Making The Wrong Decisions

Ruth 1:1-5 Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and ...

Past Masters: Hugh Latimer

For years, my grandparents had a sign in their yard that read, "Done Ploughing." Had my grandfather been a preacher in the sixteenth century, Hugh Latimer would have taken issue with that sign. Hugh Latimer (1490?-1555), the most illustrious preacher of the English...

Prayer: The Cry For The Kingdom

Finally, Stanley J. Grenz was a dedicated Christian disciple, gifted theologian and able preacher who died earlier this year at the age of 55. In this complete revision of his book Prayer: The Cry For The Kingdom (Eerdmans), Grenz emphasizes that prayer is a vital way in which God allows us to be...

People My Teachers

People My Teachers (Kregel) is a delightful and colorful (though brief) book in which Christian statesman John RW Stott shares memories of his world travels (along with beautiful photos) and highlights 17 people whose lives have influenced his own. Some are people Stott met, others are persons whose...

Sensitive Preaching On Sexual Topics

A travel agency was upset that their local Yellow Pages advertised that their agency specialized in "erotic" tours when their ad was supposed to say "exotic". Oops! Just a difference of one word (in fact, one very small letter) resulted in a huge flood of interested but disappointed callers and...

A Pre-Owned Rose Is Still A Used Flower

I've written on this subject before, but the examples just keep coming. We live in a culture in which people don't always want to come out and say what they mean - particularly those people who are trying to sell us something. We've always had euphemisms around - "senior" instead of old, "pre-owned" instead of...

A Pastor In Prayer

Ephesians 1:15-23 This paragraph of Scripture contains one of Paul's two prayers found in his letter to the Ephesians. The second prayer, Ephesians 3:14-21, is for the Christians at Ephesus to have strength. The first one, found here is our text, is for them to have...

The Parables: A Preaching Commentary

Speaking of synoptic texts, in The Parables: A Preaching Commentary (Abingdon), Paul S. Duke considers eight of Jesus' parables, offering insights for preaching from these texts. The book also offers helpful opening and closing chapters, the first dealing with the challenge of understanding...