Posted in Christian Culture, Church, Church History, Worship on Oct 13th, 2009 17 Comments »
Recently I came across a few comments in Terry L. Johnson’s book Reformed Worship that caught my attention. Specifically, I was intrigued in reading that, “For Lutherans the enemy of faith was works. For the Reformed, the enemy of faith was idolatry.” (P18)
As he goes on to explain, it was John Calvin who insisted that [...]
Posted in Christian Culture, Church, Worship on Sep 7th, 2009 5 Comments »
Let me make myself clear before I explain my concerns with Sunday School: I love Sunday School; I believe Sunday School is vital to the health and growth of Christ’s church. I love the interaction, discussion, questions, one-on-one, teaching, depth, and encouragement that comes from a regular participation in a Sunday School group.
But I must [...]
Posted in Christian Culture, Church, Worship on Aug 19th, 2009 No Comments »
I am convinced that the methods of communicating the gospel are as chosen and explicit as the content of presenting the gospel. That is, the Bible not only spells out *what* we are to teach/preach to call men to Christ, but *how* we are to call men to Christ as well.
Being faithful to the Word [...]
Posted in Church, Spiritual Gifts on Aug 12th, 2009 42 Comments »
The subject of miraculous spiritual gifts is certainly a controversial topic in the church today. Do the gifts of miraculous tongues, revelatory prophecy, and healing continue today as they did during the period when the New Testament was written?
I am under the firm persuasion that the miraculous gifts we read of in the book of [...]
Posted in Administrative, Church, Puritans on Jul 23rd, 2009 5 Comments »
I’m somewhat partial to the doctrine of church discipline. I see it as absolutely vital to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I was not converted until the age of 21, but I had grow up all my life in several Baptist churches, one of them a very prominent SBC mega-church I attended 10 years. During these [...]
Posted in Church, Worship on May 22nd, 2009 No Comments »
Means of Grace: instruments that God uses to convert and bless people, like the reading and preaching of the word, prayer, singing (psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; Acts 16:25; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16)…baptism, and the Lord’s supper.
During a discussion on the ‘means of grace’, a man once told me that the only true ‘means of [...]
Posted in Church, Puritans, Worship on Apr 13th, 2009 4 Comments »
Have you ever wondered why many modern-day churches have an ‘altar’?
From my 20+ years in Baptist churches, I can always remember special services (usually on a Sunday night, or a revival/evangelistic service) when the preacher would invite people to come down to the ‘altar’ to pray. There, at the foot of the pulpit, in front [...]
Posted in Book Reviews, Church, Puritans, Worship on Jan 19th, 2009 5 Comments »
The Worship of the English Puritans
by Horton Davies
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Soli Deo Gloria
ISBN#: 1573580430
Summary: A largely academic approach in examining the history of Puritan worship, but very thorough and informative on several critical issues surrounding worship and the Word of God. This is a much needed work in our day.
On the [...]
Posted in Christian Culture, Church, Worship on Jan 12th, 2009 10 Comments »
I am spending a few posts in the coming weeks sharing various excerpts from the Michael Horton book, Christless Christianity. This is the second post in what I hope to be a mini-series examining the claims of this book.
As I have said before, I highly recommend Christless Christianity to you, as I consider it to [...]
Posted in Christian Culture, Church, Puritans, Worship on Aug 28th, 2008 11 Comments »
I found this John Owen excerpt proper considering yesterday’s post about church gimmicks and boosting attendance:
“…evangelical theology insists that the glory of religious worship is its internal and spiritual nature…To the natural man, therefore, no religious worship is pleasing unless he can see something of glory and splendor.”
“Notional religion must ever devise new rites, novel [...]
Bad Behavior has blocked 427 access attempts in the last 7 days.
