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
I first read of Isaac Watts as a boy learning American history at school in that battle cry, “Give ’em Watts, boys!” at the battle of Springfield, New Jersey. Over time I spotted his name in hymnals as the author of the some of the most famous hymns in evangelical Christendom. It happened this week… Read More Give ’em Watts, boys!
There are times in a regular pattern of study in God’s word and in a regular pattern of prayer that brings together who God is in his holiness and my deep and desperate need in my sinfulness, to see afresh the amazing grace and mercy in our Savior’s bloody sacrifice done for me as a… Read More Man A Nothing
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
Ever met an evangelist? I met one recently in the pages of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. He is simply called “Evangelist” but it would be wrong to impose upon Bunyan’s character a modern understanding of an itinerant, American-style preacher. Rather, Evangelist here represents an important facet of the office of pastor which remains connected… Read More Seeker, Seeking, Sought
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
The third phase in the renewal of my prayer life was how the past met the present. It was the way in which all I had been taught yet never valued in bible college and Westminster Seminary, I suddenly understood. I understood the “why” of the gospel. I understood grace. It all became real to… Read More This Praying Life, Phase 3
The Vicar's Garden