Unsung Heroes: People Who Made the Response Possible

I think the best people in the world are probably the ones whose names you never hear. These are the people who live and serve like Jesus did. He wasn’t in big cities all the time, didn’t write any books, made no headlines, networked with no one important. He was with fishermen and no-counts, prostitutes …

The 2013 Book I’m Most Excited to See

Warning, hyperbolic statement ahead: More than any other book that will be published in 2013, I’m excited to see this new one from Brian Vickers. Having already published on imputation (which if you haven’t read it already, you should click right here and get yourself a copy of Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness), and having spent …

Hope and Change and the Promises of God

What hath Whittaker Chambers to do with “Hope and Change”? What hath communism and secular liberalism to do with the promises of God in the Bible? What do racial equality and diversity, environmentalism, peace in our time, provision for all, the hope of socialism, the goals of liberalism, and the aims of all politicians have …

Can You Identify with Judas?

Have you ever betrayed a friend? Can you identify with the bargain that Judas made? Have you ever decided that something else was better than Jesus? I’m not referring to inadvertent mistakes but to moments when one knows what God requires, knows what God has commanded, and chooses something else instead. What is it in …

Justice and Mercy Planned by Jesus and the Count of Monte Cristo

In Alexandre Dumas’s novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmund Dantes is about to marry his beautiful beloved Mercedes. On the night before he is to be married, Dantes is falsely accused by one man who wants his woman, and another who wants his job. It so happens that the judge is implicated in the …

Review of Paul Barnett’s “Paul: Missionary of Jesus”

Paul: Missionary of Jesus. After Jesus, vol. 2. By Paul Barnett. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008, xvi + 240 pp. $18.00 paper. Published in The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 15.1 (2011), 112–13. In this book Paul Barnett asks whether the mission and message of Paul the Apostle was the mission and message of Jesus of …

Available for Pre-Order: Revelation (Preaching the Word)

An ancient dragon. A vulnerable bride holding fast to a promise. An immoral temptress and her consorts. And the King, coming on a white horse. John writes to small, scattered churches with little worldly influence, urging them to hold fast to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Sexual immorality lures them toward …

Shepherd the Flock of God: The Ordination of Ross Shannon

On Sunday, May 22, 2011, it was our pleasure and privilege to ordain Ross Shannon to gospel ministry. Ross has been serving as the Assistant Pastor for Discipleship and Evangelism at Kenwood, and he just graduated from SBTS and was called to serve at First Baptist Church, Lapeer, MI. I had the honor of preaching …

Do Flowers Make You Feel Guilty?

Have you ever looked at a flower? This week we went down to Bernheim Forest, and we saw this Quiet Garden full of Peonies. Have you ever thought about how delicate, transient, gratiuitous, and useless flowers are? God has lavished his creativity, resources, energy, mental ingenuity, and power on these things that serve no other …

The Debate about Shouwang Church

Here’s an interesting article about what is taking place in China: “The Debate about Shouwang Church.” I have a proposition, then a question prompted by the article, then brief thoughts on Paul’s response to such situations: Proposition: The Chinese government is wickedly persecuting Christians and opposing God and his gospel. May God break the teeth …

Have You Read “Unbroken”?

What a book! Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken is a “true tall tale” (AP) powerfully told. At 19 in 1936, Louie Zamperini “was the youngest distance runner ever to make the [U. S. Olympic] team” (27). The 1940 Olympics were cancelled because WWII had begun (44). Zamperini was drafted and became a bombardier (45). May 27, 1943, …

To the Jew First and Also the Gentile

On Sunday, March 20, 2011, it was my privilege to preach Mark 7:1–37, “To the Jew First and Also the Gentile,” at Kenwood Baptist Church. At the exodus from Egypt Moses led Israel through the Red Sea into the wilderness where they immediately needed water and food. The Lord provided bread from heaven and water …

Glenda’s Story

From Elisabeth Ellliot’s foreword: “Abandonment, abortion, abuse, addiction, adultery, alcoholism, alienation, anorexia–words hardly understood a few generations ago but now on everyone’s tongue, words we can hardly escape if we pick up a newspaper or turn on television. It is generally taken for granted that these sins and sorrows can be dealt with only by …

Jeremy Farmer, Psalm 127, and Taking the Gospel Where Christ Has Not Been Named

This past Sunday we were privileged to hear a fabulous exposition of Psalm 127 in its canonical context at Kenwood Baptist Church from Jeremy Farmer. This was the first sermon I’ve heard on Psalm 127, and Jeremy did a great job tracing out how this Psalm of Solomon fits with the promise to David and …