The Plodding Preacher

"This prayer begins where all true prayer must commence, with the spirit of adoption, "Our Father." There is no acceptable prayer until we can say, "I will arise, and go unto my Father." This childlike spirit soon perceives the grandeur of the Father "in heaven" and ascends to devout adoration, "Hallowed by thy name." The child lisping, "Abba, Father," grows into the cherub crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy." ----Charles Spurgeon

“Christianity is summed up in the two facts: Christ  for  us, and Christ  in  us—Christ  for  us upon the Cross, revealing the eternal opposition of holiness to sin, and yet, through God’s eternal suffering for sin making objective atonement for us; and Christ  in  us by his spirit, renewing in us the lost image of God, and abiding in us as the all-sufficient source of purity and power. Here are the two foci of the Christian ellipse: Christ  for  us, who redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us, and Christ  in  us, the hope of glory, whom the apostle calls the mystery of the gospel."  “The union with Christ is mediated by his Spirit, whence we are both renewed and justified. The great fact of objective Christianity is incarnation in order to atonement; the great fact of subjective Christianity is union with Christ, whereby we receive the atonement. We may add that this union with Christ, i...

In our adult Sunday School summer class we have been studying the phrase "in Christ."  As I was preparing for Sunday's lesson an old Imperials song kept running through my mind. Now Satan is a liar, And he wants to make us think, That we are paupers, when he knows himself, We're children of the King. As a result of being placed in Christ by God's grace, we have been adopted into God's family.  We have been made joint-heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17).  We have been made part of the household of faith (Ephesians 2:19).  The enemy tries to make God a killjoy who is miserly with the blessings He gives to His children.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We are children of the King upon whom God has lavished (I love that word) the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7-8).

“Avoid trivial pursuits. You are a child of God, destined for glory, and called to do great things in His Name. Do not waste your life on hobbies, sports, and other recreational pursuits. Do not throw away the precious moments of your life on entertainment, movies, and video games. Though some of these things can properly have a 'small place' in the Christian’s life, we must be careful not to give undue attention to temporal and fruitless activities. Do not waste your life. Employ the time of your youth in developing the character and skills necessary to be a useful servant of God.”   Paul Washer

GLORY IN THE CROSS by steve camp written - 1/3/01 Glory in the cross, our faithful High Priest Went beyond the veil as our Prince of Peace Clothed with our sin, its guilt and shame Our sinless Substitute, Jesus His name Glory in the cross, the law now fulfilled Righteousness displayed on Calvary’s Hill He, Son of Man and God the Son The Lord and the Lamb, our victory won Glory in the cross, where grace doth abound Where the Man of Sorrows wore transgressions crown Wounded and chastened for our iniquities Our faithful Redeemer, God the Father pleased Glory in the cross, marked by sin’s crimson stain Grace and forgiveness flows from His precious veins Perfect redemption once for all sacrifice Salvation made secure by the Lord Jesus Christ Glory in the cross, Satan’s power of death destroyed Rendered impotent by The Incarnate Word He crushed the Serpents head upon Golgotha’s tree Our great and dreadful Sovereign, Champion is He Glory in the cross, the elect have been redeemed O cove...

Jason Helopoulos  (click Jason's name to view the original post)   I love my family. I love being a husband. We celebrate sixteen years of marriage this week and I can’t imagine living life with anyone else. I love being a father. I have two kids that delight my soul. I can’t wait to see them in the morning before I head off to the church and I am always anxious to see them in the evening when I return. There are few things I enjoy more in this life than being a father. I love my family. However, having said that, I want to be on guard against loving them inordinately. I am thankful for the growing emphasis upon the Christian family in evangelical circles. Our two children are home schooled, so I am in no way opposed to homeschooling. We attempt to practice family worship each night of the week, so I am not opposed to family worship. For goodness sakes, I wrote on a book on the subject. I am passionate about it. We have attempted to have our children in corporate worsh...

We have been studying the Book of Genesis in our Sunday evening services.  Last night we looked at the consequences of the Fall.  Punishment was meted out to the serpent, the woman and the man, in turn.  There is absolutely no doubt that there are consequences from the sin that are to be borne by all those involved.  The section ends with Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden.  God places angels (Cherubim is plural) with flaming swords to guard the entrance to the garden so that man might never return.  Thus man is turned out of the garden to pay the price for his sin. However, in this act of punishment the infinite mercy of our God is also demonstrated.  The reason God says He must put the man from the garden regards the tree of life in the garden.  God refuses to let man reach out and take from the tree of life and, in that act, condemn himself to eternal life as a sinful wicked being.  Oh God will provide eternal life for man and the joy...

Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers. John Owen

If one is trusting in works to make it to heaven, how does one know if she has ever done enough?  One must always be in doubt about whether he has tried hard enough, or spoken kindly enough, or loved others enough.  I imagine that it must be an anxiety-inducing experience. Praise the Father that tis is not the life He offers.  First, no one can do enough.  All our righteousness is like filthy rags.  Second, Jesus has already done enough.  AS the old Hymn says: I need no other argument, I need no other plea, It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.

Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us. Golda Meir, 1957

Jul 15, 2014 | Jason Helopoulos Guest Blogger: Jason Helopoulos  (click here for original post) Let me say from the beginning of this post, I am in favor of new Christian music. I have the Gettys  on my Iphone. I regularly hum  RUF hymns . I came to saving faith listening to Vineyard music. My kids love to blast Matt Redmon’s  10,000  Reasons . I am not opposed to new Christian music. In fact, I like much of it (don’t tell my Presbyterian friends). However, I am concerned that we are losing some of our old, tried, tested, and true music. And that is not good. This hit me with force this past December. URC co-sponsored a conference in Lansing called  Sola . This was a conference that focused on the five Solas of the Reformation and it was filled with 3,000 people, most under the age of thirty! As someone who was helping to coordinate the event, I was sitting in the sectioned off speakers’ area. Two young men came in underneath the rope and sheepish...

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. G.K. Chesterton

A couple of high-profile evangelical pastors have recently proclaimed to their churches and the world that they have changed there views on homosexuality.  They have had children "come out of the closet" and this has caused them to rethink their beliefs about God and homosexuality.  In much of the world at large there position has been championed as being God's love in action.  I have great sympathy for the struggle these men have endured, but I believe that rather than being examples of God's love they have failed the love of God entirely.  I know as soon as said that many will label me a profoundly unloving person.  However, I would like to explain myself in terms of love itself. 1.  These men have chosen to love their children more than Christ.  The first and great commandment, contrary to the thinking of much of the church, is not to love my neighbor as myself.  The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all my being.  The c...

Overlong prayer interrupted — the rest of the story by Dan Phillips The man who gave me my first pastoral training, David Morsey, told the story once of a meeting at which a man stood to open in prayer. The man went on and on, and after a time the meeting's leader arose and said, "While the brother finishes his prayer, let us turn to hymn 242." It was one of those apocryphal-type stories that one hears, with various famous names attached (Wesley, Whitfield, and so on). After a time, one decides it may never have happened — but, if it didn't, it should have, and it still makes a good point. I'm sure you know a number of the kind. Like the story of (Whitfield, Wesley, Whoever) walking down the street when a drunken bum grabs him arm and says "I'm one of your converts!" The great man replies, "Yes, you must be. If you were one of Christ's converts, you'd not be in this state." We all know a number of stories like this. I quoted the...

You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving. Amy Carmichael

Every day I drive to and from the church on a path that takes me right past the downtown of our city.  I often get stopped by the light at the corner of what might be called our town's main street.  As I have sat waiting at that intersection some truly memorable people have passed me by.  There have been innumerable drunks and drug addicts.  Though I can't be 100% sure, I think I have seen more than a couple of prostitutes.  There are the shirtless men who are so covered with tattoos that one would have difficulty finding a bare inch of skin and the single moms with a less-than-well-cared-for child in the cheap stroller. It would be exceedingly easy to sit and pass judgment upon those who pass by.  Certainly for some, lifestyle choices have contributed to the place in which they find themselves.  However, I am not called by God to pass judgment.  I am called to see in these people the image of God.  Yes even here it is present - and ev...