Over the past few weeks Dr. Joel Beeke and I have been teaming up to work our way through a portion of his massive new work A Puritan Theology. We have not been reading the whole book, but just the final eight chapters which deal with practical theology, the “so what?” of systematic theology. This…
Lives Destroyed – “The past two years have been devastating. I have watched the lives of four Christian friends destroyed for want of care. These are men, I have loved and respected. All of them had families, loving wives, and children. Three of them were pastors and another was a nationally recognized professional at the…
You may love him, you may hate him, but you’ve definitely heard of him and you’ve undoubtedly got an opinion about him. Mark Driscoll is pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, co-founder of the Acts 29 Network, and the author of several bestselling books. The newest of these books may well prove the most…
Where Did All These Calvinists Come From? – Last week, Mark Dever dusted off a 2007 series he wrote on the New Calvinism and delivered it, with a few changes, as an hour-long lecture at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Matt Smethurst provides a quick overview. 4 Reasons the Gospels Could Not Be…
A Church Website = An Online Building Greetings from your friends at Church Plant Media! We are back with another response to the questions posted to Tim’s blog in September. Joanna commented, asking us the following: My question is how do you graciously but persuasively make a case to church leadership that a reasonable quality…
Like most parents, I have those moments where guilt and regret comes over me like a wave. I consider then how much of my parenting time has already passed by and how little remains. My oldest child, my son, is thirteen. He is already a teenager, just one year away from high school, just eight…
Being Better Bereans – Kevin DeYoung has begun a three-part series titled “How To Be Better Bereans.” It’s off to a good start with part one. Why Is Faith Not a Work? – “Why is faith not a work? If we are obligated to have faith before righteousness can be credited to us (Romans 4),…
Of all the words coined in response to the realities of this digital world, of all the words recently added to the dictionary, humblebrag must be among the best. According to the Macmillan dictionary, a humblebrag is “a statement in which you pretend to be modest but which you are really using as a way…
You Might Be a Christian Celebrity If… – This may hurt. “In blogdom, writing, and pastoral ministry in general, there is a temptation to pursue being popular; to pursue being a celebrity. Yet, in order to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him (Matt. 16:24). This includes denying our…
When I began blogging through last week’s Strange Fire conference, I had no idea how big an impact the event would have. Even while attempting to transcribe John MacArthur’s opening address, I was not convinced I wanted to dedicate three days and eight or ten articles to it. But once I began to see and…
Worship Him Well – I love to hear this: “I have walked the aisles of Notre Dame in Paris and of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. They are works of magnificent splendor. Stunningly beautiful, to say the least. But they did not come close to giving me the feeling I have every time…
Robert Gilmour LeTourneau was an influential businessman and inventor of machinery that shook the world (since, after all, much of the earthmoving equipment used in World War II was made by LeTourneau’s factory). Born in Richford, Vermont in 1888, LeTourneau became a wealthy and generous Christian philanthropist who worked hard and shared freely. With the…
Why You Should Care – Thabiti Anyabwile on Strange Fire: “An honest discussion on this topic entails a number of uncomfortable admissions. And, perhaps it’s our inability or unwillingness to admit these things that hinder our discussion as much as anything else. We feel the stakes but we don’t want to face the stakes. For…
The Strange Fire conference closed with a final address from John MacArthur. In this address he responds to seven accusations brought against the conference, follows with eight appeals to his continuationist friends, and concludes by walking through 1 and 2 Timothy, highlighting the need to stand firm in guarding divine revelation against false doctrine. Before…
The first session of the final day at the Strange Fire conference brought Conrad Mbewe back to the pulpit. Phil Johnson introduced him by sharing how others have called him the Spurgeon of Africa. Today he brought message entitled, “Are We Preachers or Witch Doctors?” Though an odd question, it is pertinent to him because…
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Crossway and they are offering a selection of brand new books for you. They have five prize packages to give away and each of them will contain the following three books: Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all…
The final session on day two of the Strange Fire conference was led by Steven Lawson who spoke on “The Puritan Commitment to Sola Scriptura.” This was another historical message meant to demonstrate how our forebears were committed to the doctrine of Scripture alone. Tonight the focus of our study will be another historical theology…
Look & Live (Worship or Die) – “Worship is a looking. It is the gaze of the soul towards greatness….towards some savior. It is the pulsating, throbbing ache of the soul to see & celebrate glory. The ‘wow’ of the heart. And we are always being captivated by something. We must be. The throne of…
Today Tom Pennington spoke at the Strange Fire conference and provided a case for cessationism. He offered seven biblical arguments for the cessation of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here is a summary of his session. The label “Cessationism” is negative, but the real problem is that it has been easily caricatured as…
The second day of the Strange Fire conference began with John MacArthur preaching a message titled “Testing the Spirits.” It was based on 1 John 4: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…” There are many places in the New Testament where we are told…