The Plodding Preacher

The following is an excerpt from the article " What We Get Wrong about Worship Christian faith is personal, but it shouldn't just be private " by Matt Damico. Last, singing together makes us more Christ-like. When we remember that worship isn’t just about us, we’ll be more prone to consider the interests of others, and we won’t fight for our way over things like song choice and musical style. The Christian life isn’t a solo. We have a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us (Hebrews 12:1), and we will one day join them in singing a new song before the throne. Until then, don’t rob yourself of the joy that comes from singing with one another. When the redeemed of the Lord say so, they should say so together. Read the whole article HERE .

To claim the Oscars honor excellence denies that excellence has any moral character. Woe to those who call evil good... David Doran

The fundamental assumption underlying these new approaches is that “everything has changed,” and so our methods must change. I would want to dispute both parts of that equation. Whatever the entailments of our present cultural moment, constituent human nature has not changed (as R.C.Sproul often reminds us). And thus the fundamental human problem has not changed. Neither has the Gospel solution to it. Nor have the effectiveness of God’s Gospel means. Furthermore, one of the things that has always marked faithful and effective Christian ministry in every era and area of the world is a confidence in God’s Word, both in the Gospel message and in Gospel means. Faith still comes by hearing. Ligon Duncan in an article found HERE .

Jane Roe was the fake name given to Norma McCorvey in the infamous abortion case Roe vs. Wade.  She passed into eternity on Saturday at the age of 69.  Though she was immortalized in the landmark case that made killing babies legal in the United States, there was far more to her story.  Read it in Clint Archer's article: Flipping Sides on Roe v Wade: Norma McCorvey’s Repentance Norma McCorvey passed away at age 69 on Saturday. Her journey to notoriety began in  June 1969 when she attempted to get an abortion. Her lying failed to secure legal permission, and her scheme to obtain an illegal abortion also ended unsuccessfully. She then gathered a diabolical duo of fee-hungry attorneys to gear up for a protracted legal fight. Fortuitously, the baby reached full term before the menacing lawsuit did, and in 1970 the suit was filed under the alias Jane Roe. The Dallas County DA was Henry Wade, and thus the infamous case was christened   Roe v. Wade . By the time the case popp

"Some men endeavour to preach sinners to Christ; we prefer to preach Christ to sinners." C. H. Spurgeon

3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave the Church By   Jon Nielson “What do we do about our kids?” The group of parents sat together in my office, wiping their eyes. I’m a high school pastor, but for once, they weren’t talking about 16-year-olds drinking and partying. Each had a story to tell about a “good Christian” child, raised in their home and in our church, who had walked away from the faith during the college years. These children had come through our church’s youth program, gone on short-term mission trips and served in several different ministries during their teenage years. Now they didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. And, somehow, these mothers’ ideas for our church to send college students “care packages” during their freshman year to help them feel connected to the church didn’t strike me as a solution with quite enough depth. The   daunting statistics   about churchgoing youth keep rolling in. Panic ensues. What are we doing wrong in our churches? In

The most prominent example of this diminishment of Bible is the routine shrug of the shoulders with respect to creeds, confessions and theological claims.  It may be the 500th anniversary of the Reformation but what was  most central about the Reformation   was not Luther, Calvin, and Erasmus but Bible, Bible, Bible. I read Bruce Gordon’s CT essay on books about the Reformation, and not a one was about the  importance of the Bible in the Reformation . Revealing. Seemingly to embrace the Reformation is to embrace the theology of either Luther or Calvin, not embrace what they embraced: the Bible as the living Word of God. The most important act of a Reformationist is to open the Bible and read it. Scot McKnight in an article found HERE .

The Associated Press reported on September 11, 1950 (in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram) that Oral Roberts hosted a healing-tent revival service in Amarillo, Texas. It was then, that the God of nature saw fit for a high wind to pick up the tent (including the tent-pegs) and bring it crushing down upon the crowd of sign-seekers ( Matthew 17:17 ), wounding over 50. It was then that Oral Roberts, full of the Holy Spirit, waded out into the crowd and began to heal people of the cuts, wounds and serious contusions. Just kidding. He was utterly helpless to heal a single person. They all had to go to the hospital. That’s right. People at a “healing tent” could not be healed by the faith-healer. They had to go from the healing tent to the hospital to get actual medical attention. Behold, the power of charismania. Find all of Gideon Knox's article HERE .

In evaluating the book, it must be kept in mind that   The Shack   is a work of fiction. But it is also a sustained theological argument, and this simply cannot be denied. Any number of notable novels and works of literature have contained aberrant theology, and even heresy. The crucial question is whether the aberrant doctrines are features of the story or the message of the work. When it comes to   The Shack , the really troubling fact is that so many readers are drawn to the theological message of the book, and fail to see how it conflicts with the Bible at so many crucial points. All this reveals a disastrous failure of evangelical discernment. It is hard not to conclude that theological discernment is now a lost art among American evangelicals — and this loss can only lead to theological catastrophe. The answer is not to ban   The Shack   or yank it out of the hands of readers. We need not fear books — we must be ready to answer them. We desperately need a theological recover

God has joy. He is not indifferent, nor is he morose; we are to think of him as the “blessed” God,   i.e.   as essentially happy. . . . The brightness and beauty of the world are reflections from the blessedness of God. Because he is glad, nature is glad, flowers bloom, birds sing, young creatures bound with delight. Nothing is more sad in perversions of religion than the representations of God as a gloomy tyrant. . . . These fragrant meadows, broad rolling seas of moorland heather, rich green forest-cities of busy insect life, flashing ocean waves, and the pure blue sky above, and all that is sweet and lovely in creation, swell one symphony of gladness, because the mighty Spirit that haunts them is himself overflowing with joy. Our God is a   Sun . And if divinity is sunny, so should religion be. The happy God will rejoice in the happiness of his children. . . . God is so joyous that he finds joy even in us. [i] H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed.,   The Pulpit Commentary: Jeremiah , vol.

God’s Mercy in Messed Up Families Article by   Jon Bloom Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find an example of what we would call a “healthy family” in the Bible? It’s a lot easier to find families with a lot of sin and a lot of pain than to find families with a lot of harmony. For example, here’s just a sampling from Genesis: The first recorded husband and wife calamitously disobey God (Genesis 3). Their firstborn commits fratricide ( Genesis 4:8 ). Sarah’s grief over infertility moves her to give her servant, Hagar, to Abraham as a concubine to bear a surrogate child (Genesis 16). When it happens, Sarah abuses Hagar in jealous anger. Abraham is passive in the whole affair. Read the rest HERE .

He went away from there and came to bhis hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household." And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. bAnd he went about among the villages teaching. (Mark 6:1-6 ESV) The old saying tells us that "familiarity breeds contempt."  This passage could be the poster-child for this proverb.  Jesus has returned to his home town -

The media's narrative on abortion always focuses the story on the poor mother who tragically is saddled with an unwanted pregnancy.  This story deals with the heartbreak from a different perspective - the heartbreak of the rejected child. Abortion’s Unintended Survivors   Chelsen Vicari The abortion debate draws on several points of view. Expectant mothers, expectant fathers, people   of faith, members of the medical and legal communities, and the protesters and the supporters all chime in. They can all arguably testify as victims of abortion—women, men, and society at large—but we rarely have the opportunity to hear from the eye witnesses in the womb. It’s not their fault. Abortion’s purpose is to dismantle and destroy their lives along with their testimonies. But what of children born alive as an unintended result of botched abortions? They exist, as one woman’s story reveals to us. Surely abortion survivors have something to say on the matter. Melissa Ohden survive

Remember how boring life used to be. You’d wait in a line and just think, or sit on a plane and stare out the window, or relax on the couch and do nothing at all. I think of how much more my mind used to wander on walks and how I was better able to concentrate on books. I think of how bored I was on long car rides and at meals with adults and, yes, even in church. Of course, some boredom is just boring. But boredom also teaches us the discipline of sitting still and the invaluable lesson of being alone with our thoughts. Kevin DeYoung

An Interesting little article from Daniel Huerta at Focus on the Family. Are You Kind to Your Kids? A friend once asked me if I thought I was a kind parent. At first, I wasn't clear on what he meant. Loving? I show my kids love every day. Altruistic? As a dad, I frequently put my kids' needs before my own desires. I'm there to help them when they're sick, hurt or struggling with long division. Just recently, I let my son have the last scoop of ice cream. And I love ice cream. Kindness and parenting As parents, we don't often consider the concept of kindness within the context of parenting. We treat co-workers and store clerks and strangers on the street with kindness. Does this relationship dynamic really apply to all the big work that goes into parenting? Read the rest HERE

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of bthe rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live." And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and athronged about him. And there was a woman awho had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that apower had gone out

Jesus Loves the Rich Nicholas T. Batzig / 2 Many people have a conception of Jesus that is–to put it as bluntly as possible–substantively deficient. Many envision Jesus as the prototypical religious leader who only cared for the outcast, the socially marginalized, the sick and the poor. A Marxist, revolutionary Jesus is the inevitable production of such a truncated conception. The Scriptures undoubtedly set forth Christ as one who preeminently exhibited deep and pervasive care for the poor and needy. Jesus attested to His own Messianic ministry by pointing to His compassionate miracles of healing for the needy ( e.g.  Isaiah 35:5 in Matt. 11:5). Additionally, Jesus teaches us that, if we are to be His disciples, we are to “invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” when we throw a feast, lest we fall into the snare of showing partiality and unjust preference to the rich who can repay us. But the Jesus of Scripture never showed partiality to the poor as over agains