On Worship

"Now, I say we must put heart in our worship. Do not venture to come to this beautiful place of worship, or whatever place of worship you attend, and just sit languidly down to see if the choir can stir you or to see if the preacher can stir you. Oh! stir up your own souls. It is your solemn duty when you go to engage with others in the worship of God-- it is your duty to yourself, it is your duty to others, it is your duty to the pastor who wishes to lead your worship, it is your duty to God, who wants the hearts of men, and who will have nothing but their hearts. I know how we feel. Worn by a week's toil, languid on the Lord's day through lack of our customary excitement, we go and take our places, jaded and dull, and we are tempted to think, "Now I will see whether the services can make any impression on me; whether the preacher can get hold of me-- I hope they may," and we sit passive to wait and see. Oh, let us not dare thus to deal with the solemnity of the worship of God."

-- John A. Broadus, excerpt from Sermons and Addresses

Words of Wisdom

"To be a Christian is the great thing, not to seem one." --Jerome

Critical Thinking Course with Rob Bowman: Sept 28th

Food for thought... Rob Bowman (co-author of Putting Jesus In His Place and Faith Has Its Reasons) will start teaching a live course online starting Tuesday evening, September 28th. Rob is a great author, apologist, and teacher. He has served the church at large for many, many years and displays unearthly patience with cultists of every stripe.

Details here.

The Invitation of the King

I had the blessed opportunity to preach at my home church a couple of weeks ago. I invite you to take 20 minutes to hear the most gracious invitation you will ever be offered. Click here to listen to the sermon.

Biblical Theology Fuels Full Gospel Preaching

Tom Ascol explains what 'biblical theology' is and how it must impact our preaching and teaching in the church. There are some terribly lame preachers who limit "Christian preaching" to the text of the New Testament. When no thought is given to an over-arching theme of the message of the Bible, you leave large portions of God's inspired spiritual feast to spoil.

October Conference w/James White in Minnesota

For the midwesterners out there, here is an opportunity to see and hear great teaching. James White will be in Eagan, MN on October 16-17, 2010. I hope to make it to this so I can finally meet James in person. I've known him online for a long, long time. I've learned a lot from his debates, lectures, and books.


http://www.signetringministries.org/chosen/

Two Prayers to Jesus: Jehovah's Witnesses Take Note

At the end of I Corinthians, Paul is closing his letter with final encouragements, writing by his own hand. His heartfelt desire for the return of Christ springs forth in a brief prayer to Christ:

... O our Lord, come! (1 Corinthians 16:22, New World Translation)

In the NWT Reference Bible, there is a cross-reference at this point to Revelation 22:20, which reads as follows:

"He that bears witness of these things says, ‘Yes; I am coming quickly.’" "Amen! Come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20, New World Translation)

Jesus is coming! These precious prayers spring instantly from the saints, offered without hesitation in full faith in the one they call on. Both Paul and the author of Revelation pray to Jesus, asking him to come. They pray to Jesus. This is spontaneous prayer to Jesus, reflected in the Jehovah's Witness translation of the Bible. These biblical passages contradict what the Watchtower teaches JWs worldwide. The organization tells them it is unacceptable to pray to Jesus because he is not God. And yet... their own Bible tells them otherwise. Paul and John prayed to Jesus.



Who is the Watchtower to restrict what these apostles demonstrate by their own prayers to the Coming One? Is this how the "biblical religion" of the Watchtower works? The words and rules of men overrule the Word of God? It is deadly dangerous to trust the words of men over the Word of God. You are in danger if you eat their so-called 'food in due season'. The so-called spiritual feast of the Watchtower religion is, in reality, corruption and death, killing the soul with rules that directly contradict the Word of God.



Jehovah's Witnesses, time and time again you go house to house and try to convince people that the Watchtower religion is the only true and biblical faith. How can a religion be called 'true and biblical' when it restricts people from following clear teachings of the Bible? The Watchtower places its own words as more important than the inspired text of Scripture. The Scriptures teach, proclaim, and demonstrate the faithful practices of the apostles and early church.



You are safe in following these fine examples of faith found in the Bible. Call on Jesus today! He can hear your prayer and will be faithful to answer it.



Come, Lord Jesus.