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
One of the realities when you switch churches and denominations is how one network of communication is unplugged and another network is connected. It takes a bit of time to find out where you are in all of this. But after having done moves to England and back again I have found that it is best… Read More Thank You, Article XXXVII
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 As my study drew to a close and I realized how… Read More Hello, I must be going, 7
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 About three-thirty Thursday October 3rd I received a phone call from… Read More Hello, I must be going
This past week I have been reading Cornelis Venema’s The Promise of the Future. It is an excellent book and well worth a pastor’s read. It was in Part IV on how the future is marked with ‘Signs of the Times’ that got me thinking and writing of what has been a month of thlipsis that intensified… Read More Thlipsis
2013 is the year the Episcopal Church, well, The Diocese of New Jersey anyway, has discovered reading the Bible. I was thrilled to hear the presentation in our minister’s meeting of last September because the reading and particularly the hearing of the Bible preached is God’s primary means of grace. The cycle of local ministry… Read More Robert M. McCheyne and The B-I-B, L-E
One of the most glorious joys of the pastorate is in the conversion of the lost and one of the saddest is the falling away of one who professed faith in Christ and his work to save them. You continue to preach the Word of God in the Scriptures and watch as their hearts are… Read More The Early-Warning System
“Sometimes we hear it said that ten minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge of God than ten hours over your books. ‘What!’ is the appropriate response, ‘than ten hours over your books on your knees?’ Why should you turn from God when you turn from your books, or… Read More Godly Learning
My return to a life of prayer started slowly in the beginnings of my conviction of sin and culminating in my conversion in 2007-08. When I say, “I started slowly,” I mean my understanding of what prayer truly is. What is prayer? Prayer is the act of forging a connection between two specific points: our… Read More This Praying Life, Phase 1
In 1538 John Calvin wrote in a letter to Henrich Bullinger, explaining his early difficulties in Geneva, that “…Geneva want preachers and teachers, but not pastors…” As a rector who understands his call to pastor his congregation, I know exactly what Calvin meant. In most congregations, the clergy perform the sacraments, visit the sick, teach… Read More Pastor as Lens
The Vicar's Garden 