In my personal valley of humiliation—pain, discomfort, and embarrassing incapacity—this experience of giving God’s holy Word to a North African Muslim became a mountain top experience.  I was elated and overjoyed with the providence that brought a Moroccan Muslim and an American Christian who spoke both French and limited Arabic together for His purpose.  What... Continue Reading

This volume, like the one before it, is largely concerned with the doctrinalside of Christian spirituality, whereasthe two works that follow focus more on practical Christian living. In a time of theological controversy and spiritual confusion, Ryle called readers back to the “simple, unadulterated, and old-fashioned” evangelical theology and piety of generations past.[6]   C.... Continue Reading

In his preface to his commentary on the book of Psalms, Calvin made a most remarkable statement about providence that went to the very heart and soul of the religion he embraced and counseled others to embrace. He writes that knowing the Psalter teaches Christians to suffer for God so that “we renounce the guidance... Continue Reading

[Note: Recently I noticed a report that CNN anchor Chris Cuomo had chipped a tooth due to shivering from the COVID-19 virus. This was national news. While I don’t wish for anyone to suffer excessive virus-induced dental expenses, one purpose for the foregoing article is to remind readers of what was once considered to constitute... Continue Reading

As a pastor who is struggling through difficult questions facing my own ministry, Green — a man who was infected with disease as a result of pastoral visitation, who dealt charitably with the weakness of his family and wife, who labored tirelessly in preaching, and who recognized God’s blessing even in canceling church — is... Continue Reading

Some of Gerhardt’s hymns were translated into English first by John Wesley (1703-1796) and largely by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878), who also devoted a chapter to him in her book on German hymnwriters. “His hymns seem to be the spontaneous outpouring of a heart that overflows with love, trust, and praise,”[4] she said. Much of the depths... Continue Reading

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the death late Monday night (March 30) of TE Tim Russell. He had been hospitalized with COVID-19 for about two weeks. He served as Assistant Pastor for Middle Adults at Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis and was a member of the EPC’s Revelation 7:9... Continue Reading

Patrick’s six-year captivity in Ireland had prepared him for this mission. He knew the language and customs of the country, and could relate to the people. He reaped both joys, with the baptism of “many thousands,”[1] and innumerable sorrows, including beatings, verbal abuses, threats, a kidnapping, and an imprisonment.   Every year, we read articles... Continue Reading

Only recently, critics have stopped judging Phillis’s works in light of what they could or should have been, and have taken them for what they are and what they represented during her time. What Phillis’s modern critics often fail to see is that the gospel was an integral part of her thoughts. She was, first... Continue Reading

Understand the reason why Calvin initially wrote the Institutes. My guess is that hardly anyone reads the preface of a book, including the lengthy one Calvin provides to his Institutes. It is, in effect, a letter to the French King, Francis I, explaining why French Protestants (like Calvin, then living in exile from his native... Continue Reading