The Plodding Preacher

First let me say that death is no laughing matter.  For each of the families of the celebrities who have passed this Christmas season, I pray that God's grace and comfort may find them in their time of grief. Yet it still amazes me the way the press responds each time a major celebrity dies.  The shock with which each announcement is made would make it appear that the media believed these people by virtue of their fame would live forever - that celebrity was the one thing that could conquer death. The reality is that nothing can prevent the inevitability of death.  Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that it is the destiny of man to die and then face God's judgment.  So rather than pretending like our culture that death will not come, our time would be better spent preparing for the death that eventually must come. It is at this point that we have good news.  Celebrity has not defeated death, but Jesus has.  When he rose from the dead, he defeated the power of death once and for all.

Every year Christians accuse society of trying to take Christ out of Christmas.  This Christmas saw the war shift to inside our camp due, yet again, to an poor statement by Andy Stanley on the virgin birth. Virgin Birth debate interrupts regular ‘War on Christmas’ program NEWS BOB ALLEN    |  DECEMBER 21, 2016 The other war on Christmas — not the one over saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” — broke into a skirmish after a well-known evangelical preacher suggested he doesn’t have a problem with people who doubt the Virgin Birth. Andy Stanley , founder of North Point Ministries, a network of six congregations across the Atlanta metropolitan area attended by 30,000 worshippers a week,   said   in a message Dec. 3 that one of the challenging things about Christmas is the “unbelievable” nature of stories in the Bible describing Jesus’ miraculous conception. “A lot of people don’t believe it, and I understand that,” Stanley said. “Maybe the thought is they had to

Surely none are so crazy as those who are content to live unprepared to die. J.C. Ryle

How George Whitefield reshaped a famous Christmas carol Chris Fenner   — December 22, 2014 Although the name George Whitefield is not readily associated with Christian hymnody, he left his own mark on one of the most famous Christmas carols, penned by his friend and contemporary, Charles Wesley. The Wesleys had an enduring friendship and connection with Whitefield, beginning with their Oxford “Holy Club,” followed by separate missionary journeys to America, and a call to open-air field preaching in England. During the earlier years of that association, the Wesleys published some of their most enduring poetry, especially in the first edition of  Hymns and Sacred Poems  (1739). This collection included “And can it be” — deeply inspired by Charles’ conversion in 1738 — “Christ the Lord is risen today,” “Commit thou all thy griefs,” “Jesus, thy boundless love to me,” and a Christmas hymn with a curious text: Hark how all the Welkin rings Glory to the King of Kings. A m

Tim Challis has some good ideas if you are looking for a New Year's resolution. 10 Ideas and 10 Tips for Family Devotions in 2017 W ith a new year dawning, many Christian families will resolve to approach family devotions with greater faithfulness in the year ahead, or perhaps even to begin family devotions for the first time. These are great resolutions! Here are 10 ideas and 10 tips that may help.

Why the Jewish Messiah is the Most Important Individual in History by   Eric Davis What Christmas commemorates is big for many reasons. With the incarnation comes the Savior. For those who repent, there is justification, adoption, redemption, reconciliation, regeneration, sanctification, and, one day, glorification. But if we back up a bit, with the incarnation, there is the arrival of the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. It’s difficult for a 21 st   century audience to appreciate the century-long yearning which the Hebrews had for the Messiah’s arrival. But why? What is the significance of the Jewish Messiah? Read the Article HERE .

When we put our minds long to the idea of Jesus being one hundred percent God and simultaneously one hundred percent man, they naturally feel overwhelmed. The orthodox doctrine of the Incarnation is compelling, beautiful, biblically sensible, and salvifically necessary, but it is nevertheless utterly inscrutable. And that's okay. In the end, the Incarnation is not for analysis but for worship. Jared C. Wilson

“If you reject him, he answers you with tears; if you wound him, he bleeds out cleansing; if you kill him, he dies to redeem; if you bury him, he rises again to bring resurrection. Jesus is love made manifest.”       – C. H. Spurgeon

The incarnation isn’t a celebration for happy people;   it’s hope   for those who wish things were different.   Our longing joins in the chorus of creation that groans for deliverance from this world that is marred and broken by sin (Rom 8:22 – 23). We wish things were different because we know they are supposed to be. Read the article Here

Some imagine that in Heaven we’ll be all dressed up with nowhere to go and nothing to do. (Except take an eternal afternoon nap, strum that harp, and polish that gold.) I’ve concluded there’s an unspoken assumption behind this pervasive notion that Heaven will be boring. That assumption is that life without sin would not be interesting. The idea is, “What will we do for entertainment if there’s no sin?” The fact that such a notion would even occur to us demonstrates the extent to which we’re blinded by the evil one. His most basic strategy, exactly the one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe sin will bring us fulfillment. But sin is not what brings us fulfillment—it’s what robs us of fulfillment! Sin isn’t what makes life interesting, it’s what makes life empty. This emptiness inevitably leads to boredom. When there’s fulfillment, when there’s beauty, when we see God as He truly is, boredom becomes an impossibility. Randy Alcorn

A tough position to take in today's parenting atmosphere is brought to us by John Piper. Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children I am writing this to plead with Christian parents to require obedience of their children. I am moved to write this by watching young children pay no attention to their parents’ requests, with no consequences. Parents tell a child two or three times to sit or stop and come or go, and after the third disobedience, they laughingly bribe the child. This may or may not get the behavior desired. Last week, I saw two things that prompted this article. One was the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa, California, by police who thought he was about to shoot them with an assault rifle. It was a toy gun. What made this relevant was that the police said they told the boy two times to drop the gun. Instead he turned it on them. They fired. I do not know the details of that situation or if Andy even heard the commands. So I can’t say for sure

I came across this picture today.  It shows a body builder Jesus dying on the cross. It reminded me of a Christmas song I have heard in the past. Some children see Him lily white, the baby Jesus born this night. Some children see Him lily white, with tresses soft and fair. Some children see Him bronzed and brown, The Lord of heav'n to earth come down. Some children see Him bronzed and brown, with dark and heavy hair. Some children see Him almond-eyed, this Savior whom we kneel beside. some children see Him almond-eyed, with skin of yellow hue. Some children see Him dark as they, sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray. Some children see him dark as they, and, ah! they love Him, too! The children in each different place will see the baby Jesus' face like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace, and filled with holy light. O lay aside each earthly thing and with thy heart as offering, come worship now the infant King. 'Tis love that's born tonight! I understand the

This excellent little article by Jay Sampson sums up what most of us pastors would like for Christmas. One of my personal favorite things about Christmas is the giving of gifts. I'm just kinda wired that way. I enjoy the idea of getting something for someone that I know they will like but they might not necessarily buy for themselves. At my best (which is rare), I pay attention to conversations starting around October and pick up on things that are mentioned in passing and then look on with boyish glee as my unsuspecting target of tribute receives a token that shows someone was listening! Many times, the things that our loved ones desire are not items that we will need to scrape and save to acquire, but rather they are things that we will need to prioritize and plan. And very often these things that they   truly   want – family time, appreciation, encouragement – are not things that will appear on any list they put together. And so it came to pass that I was asked: what migh

Our ministry ought always to be a killing as well as a healing one,—a ministry which kills all false hopes, blights all wrong confidences, and weeds out all foolish trusts, while at the same time it trains up the feeblest shoot of real hope, and tenders comfort and encouragement even to the weakest of the sincere followers of Christ. C. H. Spurgeon

Four Daily Prayers for Your Children Article by   Chad Ashby Pastor, Newberry, South Carolina Our kids never seem to be at a loss for words. Even with tiny vocabularies, it is astounding how well they are able to fill any silence with a thousand little syllables. We parents are a different story. In homes full of questions and needs, it can be hard for our fried brains to put together even broken phrases. Sometimes I find myself stuttering as I try to talk to my kids — like I need a hard reset. Especially with small kids, prayers can be difficult to lace together. We have a thousand requests for our children: that they would be saved, that they would learn obedience, that they would finally learn to eat broccoli, that they would quit hitting other kids in their class, and on and on. Where do we start? I believe one of the ways the Spirit graciously intercedes for us as parents is by giving us prayers to pray from the Scriptures ( Romans 8:26 ). As I struggled rec

As a pastor, I have had numerous people come to me over the years wondering whether they had committed the unpardonable sin.  In Mark 3 we have Mark's record of Christ's statement of the unpardonable sin: And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "by the prince of demons he casts out the demons." And he called them to him and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes ag