Letters to the Editor (Dispensationalism, Egalitarianism, Webcams, Etc)

It was a busy week (two weeks, actually, since I didn’t share any last Sunday) for letters to the editor. As I read through this week’s letters, I attempted to draw some out that reflected diversity of topic. Here is a selection of my favorites. Letters about Why I Am Not Egalitarian Just a note of thanks for your post on egalitarianism. I’m frustrated with those who mask their patriarchy with complementarian language. I appreciated your honest, fair handling of …

Best Commentaries on John

Series Introduction: I live in a small house. I work in a small office in a small church. For those reasons and others I will never have a huge library. When I add a book I almost always remove a book, a practice that allows me to focus on quality over quantity. Over the past couple of years I have focused on building a collection of commentaries that will include only the best volumes on each book of the Bible. …

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A Word to Those Who Preach the Word

It has been a couple of months since I’ve had the privilege of preaching, and I am looking forward to stepping into the pulpit again a couple of weeks from now. It is always a joy and always a weighty responsibility. In reading Kent Hughes’ commentary on Isaiah I was challenged by his “Word to Those Who Preach the Word”–his preface to the Preach the Word commentary series for which he serves as general editor. It’s a powerful meditation on …

4 Results of Christ’s Ascension

Have you ever noticed that when Jesus told his disciples that he would be leaving them, they reacted with sorrow, but then, when it actually happened, they reacted with joy? (Compare John 16:16-20 with Luke 24:50-53) What can account for this change? In his book The Work of Christ, R.C. Sproul provides a simple answer: the disciples had come to understand why and where Jesus was going. From here he shows four great results of Christ’s ascension. #1. Glorification. “When …

That Pesky Rooster

You might have noticed when reading through the Gospels that, when it comes to Jesus predicting Peter’s denial, Mark records Jesus telling Peter that he will deny him three times “before the rooster crows twice” (Mark 14:30). Matthew, Luke and John, on the other hand, don’t mention a specific number of crows. They just record Jesus saying that Peter will deny him before the rooster crows, presumably at all (Matthew 26:34; Luke 22:34; John 13:38). But how did it actually …

At Jacob’s Well

Jacob’s Well. That’s a place and a context I had not thought about too much until I read Richard Phillips’ book Jesus the Evangelist. Based on a series of expositional sermons, this book teaches the principles and practice of witnessing by looking at the model of Jesus in the first four chapters of John. When he turns to the practice of evangelism, Phillips teaches from the fourth chapter of John which is, of course, the well-known story of the woman at the well. …

Basics 2011

Note: This is a sponsored post (click here to learn about sponsored posts) Dear Partner in the Gospel, We are pleased to extend an invitation to join us for our twelth annual Basics Conference on May 9-11, 2011. As we meet this year, we look forward to God using our time together to encourage us in our work for the Gospel. doing the work of an evangelist Alistair Begg has invited John Dickson and Rico Tice to join him for …

A La Carte (8/27)

Biblia – From the folks at Logos: “Introducing the Biblia.com beta release: a super-simple Bible for the web that’s backed up by the incredible technology (and massive library!) of Logos Bible Software. What makes Biblia.com so cool?” You’ll have to read the post to find out… A Good Monkey – I found this review of a new documentary a great commentary on society (not to mention a great reminder of why we cut cable a few years back): “Anew Michael …

Jacob’s Well

Several weeks ago I completed a brief project building a website for a church called Jacob’s Well, an upcoming church plant in Middlesex County, New Jersey and a part of the Acts 29 Network. As I was building the site I didn’t think much of the name, of its origin or its important. That changed, though, as I read an upcoming book by Richard Phillips. The book, Jesus the Evangelist is set to be released in the next week or …

Resolved Conference (VII)

Yesterday, after preaching twice at his church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, John Piper caught a flight down to Los Angeles and preached a different sermon for us. That is dedication. He spoke one what is one of his favorite recent topics: God is the Gospel. I have heard him speak on this a few times now and have also read his book by the same title. And yet, strangely, I still have trouble digesting it all. I hope in the future …