Why Should I Praise You, God?

November 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

CS Lewis, in his book Reflections on the Psalms, wrote about praise:

The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game—praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars.

I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits and mal-contents praised least. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Worship

Jonah and the Big Fish

November 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When people read the book of Jonah, they immediately get entangled with questions about marine ecosystem that they miss the obvious: Jonah’s predictions didn’t happen! God relented and the Ninevites were shown mercy.

Don’t lose sight of the mercy of God just because you can’t understand the outworkings of His power.

Filed Under: Random Posts

Preaching With a Broken Heart

November 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

John Piper, on the biography of Charles Spurgeon, wrote about preaching with a broken heart:

Everyone faces adversity and must find ways to persevere through the oppressing moments of life. Everyone must get up and make breakfast, and wash clothes, and go to work, and pay bills, and discipline children and generally keep life going when the heart is breaking.

But it’s different with pastors—not totally different, but different. The heart is the instrument of our vocation. Spurgeon said, “Ours is more than mental work—it is heart work, the labour of our inmost soul” (see note 1). So when our heart is breaking we must labor with a broken instrument. Preaching is our main work. And preaching is heart work, not just mental work. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Preaching Tagged With:

A Lamp and a Bible

November 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A portion of William Tyndale’s letter to an unnamed prison officer in the castle where he was detained for 18 months until his execution in October 1536.

“…and I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening; it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark. But most of all I beg and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the commissary, that he will kindly permit me to have the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary, that I may pass the time in that study…

His verdict was sealed in August, 1536. He was formally condemned as a heretic and degraded from the priesthood. Then in early October (traditionally October 6), he was tied to the stake and then strangled by the executioner, then afterward consumed in the fire. Foxe reports that his last words were, “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes!” He was forty-two years old, never married and never buried.”

Excerpted from John Piper’s Always Singing One Note- A Vernacular Bible

Filed Under: Church History

Cannibalism and World Missions

November 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

D. James Kennedy, in his book What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?, tells of an amusing story about world missions:

During World War II, on a remote island in the Pacific, an American G.I. met a national who could speak English carrying a Bible. “The soldier pointed to the Bible and grinned knowingly. ‘We educated people don’t put much faith in that Book anymore,’ he said.

The islander grinned back. ‘Well, it’s a good thing for you that we [believe this Book],’ he said while patting his stomach, ‘or else you’d be in here by now.’”

Filed Under: World Missions