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Doing good to body and soul
I am a pastor and view the calling of being a “physician of souls” very highly. We must not, however, allow a high view of the ministry to lead us to denigrate the physical and material needs of people. In the words of Richard Baxter, Do as much good as
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Pastors who do good
I very much enjoy the writings of the Puritan pastor Richard Baxter (1615-1691) whether The Reformed Pastor and The Saints’ Everlasting Rest or a work I came across recently How to Do Good to Many I have always been intrigued by and desirous to perform – though regrettably, less effective in carrying out
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Christian submission
Revisiting Girolamo Zanchi and his The Spiritual Marriage Between Christ and His Church he unpacks the duties of husbands and wives and emphasizes the demand of submission for the wife. The spiritual side of submission is expounded with regard to faith and repentance in the following paragraphs. With regard to the submission
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“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
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“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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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