‘When God wants to drill a man, and thrill a man, and skill a man When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part When He yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man That all the world should be amazed, Watch his methods, watch His ways: How he ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects; How he hammers him and hurts him And with mighty blows converts him into shapes and forms of clay Which only God can understand, While man’s tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands; Yet God bends but never beaks when man’s good He undertakes How He uses whom he... [read more]

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Raymond C. Ortlund Jr is the pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville. Ray recently contributed to the new ESV Study Bible, compiling notes for the book of Isaiah. Here is a link to the Isaiah intro along with the first couple of chapters. In what follows, I put a few questions to Ray about Isaiah in the context of the ESV Study Bible. 1. Ray, I believe that Isaiah is one of the books you’ve given yourself to for special ‘lifetime study.’ What led to your interest in Isaiah and how have you invested in studying it? Dr. Bruce Waltke introduced me to Isaiah at Dallas Semina... [read more]

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How true: “People will get mad at you if you do it right.”

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So you know you’re stressed already. Here’s a chance to find out just how badly! You only need to adjust the dials on this 7-pronged stress indicator. Apparently, I ‘occasionally’ feel the effects of stress…

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(Glen. School. Day 1)

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Michael Quicke highlights 10 marks of preaching that lacks courage. 1. Individualistic. 2. Aimed at head or heart but rarely at both. 3. Spineless theology. 4. Generic application. 5. Avoids conflict. 6. Low compliance. 7. Absence of process issues. 8. Solo role. 9. Cowardice. 10. Missionally defective. Read the whole thing here.

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My post last week entitled “A Few Things I’m Working On In My Preaching” generated a fair bit of discussion, and some were unsure of the whole premise. While I don’t usually recap on old posts, I thought I’d share a couple more reflections on it. 1) The post was only intended to be semi-serious. I think only James Anderson - the first commenter - picked this up. Could this be due to the fact that he is from the UK and therefore picks up on the slightly ironic humour? (Adding at the end of the post “this may take a while” was meant to convey this! I... [read more]

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“Richard Baxter, a great puritan preacher, said of preaching, ‘whatever you do, let the people see that you are in good earnest…You cannot break men’s hearts by jesting with them.’” (Mark Dever, in The Message of the New Testament - Promises Kept, p390 )

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Since sermon manuscripts has been a recent topic in the blogosphere, I thought I might link to a series of posts I did a while back on this very subject: “The Manuscript Maze.” I outline here the three main approaches to sermon notes with their corresponding pros and cons. * The Manuscript Maze (part one) * The Manuscript Maze (part two) * The Manuscript Maze (part three) * The Manuscript Maze (part four) —————————————— Other Toolbox This Week New Chronological Bible Westminster Seminary Teaches ... [read more]

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Mike Bullmore’s sermon notes have now been posted by Josh Harris. The most striking observation is that they are hand written; a close second, is the observation that they are hard to decipher! (to me, not to pastor Bullmore!). I’ve heard Mike Bullmore say that his sermon notes are hand-written because he writes better that way. There’s still something special about writing by hand, perhaps the slower pace and the opportunity to search for the right word, that he finds enriching. From my limited observation Bullmore’s approach is increasingly distinctive in our tec... [read more]

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