Jayber Crow on “Weathering” Sermons

Can God bring good out of bad preaching? Here’s Jayber: “In general, I weathered even the worst sermons pretty well. They had the great virtue of causing my mind to wander. Some of the best things I have ever thought of I have thought of during bad sermons. Or I would look out the windows. …

Would Rob Bell Rob God of Glory?

If there’s no hell, God can’t be trusted because he doesn’t keep his word and therefore doesn’t do justice, and if there’s no justice, mercy has no meaning. If you don’t understand what I just typed: “if there’s no justice, mercy has no meaning,” keep thinking about it. Look the words “justice” and “mercy” up …

Jayber Crow on Preachers

Are you a minister who wonders what people really think? I suspect that the words people say to me probably tend to be a lot nicer than the thoughts they keep in their heads. At Andrew Peterson’s recommendation, I read (listened to the audio book) Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow. Wendell Berry gives us Jayber’s honest …

A Day in the Life of Jesus

On January 30, 2011 I had the privilege of preaching Mark 1:14–45 at Kenwood Baptist Church, “A Day in the Life of Jesus.” In Mark 1:15 Jesus claims that the time is fulfilled (perhaps interpreting Daniel 9:24–27?) and that the kingdom of God is at hand. It’s a bold man who claims that his coming …

No Heart, No Courage

“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, 26. …

Life Is Short, So . . .

A helpful reflection from Gunner on how we tend to respond to the vanity of our vaporous existence. Here’s a wisp of the breeze he’s fanning: “My problem is that when Scripture talks explicitly about the brevity of life, it often emphasizes the opposite of our calls to ambitious action. Take this morbid salvo from …

The Fearless Student Whose Aim Is Truth

From Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson (10): “The present essay itself is, I suppose, unblushingly ‘classical,’ ‘traditional’ and ‘orthodox’; at least these are the epithets with which those whose sophisms are here subjected to analysis will no doubt attempt to dismiss it. But the student whose aim is to attain as much truth as …

In the Wilderness Prepare the Way of the Lord

On January 16, 2011 I had the privilege of preaching on Mark 1:1–13 at Kenwood Baptist Church, “The Baptist and the Christ.” In this text John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus in the wilderness, and there are some interesting statements in roughly contemporary texts from Josephus that shed light on the symbolic import …

Amen to God’s God-Centeredness, and the Whole Bible Says So, Too

John Piper has a fascinating post today on how Brad Pitt stumbled over God’s concern for his own glory. Does the Bible teach that God seeks his own glory? Let me invite you to consider the evidence for the claim that God’s glory is his own ultimate purpose, the main theme of the whole Bible, …

The Four Holy Gospels, by Makoto Fujimura

I enjoyed Justin Taylor’s interview with Makoto Fujimura on art and the illumination of The Four Holy Gospels. JT gave this breakdown of the interview: 00:00-2:00 What is an illuminated Bible? 2:00-2:45 Why was this Fujimura’s most “exhausting and “exhilarating” project? 2:45-4:55 Why does he think this will be the project he will be remembered …

Pray for Said Musa

Patrick Schreiner recently posted this: Here is the beginning of Clifford May’s article on the persecution of Christians in National Review.  The subtitle says it all: “the most important story not being told.” Imagine if Muslims in Europe were being arrested for nothing more than peacefully practicing their religion. Imagine if Muslims in South America …

Daniel J. Brendsel on the Center of Biblical Theology

I’ve just re-read Daniel J. Brendsel’s essay, “Plots, Themes, and Responsibilities: The Search for a Center of Biblical Theology Reexamined,” Themelios 35.3 (2010): 400–12, which has me more convinced than ever that the center of biblical theology is the glory of God in salvation through judgment. I’m going to paste my notes on Brendsel’s essay …