It has been busy days around here. As you know, I spent last week on the road, speaking in Boston and Los Angeles. Today I am spending just 1 day in Dallas to speak at another of the Psalm 119 conferences. And then it will be a while before I am on the road again.…
I am down in Dallas, TX for the day. Or Fort Worth. Or Keller or something like that. Frankly I don’t know where I am. But I know why I’m here–to speak at a Psalm 119 conference. Unfortunately I can only be here for the first day of the conference as I’ve got a wedding…
I’m writing today from West Boylston, Massachusetts (I’ve never managed to spell Massachusetts without using spell checker), at the site of the Psalm 119 Conference. Yesterday I spoke on desiring discernment and a few minutes ago on how to be discerning without being a complete jerk (a.k.a. speaking truth in love). It’s been great to…
It’s the first day of fall today and I’m kicking off the new season by setting out on a speaking trip. In just a few minutes I’ll jump aboard a really small plane (motion sickness guaranteed!) here in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and make my way to Providence, Rhode Island and from there to West…
I’m on the way to South Carolina to speak at one of the Psalm 119 conferences on discernment. I’m looking forward to spend time with guys like Todd Friel and Trevin Wax. And of course, sharing a couple of messages on why to be discerning and how to be discerning well. The Prince of Wales…
We set high expectations for our pastors, and rightly so, I think. Ministers of the Word have a high calling before God to be his mouthpiece, to bring his Word to his people. We expect that every Sunday we will sit under the pastor’s teaching and learn sacred truths from his mouth. We expect that…
John MacArthur has kicked off a bit of controversy with his posts on Song of Solomon and, in particular, with his rationale for doing so–addressing pastors who, when preaching through the book, “employ extremely graphic descriptions of physical intimacy as a way of expounding on the euphemisms in Solomon’s poem.” In his first two articles…
The “Reading Classics Together” effort has taught me that blogs (even this blog) can offer a kind of excitement and accountability by community that helps me do things I wouldn’t otherwise have the discipline to do. And from what I hear, it works for some of you, too. Many of us would never have read…
There is a sense in which this blog is, for lack of a better word, living or dynamic. What I mean is that I sometimes write articles and return to them a year or two later and post them again, but only after refining them. As my understanding of various topics increases, I find myself…
It has been quite a while since I posted a “Feedback Files” article. I guess I have taken to answering more correspondence privately than publicly. For those not familiar with the term, “Feedback Files” refers to the times that I use this site to answer questions sent to me by readers. I’m often willing to…
One of my long-time favorite shows on television is The Antiques Roadshow. It is a show that has been a staple on PBS for many years and on British television for longer than that. Recently they have even begun a Canadian version which I have not yet had opportunity to watch. The show affords people…
I was recently asked to work on a rather strange project – a web site dedicated to teaching the Bible through limericks. Yes, limericks – commonly known to be the lowest form of poetry. While I was certainly glad to work on the project and to help the poet bring his ministry to a wider…
In the first article of this brief series we examined Total Depravity, as a prerequisite to evaluating the following statement: “Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to the footnotes knowledge- than many who don’t call themselves Calvinists.” I indicated that I did…
I am a subscriber to the Reformed Baptist Discussion List and yesterday a member of the list asked an interesting question. He is a pastor and a member of his congregation asked him how he could become a more critical thinker. The pastor pressed him a little and essentially the man was asking how he…
This is the third article in the series “Five Things Every Christian Needs To Know.” Yesterday we examined the doctrine of Sola Scriptura or Scripture Alone. We saw that the first thing every Christian needs to know is that the Bible alone is the infallible rule of faith for the church. We further defined the…
We set high expectations for our pastors. We expect that every Sunday we will sit under their teaching and learn sacred truths from their mouths. We expect that they have spent their week investigating Scripture and digging deeply into God’s Word so that they can teach us something that will change our lives. We expect…
Revelation, inspiration and illumination are three critical concepts for Christians to understand. While most believers are at least vaguely familiar with the concepts surrounding revelation and inspiration, it seems far fewer understand illumination. We will seek to remedy that today. It is important that we keep these concepts apart in our minds. We must not…
One of my long-time favorite shows on television is The Antiques Roadshow. It is a show that has been a staple on PBS for many years and on British television for longer than that. The show affords people the opportunity to bring their antique possessions, whether furniture, paintings, toys or anything else, and have them…
This is part six in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of the study is to learn what God would teach me through this book about wisdom and discernment. Yesterday’s topic was the perils of adultery and the wisdom of living a sexually pure life. I learned that everyone faces the…