• “Bear new sons to Christ”

    An interesting book on marriage and its correlation to the union believers have with Christ is The Spiritual Marriage Between Christ and His Church and Every One of the Faithful written by Girolamo Zanchi, Concluding his chapter on “Duties of Husbands and Wives” Zanchi includes this gem of a thought that I

  • “Not a pilgrimage merely of inward experiences”

    Our congregation emphasizes a believer’s spiritual experience – the way a person comes to Christ, loves Christ, and lives out of Christ.  This is relatively uncommon in the confessing church today where there tends to be more of an emphasis on programs and social action.  While emphasizing spiritual experience is

  • Don’t stand shivering!

    Our nature recoils from shame – even though it is an expected result of sin.  This is true in evangelism as much as in any area of our lives. John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress includes an account described by ‘Faithful’ of his interaction with a certain man ‘Shame’. …he objected

  • No Comparison!

    The realities of heaven and hell are not able to be compared.  The beautiful description of Christian (in The Pilgrim’s Progress) to the possession of the eternal kingdom and what things that will be there… [In response to the nature of the place] There is an endless kingdom to be

  • The “due proportion” of hope and fear

    John Bunyan, in The Pilgrim’s Progress captures Christian’s response to the revelations of Interpreter’s house in a simple way, “Yea, and they put me in hope and fear.” To which, Interpreter responds, “Well, keep all things so in thy mind that they my be as a goad in thy sides,

  • Christ’s righteousness is everything!

    I have been reading through John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress again and have enjoyed footnotes by a Rev. Mason that set forth the beauty of salvation by Christ and His righteousness imputed freely to believers.  Please read the three quotations below and be edified! Mr. Worldly-wiseman prefers morality to Christ the

  • A believer’s devotion and hope

    The following two excerpts are from F.W. Krummacher’s “David: King of Israel” in the part of chapter 12 of 2 Samuel when the LORD chastises David.  I appreciated the singular purpose of glorifying the LORD in this first quote, where Krummacher is expounding on verse 14, “given occasion for the

  • Momentous Confrontation

    If the first impression following an experiential acquaintance with the King of kings is an acute sense of estrangement, the second would be confrontation. Again in the words of the 19th century German pastor, F.W. Krummacher, The Lord calls you by name, and while the relation in which you have

  • Personal acquaintance with the King

    Experiential religion is knowing the Triune God personally.  It is described by F.W. Krummacher in his sermons on the life of David in the sermon on David calling Mephibosheth to himself in 2 Samuel 9.  Krummacher writes, Until that time he [the sinner awakened out of his death-sleep]] knew Him

  • What defines our congregation?

    This is such a challenging question to answer, what is the essence of who we are?  Some churches strive to be known for inclusion, some for social activism, others for the broad impact on culture…we desire to be known as a congregation which experiences the God of truth and the