My Two Cents on Elephants and Ecclesiastical Separation

Pastor Voddie Baucham’s discussion of The Elephant Room and his removal from the men’s retreat at Harvest Bible Church following ER2 is an essential read for people sorting through separation/fellowship issues in our day. I’m grateful for his conviction and candor. Give it a read. Baucham’s post is one of many sage responses to ER2 (read [...]

Two CWM Hymns on new Grand View CD

Two hymns from ChurchWorksMedia.com have been included on a new recording from Grand View Ministries, a camp ministry in Alpine, AZ and Alberta, CAN. The CD, their third, includes orchestrations recorded by The Prague Symphony. It’s huge! The CD has SATB vocals and a few solos, but the CWM hymns were both recorded with men’s [...]

Jesus, Mud, and Joel Osteen

Few of Jesus’ miracles are given as much face time as His healing of the man born blind in John 9. It’s a beautiful and tragic passage—beautiful for what it reveals about Christ, tragic for what it reveals about His opponents. It’s been captured quite faithfully in this video (HT: Dan Winnberg). Here are some [...]

His Robes for Mine at Stonebriar: MP3, Orchestration, Swindoll Comments

His Robes for Mine has been used a number of times at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, TX. My friend Paul Thompson arranged the piece for their orchestra, choir, and congregation. He has kindly provided several files for download: Here is an MP3 of His Robes for Mine from a recent service. (I posted a previous [...]

Thank God for “mundane, anonymous, non-descript people.”

Carl Trueman commends mundane ministry in this typically insightful post. Here’s a taste: “In the real world, many, perhaps most,  of us worship and work in churches of 100 people or less; life is not loud and exciting; big things do not happen every Sunday;  budgets are incredibly tight and barely provide enough for a [...]

New Hymn Text: “Christ Has Won!”

Here’s a text that’s been in my file for a couple years. I’ve dusted it off and reworked it. I hope it will be an encouraging, triumphant anthem for Christ’s church. What a Savior we have! Christ Has Won! Born in sin, so sin I craved— Born, and from that birth depraved. Till I turned [...]

Leon Morris on Reconciliation

I mentioned a few weeks back that Leon Morris’ book The Atonement: Its Meaning and Significance was on my reading list to start 2012. It’s been a profitable read. Yesterday I was encouraged by Morris’ thoughts regarding the biblical doctrine of reconciliation—that God has provided for the end of enmity between Himself and sinners (and for [...]

New Hymn Text: “Come, Lonely Heart”

I feel like the woman at the well in John 4 is a dear friend. I’ve meditated and preached on her story often.  I like her. I pity her. I relate to her. “I am a Samaritan woman,” I like to say. Above all, I rejoice in the salvation and satisfaction she finds in Christ. I [...]

Gospel Adventure

I thank the Lord for friends who have spurned the pseudo-adventure of video games, ultimate fighting, and prolonged adolescents for the genuine adventure of gospel advance in difficult places. Steve Hafler is one such friend, and he offers a great challenge to young men in his recent post, “Are We Done Playing Games?” Good stuff.

The Passovers Accomplished Both Deliverance and Community

The parallels between the Old Testament Passover and the work of Christ are striking (as I’ve noted here). Christ timed His death to coincide with the death of the Passover lambs in Jerusalem (John 19:14-16). Jesus died once, in history, to deliver us from sin, just as lambs died at the original Passover to deliver [...]