A Word for Preachers...Keller on Christ-like Preaching

"Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did."

Tim Keller  
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Calvin on Salvation

"Our mind is always impelled to look at our worthiness; and as soon as our unworthiness is seen, our confidence sinks. Accordingly, the more any one is oppressed by his sins, let him the more courageously betake himself to Christ, relying on this doctrine, that he came to bring salvation not to the righteous, but to 'sinners.'"

 John Calvin
Calvin's Commentaries, Volume XXI

A Word for Preachers...Mohler on Christ-Centered Preaching

"Even more, the moralistic fables that many evangelicals hear from their pastors week in and week out will not evoke the kind of burning-in-the-heart awe that these two disciples experienced on the road to Emmaus. If we want our people to feel that kind of excitement about the gospel, then they need to hear and know the same sweeping story that Jesus unfolded to these two disciples.

"'Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,' Luke says, 'he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.' Every single text of Scripture points to Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of all, and therefore He is the Lord of the Scriptures too. From Moses to the prophets, He is the focus of every single word of the Bible. Every verse of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Him, and every story of the Bible is not just a compendium of good short stories, but a grand, life-encompassing metanarrative of God's work of redemption in the world."

Al Mohler
He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World

Friday Fun...You're Putting Words in My Mouth!

(HT: The Blazing Center)

West Cannon Pastors' Seminar

Each year, West Cannon Baptist Church near Grand Rapids hosts a wonderful conference for pastors. It is very inexpensive and the teaching is always top notch, including in past years such speakers as D.A. Carson, Joel Beeke, Voddie Baucham, Steven Lawson and Jerry Bridges. This year's conference will occur on September 24th & 25th and will feature speakers Mike Horton and Kevin DeYoung.

For those who register before August 31, the cost for the seminar is just $35 per person, which includes both a continental breakfast and lunch on Tuesday. If you can't make the whole conference, the Monday evening session is open to the public at no charge.

More details will be forthcoming, but pencil this event in on your calendar and plan on attending!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Berkhof on Union With Christ

"In view of what was said, it is quite evident that it is not correct to say that the mystical union is the fruit of man's believing acceptance of Christ, as if faith were not one of the blessings of the covenant which flow unto us from the fulness of Christ, but a condition which man must meet partly or wholly in his own strength, in order to enter into living relationship with Jesus Christ. It enables us to appropriate on our part what is given unto us in Christ, and to enter ever-increasingly into conscious enjoyment of the blessed union with Chris, which is the source of all our spiritual riches.

"This union may be define as that intimate, vital, and spiritual  union between Christ and His people, in virtue of which He is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation."

Louis Berkhof
Systematic Theology

Be A Part of Indelible Grace VI

Not too long ago, I wrote about a video I purchased which chronicled the history of one of the leading proponents of the Hymns Movement: Indelible Grace. I was excited to learn this weekend that Indelible Grace is embarking upon a new recording project this summer as they head to the studio to produce Indelible Grace VI.

The project is being funded in part by Kickstarter, and I would like to ask you to consider playing a part. Supporters of the project receive great rewards, including a digital download of the finished album. Please check out the videos below, and then click here for more information or to donate to this project.

A Word for Preachers...Sproul on Holiness and the Charge of Hypocrisy

"Ministers are noteworthy of their calling. All preachers are vulnerable to the charge of hypocrisy. In fact, the more faithful preachers are to the Word of God in their preaching, the more liable they are to the charge of hypocrisy. Why? Because the more faithful people are to the Word of God, the higher the message is that they will preach. The higher the message, the further they will be from obeying it themselves."

R.C. Sproul
The Holiness of God

Screwtape Coming to Michigan

Sorry about the late notice, but I just found out that two weeks from Saturday, on June 23, The Screwtape Letters will be coming to Michigan. Fellowship for the Performing Arts will present two performances of this brilliant stage production starring Max McLean. Each 90 minute performance will be at the DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids and will be followed by a discussion with McLean about the play.

Click on the following links to see a seating chart, to purchase tickets for either the 4:00 show or the 8:00 show, or for more information.

Friday Fun...Mister Rogers Remixed

I think we have a hit on our hands...

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Cornelius Plantinga on Self-Centeredness

"A proud person tries to reinvent reality. He tries to redraw the borders of human behavior to suit himself, displacing God as the Lord and boundary keeper of life. At bottom, the fool is out of touch with reality. For, of course, our wills are not sovereign. We are not really our own centers, anchors, or lawgivers. We have not made ourselves, cannot keep ourselves, cannot ultimately oblige or forgive ourselves. The image of ourselves as center of the world is fantasy -- perhaps, in its sheer detachment from reality, even a form of madness. This is especially clear at the most ruinous levels of evil. Only a fool, Milton believed, would rise from the flaming ruins, look out across a 'dismal Situation waste and wild,' filled with 'huge affliction and dismay,' and declare: 'Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n.'"

Cornelius Plantinga Jr.
Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin

A Word for Preachers...Lloyd-Jones on Dull Preaching

“I am disturbed therefore when I am often told by members of churches that many of the younger Reformed men are very good men, who have no doubt read a great deal, and are very learned men, but they are very dull and boring preachers; and I am told this by people who themselves hold the Reformed position. This is to me a very serious matter; there is something radically wrong with dull and boring preachers. How can a man be dull when he is handling such themes? I would say that a ‘dull preacher’ is a contradiction in terms; if he is dull he is not a preacher. He may stand in a pulpit and talk, but he is certainly not a preacher. With the grand theme and message of the Bible dullness is impossible.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones  
Preachers & Preaching

Friday Fun...Like a Thief in the Night

(HT: Joe Carter)