5 Practical Points for Preachers

“One day it will be said of all those who are his that God was faithful to his every word and true to his every promise.” - Challies

“Despite the decline in Bible users, 63 million Americans (24%) personally engage with Scripture at least weekly, beyond church services.” - Lifeway

“The online gambling industry is profiting off addiction…. the pushers include state governments.” - The Free Press

“Humanity continues to strive for utopia, but original sin makes it impossible to achieve. Just like no one can get eggs out of a cake that has been baked, no one can get the sin out of us and the world; no one, that is, except Jesus.” - Colin Smith

“In states with abortion bans, a rise in the share of adults saying it should be easier to access abortion in the area where they live” - Pew

“under the new changes, five religious sisters will join five priests as voting representatives for religious orders.” - NPR

Also… Pope Francis clears way for women and lay Catholics to vote in upcoming bishops’ meeting - RNS

“Enrollment numbers, financial challenges, and the pandemic spelled the end.” - C.Today

“ETS will mark its 75th annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on Nov. 14-16. As president, George will give a presidential address during the meeting. This year’s theme is ‘Theological Anthropology.’” - The Alabama Baptist

Read the series.

Since we’ve raised the issue of Messianic prophecies, there are plenty of others worth adding to the pile:

“For Protestants to move forward in advancing God’s kingdom, we must remember the things that make us truly human. ‘It is a way of rebelling against the abolition of man.’” - Rick Plasterer, Carl Trueman

“There’s an important asymmetry here. Paul exhorts churches to support their elders, but he exhorts all Christians to emulate him in serving free of charge.” - TGC

“The challenge that confronts Christian political theology today is how to guard against the abusive tendencies of fallen human authority figures while not destroying authority itself; how to acknowledge that nature is fallen, while remembering that nature was created good.” - Providence

“More than 3 in 4 American Protestant churchgoers say tithing is a biblical command that still applies today (77%), according to a Lifeway Research study. One in 10 (10%) say it is not.” - C.Index

“The findings came from The American Worldview Inventory 2023, an annual tracking study of the worldview of U.S. adults involving 2,000 people from across the country and conducted under the supervision of George Barna” - CPost

What is your view on this matter? The trend toward shorter sermons and more music has not caught on everywhere. Likewise, many pastors still preach expository sermons that dig deeply into the Word, as well as well-studied topical sermons that are grounded in Scripture. In some churches, the Scriptures are read with little meaning, and texts are never expounded. Others emphasize theology and church history, but do so at the expense of actual Bible content. What are your views on the matter? All the aspects of a service matter, but do they matter equally? What is your view?

“we have seen literal textbook examples of how the culminating moments will follow prolonged periods, and possibly even a lifetime, of work.” - IFWE

Natural theology “was not a novelty introduced at the time of the Enlightenment and it did not lead to or cause the Enlightenment.” - Credo

“In a recent article… Scott Sauls argues that it is appropriate to be angry at God when Christians are visited by calamitous acts…. This is a time for grief, but grief coupled with hope, not anger as Saul advocates.” - Ref21

“While, as of this writing, it’s unknown exactly why Carlson and Fox News parted ways, many believe it may be connected to the network’s recent settlement with Dominion Voting Systems…. He also described claims that the voting software was manipulated as ‘absurd’ despite giving significant airtime to those claims.” - Denison

Also…

“Recently, a number of prominent tech executives, including Elon Musk, signed an open letter urging a 6-month pause on all AI research.” - Breakpoint

Miles Smith, one of the principal translators and editors of the King James Version, writing in the name of all the translators, penned “The Translators to the Readers,” an eleven-page preface or introduction to the original edition of the KJV, which, sadly, has been omitted from most KJV editions for the past 350 years. Therein, on unnumbered page 9, he wrote [I normalize spelling]—

Truly (good Christian reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new Translation nor yet to make of a bad one a good one, … but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against; that hath been our endeavor, that our mark.”

“Are the trends reversing? Could younger people return to church in greater numbers? Perhaps. It’s too early to tell, but one researcher gives a little hope.” - Church Answers

“Ahead of the 2016 primaries, Iowa evangelicals would not support Donald Trump in his run for president due to issues they had with his character….As the former president campaigns for 2024, many in this powerful GOP base have flipped their 2016 views.” - IPR

“the ‘officialese’ is far less important than the notion, ‘I really belong here and am absolutely committed here.’ To turn away from that, to reject it, or to deny it is really to repudiate what Christ has brought you into” - Sinclair Ferguson

“Ignatius of Antioch…wrote a letter beginning with these words: ‘To the Church which is at Ephesus … deservedly most happy… . Abundant happiness through Jesus Christ, and His undefiled joy.’” - Randy Alcorn

“in commenting on the challenges posed by the cultural acceptance of transgender ideology, the letter could have done a better job in bringing to bear the kind of pastoral sensitivity this topic deserves.” - Nicholas Perrin

“Gafcon gathering in Rwanda pledges to create alternative authority structures, while Global South fellowship stays separate.” - CToday

Read the series.

Paul’s Understanding of God’s Covenants

Let me begin by again stating that the Apostle Paul saw himself as an ambassador of the New covenant (2 Cor. 3:5). Even though he rarely refers to it by name, it has become clear to many scholars that Paul’s theology is steeped in the New covenant.¹ In the passages I cited above we can see this. And it is true to say that without this comprehension of his mission, Paul’s theology is difficult to pull together.

“Many people in U.S., other advanced economies say it’s not necessary to believe in God to be moral” - Pew