“Rejoice”, by Todd Twining

Far and away my favorite new Christmas song this year is on the Savior CD I was given this past week. Here are the lyrics to the song “Rejoice” by Todd Twining: Ve Verse 1 All the earth rejoice Your Creator reigns As the only awesome God The Alpha and the Omega Who was, is, …

What Is Prophecy and Has It Ceased?

As Paul is describing the activity of prophets in 1 Corinthians 14:29–30, he writes, “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.”  From this statement, we know that (1) prophecy is revelatory because Paul refers …

Prayers of Supplication

Every Sunday at Redeemer we have a time for a “Prayer of Supplication.” I want to give some explanation of why this is included and provide some pointers as to what we should pray for during this time. This is neither a checklist nor a law. I don’t want anyone to fear that their past …

What Love Is This?

I have said before that I think Eric Schumacher is one of the best poets of our day, and he has penned another lovely hymn called What Love Is This? We sing Eric’s hymns from time to time at Redeemer, and I suspect we will praise God together with this one sometime soon. Congratulations to …

Why Don’t Baptists Commune with Presbyterians?

In a recent comment a friend of mine raised the issue of whether the requirements for membership in the local church ought to be the same as the requirements for membership in the universal church. I take this to mean: we think that someone is saved if they make a profession of faith and show …

What Is Regeneration?

I’ve posted before about how we’re catechizing our kids, mainly using The Baptist Catechism edited by John Piper. I’m not sure that we’ll learn all the questions, though. For instance, I’m not certain that the question, “May all men make use of Scripture,” with the answer that all men are not only permitted but required …

Prayer of the Month

The Lord blessed me with a good idea the other day, and perhaps it will bless you as well. I decided to pick a New Testament prayer and try to pray through it every day of the month. This will probably lead to the memorization of the text, which never hurts, and I hope that …

Dallimore on Why He Wrote the Biography of Whitefield

“Yea, this book is written in the desire—perhaps in a measure of inner certainty—that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more bring into being His special instruments of revival, that He will again raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner …

Baptist History, Multiple Services, and Multiple Campuses

Tom Nettles, The Baptists: Key People Involved in Forming a Baptist Identity (Beginnings in Britain), recounts a debate between the early Baptist Hanserd Knollys and one of his Presbyterian contemporaries, John Bastwick: Bastwick argued that the Jerusalem church had only one body of elders over several assemblies or congregations. Believers meeting at the Temple in …

The Center of Biblical Thoelogy

When I was doing my Ph.D. at SBTS I took a seminar on New Testament Theology with Mark Seifrid. As we read surveys of the issues and discussions, I was surprised by what I thought was missing from one aspect of the scholarly dialogue. One of the things that gets bantered about in these discussions …

Shakespearean Chapel: A Liturgical Southern Baptist Worship Service

That’s not an oxymoron in the subtitle, it really does happen—Liturgical Southern Baptist Worship, that is. Drs. Autrey and Wood have given me permission to set the order of worship in chapel this coming Monday, so on Monday at SWBTS Houston we will have a chapel that will, I hope, be something like what the …

Creed of Athanasius with Subtitles

A few days ago I mentioned in a post that I often read the Creed of Athanasius to my 2 year old before I put him down for a nap. I had occasion to type it up for something else, and I decided to add subtitles. So I'm posting the Creed below with my subtitles. …

Hamilton Family Worship

Recently I’ve been exposed to a number of families who do “Family Worship.” When I first heard of this, I was both intimidated and uninterested. I had little desire to try to replicate what I think of as a worship service (prayers, hymns, sermon, etc.) on a nightly basis at home with my family. Don’t …