Precious are the times when a classic hymn transfixes you. One did this week. Under pressure for a sermon draft deadline, my head was down and the fingers moving across the keyboard as iTunes played a shuffle of songs behind. That’s when I heard Anglican John Newton’s 1779 hymn, “I Asked the Lord that I… Read More I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow
The more determined men become to despise the teaching of Christ, the more zealous should godly ministers be to assert it and the more strenuous their efforts to preserve entire. And more than that, by their diligence to ward off Satan’s attack. John Calvin The reality of what was clearly taught throughout the Scriptures concerning… Read More Hello, I must be going, 5
The more determined men become to despise the teaching of Christ, the more zealous should godly ministers be to assert it and the more strenuous their efforts to preserve entire. And more than that, by their diligence to ward off Satan’s attack. John Calvin Let’s recap from last time how the plan of redemption found… Read More Hello, I must be going, 3
Our Wednesday service has been reading through Luke’s gospel consecutively each week. We have just concluded Luke 15, a favorite chapter of many. Jesus tells there the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost sons. Those of you who have read Luke 15 with frequency as I have done and have… Read More The Ninety and Nine
Why did Jesus have to die? He is your substitute. He took the punishment you deserved so that you can receive the blessing he deserved, all for the glory of God. Here it is in black and white. The most important paragraph in the Bible. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart… Read More The Most Important Paragraph in the Bible
On this 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection, when the Puritans were ejected from the Church of England, I pulled down a volume of Thomas Manton, the ejected rector of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden. Of his influence, the First Bishop of Liverpool J.C. Ryle wrote, “If ever there was an English divine who must be classed… Read More Black Bartholomew’s Day
With my father’s death on June 7th and funeral yesterday I am much more conscious now than before of losing those precious ties to my Frisian heritage. All of my cousins and second cousins old enough to remember eventually asked the same question yesterday, “How’s your Frisian?” And we we’re not talking about black and… Read More “In Stukje Brakel”
“Most people go to the country or the ocean to relax. I go to the 16th and 17th centuries,” is a light-hearted truth about me and explains today’s entry. After a fruitless search on Netflix for the documentary film God’s Outlaw on William Tyndale, Netflix had created a new “Recommended for Henry” list. I then… Read More Relax in 1564…
I have just put down a very well-written biography of Charles Hodge. He was the principal Reformed theologian of Princeton Theological Seminary for over 50 years. Irenic and ecumenical, influential Episcopalians John Johns and Charles McIlvaine were Hodge’s lifelong friends. There is much to commend the biography to you. You really get a sense… Read More Time for a Pilgrimage!
Yesterday, July 27, 2011 at 1515hrs GMT, that quiet lion of the gospel John R. W. Stott, left this frail flesh behind and entered into the glory of Christ. About the time he was leaving the Church militant for the Church triumphant, I was journaling through Romans 12.1-2 with his commentary (in the Bible Speaks… Read More Uncle John
The Vicar's Garden 