Early on in serving the Lord by preaching (almost 25 years ago) I wrote full manuscripts and stuck to them rigorously. Then I’ve used various tools, manuscripts, outlines, passage overviews, 4-part-paper-fold, PowerPoint slides, and a few others to support the work of preaching. However, I’ve never found anything to replace or replicate the importance of... Continue Reading

In the New Testament the house church was common. Judging from Paul’s references in Romans 16:5,10,11,14 & 15, there were at least five house churches in Rome, a city commonly estimated to have a population of a million. Links between these gatherings would have been close. But generally we do not find the infant churches... Continue Reading

Safety, I assumed, required freedom from others: freedom from commitment, something as close to full material and psychological autonomy as possible. But freedom from others had left me enslaved to an untethered, empty self. In these times it became obvious that the freedom I was pursuing turned out to be utter isolation. Maybe I could... Continue Reading

We do wish the church could completely break free of the seeming barrier of race. We can personally attest that Blacks and Whites both make wonderful friends and Blacks and Whites, on the downside, are all just sinners saved by grace. We need to remember the wonderful and freeing truth that “If God be for... Continue Reading

Remember that repentance is not merely a legal necessity but a gift accompanying the true Gospel to all who believe. Rejoicing and gladness will come naturally to such a penitent at worship. Every Sabbath will become a delight instead of a burden and a cumbersome yoke of law. Then, you will know that the Lord... Continue Reading

God, being rich in mercy, has begun to visit the church in Egypt over the last two and a half decades. In 2005, the Alexandria School of Theology (AST) was founded under the Anglican church of Egypt, with a missionary from the Presbyterian Church in America as its first principal. This seminary has played a... Continue Reading

Parents, it is no overstatement to say that worship is why God gave you kids. They were made to worship their Creator, and they don’t know how. You have been given the awesome responsibility to show them how to do the thing they were made to do.   Thomas Doolittle was raised in Kidderminster, England... Continue Reading

So often, Spurgeon saw great crowds turn out for his open-air preaching. But he often observed that after the service, the people would simply disperse. There was little opportunity for follow-up. But at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, as people were converted, they were baptized, brought into the church, discipled, and engaged in the work of the... Continue Reading

Jesus was a master at engaging people within their culture, whether they approached Him as friend or foe. He related to people without typical cultural filters. Even His primary followers had different backgrounds and livelihoods. A classic example is Jesus engaging a woman of questionable character at Jacob’s well near Sychar in the region of... Continue Reading

“The present condition of the Presbyterian Church is an offence against God. But the Spirit of God is all-powerful, and the darkest hour sometimes just precedes the dawn.” Machen was direct, forthright…salty, even. This is obviously not the (summarized) “sermon” you’d want to hear on a Lord’s Day morning if that was all there was... Continue Reading