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Let me get my caveats out of the way first. Yes, I have preached my share of long sermons (more on that in a moment). I don’t do many 15-minute homilies. My last four sermons on the Christ Covenant website (as of Monday) were 43 minutes, 46 minutes, 46 minutes, and 36 minutes. I aim […]

Category Articles
Date October 12, 2018
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Instead of lifting my soul to gaze upon the Lord’s beauty while in a church service or reading my Bible at home, my mind drifts to my plans for later in the day, my favorite sports team, or to what is stressing me — and Satan loves it. When our minds are somewhere else, they […]

Category Articles
Date October 3, 2018
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Recently I was speaking in a part of the country known for its antagonism to the gospel. Church planting in that area is very hard work. The small number of confessionally strong churches are making headway, but slowly. I admire these pastors, evangelists, and church planters more than I can say; it is a pleasure […]

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Date October 1, 2018
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The Lord Christ was crucified. But he has risen from the dead and the resurrection is God’s public declaration that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and that his death on that tree satisfied justice once and for all. And this Jesus has ascended up and sat down at the right hand of God, and he […]

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Category Articles
Date September 26, 2018
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‘They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’ –Acts 2:42 James the apostle, in his letter to the twelve tribes who were disbursed abroad, was seeking to bring them back to the revival culture they had first experienced on the day of Pentecost, […]

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Category Articles
Date September 24, 2018
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I’m neither a diehard physical book fan nor a committed Kindle devotee. I read a hybrid of traditionally published texts and ebooks, depending on their content, price, their purpose, and the timescale that I have to read them. Often I will have a physical copy of a book and its ebook counterpart in the interests […]

Category Articles
Date September 19, 2018
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‘They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’ — Acts 2:42 I, for one, am very thankful that many of our Presbyterian and Reformed churches observe the Lord’s Supper each Sunday. After all, we believe that the Lord’s Supper is more than a […]

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Category Articles
Date September 17, 2018
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‘They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’ –Acts 2:42 Why does preaching do so little to transform people in the pew? When the Apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, after the promised Holy Spirit had been poured out in fulfilment […]

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Category Articles
Date September 10, 2018
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This is a reprint of an article that was first published in the Banner of Truth magazine, July – August 1968. His words remain valuable today. * * * The Value of the Gospel No men in the world want help like them that want the Gospel. A man may want liberty, and yet be […]

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Category Articles
Date September 5, 2018
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‘They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’ — Acts 2:42. In fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28-32), in fulfilment of Jesus’ promise (Luke 24:46-49, Acts 1:8), after ten days of earnest prayer, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the one hundred […]

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Category Articles
Date September 3, 2018
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Every employment has its own particular perils and pitfalls, occupational hazards which are simply attendant on fulfilling the task in hand. In this post I want to share three healthy and holy fears which should characterise the mind and heart of a faithful minister. These are not the pathological fears which seize all of our […]

Category Articles
Date August 29, 2018
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Imagine the average layperson in your church—the owner of a bike shop, a truck driver, a doctor, a secretary, a lawyer, a school teacher.  If you were to ask him or her, ‘How does your pastor expect you to apply your Christian faith to your work?’ What would they say? I can imagine the average […]

Category Articles
Date August 27, 2018
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A few years ago, a Christian I knew ended his life prematurely. It was sudden, tragic, and devastating to all of us—but especially to his family. Sometimes it’s hard for any of us to believe that people could do this to themselves and to their families, but the reality is that any of us could […]

Category Articles
Date August 24, 2018
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In some churches, it is a word that conjures up images of an angry and capricious God who acts arbitrarily to save some, but consigns most sinners—including deceased infants—to eternal perdition. For many professing Christians, it is the mother of all swear words. Let the pastor breathe it in the presence of the deacon board […]

Category Articles
Date August 22, 2018
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Here are some questions you must consider. . . 1. Are you currently meaningfully involved in a church? If not, do that for a few years and decide whether you still want to work in the church. 2. When you read about the offices of elder or deacon, do you resonate more deeply with one or […]

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Date August 20, 2018
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The writings of Mr. Bunyan need no recommendatory preface. The various editions they have passed through, and the different languages into which many of them have been translated, sufficiently prove that the gifts of God which were in him, have, by the divine blessing, been made very acceptable and useful to the churches. Though he […]

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Category Articles
Date August 17, 2018
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We need a category for revival in all of our churches. Without it, we may miss out on the great blessing that God offers. Without it, we may spend our lives toiling for the wrong things, and we may shortchange the future generations. Revival, in the historical sense, is an in-breaking of the kingdom of […]

Category Articles
Date August 15, 2018
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Proverbs has always been one of my favourite books. When as a young man it was called to my attention that there’s a chapter for each of the thirty-one days in a month, I began the habit of daily reading the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month. After doing so […]

Category Articles
Date August 13, 2018
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It was that title that caused me to read a book review and then purchase the book. I had never heard of Marilynne Robinson but was informed that she had been raised in a Presbyterian home, and had become a writer of sharp, subtle, moving prose, internationally acclaimed and a Pulitzer prize-winner. In the book […]

Category Articles
Date August 10, 2018
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One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in evangelism is telling people the good news without telling them the bad news. No wonder I’m met with blank stares or “That’s nice for you, but not for me.” When we don’t tell unbelievers about sin and wrath, they often think grace is irrelevant. They don’t see […]

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Category Articles
Date August 8, 2018
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It’s impossible to measure the influence of Richard Baxter over four centuries. His works remain in print and are widely read, which shouldn’t surprise us. J. I. Packer considers him ‘the most outstanding pastor, evangelist, and writer on practical and devotional themes that Puritanism produced,’ listing Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor (1656) as one of the top five books that have influenced him […]

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Category Articles
Date August 6, 2018
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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 […]

Category Articles
Date August 1, 2018
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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. […]

Category Articles
Date July 30, 2018
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‘Thy word I have treasured 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 […]

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Category Articles
Date July 27, 2018
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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, […]

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Category Articles
Date July 25, 2018
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