The power of preaching is demonstrated in the following story told by Mark Dever: “Charles Spurgeon tells how George Whitefield the great eighteenth-century evangelist, was hounded by a group of detractors who called themselves the ‘Hell-fire Club.’ When Whitefield would stand outside preaching this little group of guys would stand off on the side and [...]
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The Power of Preaching (Acts 3:11-26)
Posted: April 30, 2012 in SermonsTags: Church, hell fire club, John MacArthur, John Phillips, Mark Dever's Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, preaching, theology
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Five Marks of a Healthy Church: Serving in God’s Work
Posted: April 28, 2012 in The ChurchTags: 1 corinthians 12, biblical stewardship, Church, Healthy churches, John Hammett's Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches, psalm 24, religion, romans 12
80 percent of all churches are stagnant or in decline writes John Hammett. One church closes each day. As a whole, the church is alive but not well. In Acts 2:42-47, Dr. Luke does more than take the pulse, he gives a thorough examination of first local church. The report of Luke the physician is [...]
Five Important Ministries of the Church (Acts 2:42-47) Part 1: Teaching God’s Word
Posted: April 17, 2012 in Church Ministries, SermonsTags: Andrew Sullivan, Erwin Lutzer, follow Jesus, Forget the church, John MacArthur, John S. Hammett, Newsweek, St. Francis of Assisi, Warren W. Wiersbe
Art Linkletter once saw a little boy drawing a picture. He was furiously coloring away with an intense look on his face. Linkletter asked him, “Son, what are you drawing?” The little boy replied, “A picture of God.” Linkletter informed the lad that no one knows what God looks like, to which the boy confidently [...]
Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus by Jeff Bethke
Posted: April 12, 2012 in NewsTags: Jeff Bethke, Kevin DeYoung, Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus
Bethke says he hates religion (in verse 7) but loves the church and loves the Bible (in verse 5). More accurately, Jeff means he hates false religion because James 1:26-27 describes pure religion as helping the poor and being set apart for God. Bethke identifies problems even in the church (such as hypocrisy in verse 4) [...]
Forget the Church and Follow Jesus?
Posted: April 12, 2012 in NewsTags: Andrew Sullivan, Francis of Assisi, Rich Warren
Andrew Sullivan of Newsweek says Christianity is in crisis and that believers should Forget the Church, Follow Jesus. He cites Thomas Jefferson’s cutting out of the Bible all the miracles of Jesus as a great example to follow. Jefferson’s rejection of the supernatural is our example? Newsweek does an annual critique of Christianity at Easter [...]
How to Resolve Christian Conflict
Posted: April 10, 2012 in Church MinistriesTags: Ian Murrey's The Forgotten Spurgeon, J. Oswald Sanders' Spiritual Leadership, Jonathan Edwards, Matthew Henry, Vance Havner
More than one hundred years ago, in the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine. The Orioles’ John McGraw got into a fight with the Boston third basemen. Within minutes all the players from both teams had joined [...]
6 Marks of Leadership, Mark Six, “The Leader Handles The Opposition of Personal Attacks” (Nehemiah 6:1-14) Part 3
Posted: April 6, 2012 in Six Marks of LeadershipTags: Charles H. Spurgeon, Chuck Swindoll, Warren W. Wiersbe
It helps leaders to have a sense of humor. Spurgeon would occasionally find a nasty anonymous letter lying on his pulpit when he would stand up to preach. There would a letter but no name. One day he got to the pulpit and there was a piece of paper with one word written in large [...]
6 Marks of Leadership, Mark Six, “The Leaders Handles the Opposition of Selfishness” Part 2
Posted: April 6, 2012 in Six Marks of LeadershipTags: Billy Sunday
This classified advertisement appeared in a rural New York newspaper: “Farmer, age 38, wishes to meet woman about 30 who owns tractor. Please enclose picture of tractor.” I often wondered if this selfish farmer got pictures of John Deere tractors from desperate women. Nehemiah was also dealing with believers who valued possessions over important relationships. [...]
6 Marks of Leadership, Mark Six, “The Leader Handles the Opposition of Discouragement” (Nehemiah 4:1-23) Part 1
Posted: April 6, 2012 in Six Marks of LeadershipTags: Charles Swindoll, Henry Blackaby's Spiritual Leadership, Mark Dever's Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Thomas Edison
Chuck Swindoll tells an incident in the life of the great inventor Thomas Edison. Thanks to his genius, today we enjoy the microphone, the phonograph, the incandescent light, the storage battery, talking movies, and more than a thousand other inventions. But above and beyond all that, he was a man who refused to be discouraged. [...]
