Archive for September 2012
Bring … the Books: C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography
by Mark Minnick Will anyone ever know how many biographies of Charles Haddon Spurgeon have been issued? Lewis Drummond, who authored the massive Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, lists nearly 40 in his bibliography, including the autobiography that Spurgeon himself started and his wife and secretary, Joseph Harrald, completed. As I write this, the four large…
Read MoreA Checklist for Choosing a Good Local Church
by Jim Hollandsworth How should one go about choosing a good local church? Apart from a recommendation by a trusted pastor or friend, the process can be daunting, especially in this age of apostasy and evangelical compromise. Churches that once adhered to the fundamentals of the faith have departed. Multitudes of ministries have gone the…
Read MoreA Biblical Philosophy of Church Planting
by Otis R. Holmes Every subject has a philosophy. It may not be spelled out, but it is there just the same — whether good or bad, right or wrong. Church planting has its own philosophy — godly or worldly. Of course, the true philosophy of church planting is to be Biblical. But what is…
Read MoreWhy Cling to a Conservative Music Standard?
by Paul Downey Ministries need a Biblical and philosophical basis for rejecting popular music in favor of conservative, traditional music. The music used in our churches and schools should provide a high-quality, meaningful alternative to the high-pressure worldly influence of popular music. While the text is important, it is by no means the only criterion…
Read MoreThe Center of Our Music
by Brad McKenzie Recently, while preparing the walls and ceilings of our house for painting and papering, I have gained additional experience with an electric sander. In fact, one of three sanders I have used literally fell apart through frequent use. This enabled me for the first time to look at the mechanism, normally hidden…
Read MoreAround the Web–9/7/12 “Answers?”
Last week we posted an article containing questions for Matt Olson and Northland International University. Some have suggested that this post – “What Matters Most: How We Draw the Lines” – contains the answers to our questions. It is not clear whether Matt is answering us or simply continuing a series (see Part 1 and…
Read MoreWhat Is at Stake in the Music Debate?
by John Vaughn Nothing seems to provoke dogmatic statements like dogmatic statements. Solomon said in Proverbs 15:1, “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” The thoughts in this column are a sincere attempt at a soft answer, but they may still touch a nerve. Most of our controversies involve three…
Read MoreWhat Makes You Laugh? Laughter Is Revealing
by Ken Stephens According to a recent article in Psychology Today, “the average six-year-old laughs 300 times a day, the average adult, just 17.” Why is that? Somewhere along the line, we learned not to laugh. That’s right. A baby giggles for the first time at about nine weeks of age. Between 4–6 months, touch…
Read MoreThe Certainty of Sanctification
by Don Johnson An occasional series on sanctification — Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here. We’ve covered two topics in this series so far, the Strategy of Sanctification (Rm 6) and the Struggle for Sanctification (Rm 7). God offers us the former and we generally experience the latter. When you get to the…
Read MoreWorthy Examples
by David L. Cummins This article first appeared in FrontLine • July/August 2000. Click here to subscribe to the magazine. Modern-day believers do well from time to time to meditate upon heroes from yesteryear, and then pause to consider that, in some small way by God’s grace, we might become miniature heroes for a future…
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