Reading

Since there are several layers to this statement as a performative speech act, this article will not be able to handle all of them. The nature of discourse in our country is laden with propaganda and propagandizing speech acts. The nature of a speech act is not located in the meaning of the propositions used... Continue Reading

Many people think of God as “greater” than us but on our scale of being today. It is a problem, but the real issue lies with how we talk about God from the Bible. If history is our only context when we interpret Scripture (and not theology/metaphysics), then it is evident that we will only... Continue Reading

As I’ve thought about it this week, I think that this is the moment, as pastors’ families, that God has positioned us to be true ambassadors of optimism. It doesn’t mean that we can’t weep a little at what has been lost. But we can also look ahead with anticipation to what God has planned... Continue Reading

Paul also tells us exactly how this kind of edification in corporate worship takes place: edification in corporate worship takes place through order, not disorder.as we have seen over the past few weeks, there is one particular chapter in the New Testament that is entirely about corporate worship—1 Corinthians 14. Paul wrote this chapter specifically to address... Continue Reading

To question or probe such figures can give the impression of a sour hyper-Calvinism, or a temperamental tendency towards pessimism, but analysis is surely necessary if we are to speak clearly and authoritatively to the Church and the world. Among all of the figures, and all of fostering of hope among Christians that the tide... Continue Reading

In the main, the modern church has most everything it needs—save revival. We have more conferences than ever, but fewer conversions. We have more books and blogs than ever, but fewer baptisms. We have more products and paraphernalia than ever, but little power. Indeed, we have a surplus of resources, but a deficit of revival.... Continue Reading

The early preaching of Lloyd-Jones to the numerically and psychologically decimated congregation of Westminster Chapel is an example of what it means to make a certain sound in our ministry at an hour of great national need. From a pastoral perspective Lloyd-Jones understood that the hearts of people needed solace and comfort, and so he... Continue Reading

When the revelation of God is clearly proclaimed to God’s people in words they can understand, that builds up the church, which emphasizes the importance of recognizing the corporate nature of public worship. This is not to say that individual expression is always inappropriate—as Paul says in verse 5, if there is an interpreter, then... Continue Reading