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On May 10, 1716, Jonathan Edwards wrote a letter to one of his ten sisters, Mary. Written when he was twelve years old, it is the earliest known letters by Edwards. The very first paragraph was about wakening. That is to say, the earliest sentence that we have from Jonathan Edwards is about awakening. Edwards […]

For many years before entering vocational ministry, I worked as a journalist in the dog-eat-dog world of secular media. While working as a reporter for a metropolitan daily newspaper in Georgia, one of my more progressive colleagues teased me good-naturedly about being a ‘conservative boy’ from a small town in the sticks of North Georgia. […]

‘Thy word I have treasures in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee.’ —Psalm 119:11 From time to time I have people ask me how I go about memorizing Scripture. These same people also have asked me to write about this topic. So here I go. First of all, I have found that […]

I was brought up in the kind of evangelical church that drummed into us as children that Jesus died ‘to save us from our sins’. The cross of Jesus was the centre of the message at summer camps, holiday Bible clubs, and youth group talks. The message was that Jesus had died in my place, […]

It has been a little over one year since my heart attack (March 21, 2017). Without warning, I fell to the kitchen floor unconscious. I remember nothing that happened thereafter until five days later when I found myself in a hospital room. I asked what happened, and someone said, ‘You died three times.’ My heart […]

Scottish evangelical Christianity represents a tradition of biblically faithful, theologically rich, and spiritually powerful devotion and ministry. I think, for example, of William Still, Eric Alexander, and Sinclair Ferguson as outstanding representatives of this glorious tradition. And I can’t think of these men and others like them and what they stand for without emotion. So […]

‘I will build my church,’ Jesus declared (Matthew 16:18). And what a magnificent and agonizing process has unfolded for two millennia. Essential to this work is the formation of living stones — men and women drawn from the quarry of sin, whose lives now testify to gospel grace. But how does Christ construct his church? […]

‘He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him.’ — John 3:36 Have you noticed the many sermons, the many books and blogs telling the church of Jesus that our purpose is to reweave the […]

This article is the third and final part of an extensive review of Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. It is not an endorsement of the book. The first part can be found here and the second here. * * * RULE 7: Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient). This is […]

Of the many video clips I watched of Billy Graham in the week of his death, one in particular has stuck with me. Preaching in Southern Seminary Chapel in 1982, Graham said that at sixty-four years old his greatest surprise in life was the brevity of life: ‘If someone had told me when I was […]

Today (June 10 2018) is the 509th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. He was a French theologian and pastor of Geneva, as well as one of the principal 16th-century Reformers. * * * Let us notice three things about the Genevan Reformer particularly today, July 10, the anniversary of his birth. First, Calvin was a humble […]

Every semester as I teach college students theology, I have them read one or two excerpts from Jonathan Edwards — and every time, I get one of two responses. First, he’s difficult to read! The second response I get from some students is about how Edwards simply sees life differently than they do. They’re surprised, […]

This article is the second part of an extensive review of Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. It is not an endorsement of the book. The first part can be found here. * * * RULE 4. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today ‘No matter […]

I recently attended a conference with a group of pastors from five continents and 15 countries. A number of them had heard about the vibrant and growing Reformed Baptist movement in Zambia, and they asked me what the contributing factors have been. Thankfully, I have been doing some research for a writing project, and so […]

John Newton (1725-1807) was one of the great English Christian leaders of the eighteenth century. He was a slavetrader-turned-abolitionist, mariner-turned-pastor, and blasphemer-turned-hymnodist (‘Amazing Grace’ being his most famous). He also was one of the great pastoral letter writers of church history. And he was one of the great peacemakers of his generation. Healer of Breaches […]