Few books of the Bible puzzle Christians as much as Revelation. Max Doner's two volume collection of sermons aims to help believers make sense of Revelation so that it can be read for the book of encouragement and comfort that it is (Doner is also offering it free to pastors!). While I am only about …
In last Sunday's sermon, I decided not to make much comment on Hebrews 9:23, except noting that it is the author's transition from speaking of the old covenant to speaking of Christ. However, if we slow down to read that verse carefully, a significant question arises: "Thus it was necessary for the copies of the …
Continue reading Why Did Jesus Need to Purify Heaven? | Hebrews 9:23
The following quotation is from Richard Phillips' expository commentary on the book of Hebrews: Complaining is a symptom of a deeper spiritual problem. If we grumble and complain, if we rebel and revolt, it indicates a very poor knowledge of God. Indeed, this was exactly the Lord's diagnosis of Israel, as we see in verse …
The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne has been sitting in my Kindle library for many years, likely downloaded from Challies' list of Kindle deals or some other such digital recommendation. While giving my Kindle content a bit more attention lately (e-readers are wonderful for reading one-handed while holding a sleeping …
This past Sunday I introduced the passage of study with a quotation from N. D. Wilson about how life gets progressively more and more difficult, regardless of how much you have actually matured. It seemed to capture the essence of Israel's sudden battle with the Amalekites. Ready or not, battle was thrust upon them. And …
I have little more than 100 pages left to read before finishing John Piper’s Providence, and it has been a truly profound book. The great value of John Piper’s ministry (sort of like John MacArthur’s ministry) is that even if you disagree with him, his reasoning is so rooted in Scripture that your knowledge of …
As I’ve noted previously, I am taking up Spurgeon’s recommendation for ministers to read through Matthew Henry’s commentaries. Thus far, I have not been disappointed. Henry’s explanation of the text is certainly valuable, but his nuggets of application are where he really shines. Below is a sampling of some of those gems taken from his …
In the introduction to Ford Lewis Battles' translation of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, the role of piety in Calvin's thinking is briefly described. One who takes up Calvin’s masterpiece with the preconception that its author’s mind is a kind of efficient factory turning out and assembling the parts of a neatly jointed …
You may have noticed that Sunday's sermon had significantly less quotations than normal. That is because I ended up going in a different direction with the sermon than I typically do. Rather than focusing upon the centurion, the women, and Joseph in detail, I decided to largely focus on the three together as example of …
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ijw3CIF4gUiskSIZyGwDw?si=5x1-rkEWR2qqHe613mmsoA For my latest pass through Be Thou My Vision, I have been reading a chapter of The Preacher's Catechism by Lewis Allen. Each of the forty-two chapters provides a question and answer, a verse or passage of Scripture, and some explanation, encouragement, and exhortation from Allen. Yesterday morning, I read chapter 7, which gives …
B. C. Newton 