Sound Words
A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ (2)
Mark Minnick [From yesterday’s introduction:] It would be hard to find any preachers of the last two centuries any more acquainted with outright warfare for Christ than Charles and his brother John. Their earliest journals are not only almost monotonously replete with references to it, but often the entries nearly spurt blood. Here are samples…
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Mark Minnick We have a full thirty of them in our church’s hymnbook: songs by Charles Wesley. But it would take nearly eight hymnbooks of equal size to hold all the church songs Charles wrote. They amount to over six thousand, ten times those of Isaac Watts. So it’s understandable that we might envision that…
Read MoreMissions-Minded
Chuck Phelps Our loving Heavenly Father was so missions-minded that He “sent His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). When Christians consider the matter of missions they consider a matter dear to the heart of God. The power of the American passport and American purse is a tremendous responsibility sadly forgotten by many American Christians. “According…
Read MoreBring the Books: C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography
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.
Read MoreFatal Attraction: What Entertainment Is Doing to Our Youth
Mike Ascher In 1985 author and educator Neil Postman wrote the book Amusing Ourselves to Death. In his opening paragraphs Postman states that “at different times in our history, different cities have been the focal point of a radiating American spirit.” For example, he points out that before the American Revolution “Boston was the center…
Read MoreThe Double-Minded Man: Wavering Faith or Wavering Dedication?
Bud Talbert In the midst of trials, Christians often lack the wisdom to think and act correctly. That is why James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Wisdom comes from God, who gives…
Read MoreAmerica’s First Foreign Missionary Casualty (2)
Mark Minnick This is part two of two. Part One is here. In Part One we were introduced to Harriett Newell and her Christian testimony as she travelled from America to India in 1812. In the absence of all other friends, the bond to Samuel was especially strengthened. “In one bosom friend I find the…
Read MoreAmerica’s First Foreign Missionary Casualty (1)
Mark Minnick I wish that all believers could experience the immensely enriching benefit that some of us obtain from reading Christian biography. So much of what Hollywood and secular historians portray as the past is just pathetic fabrication. It simply didn’t happen that way. But factual Christian biography that is reverently written opens a pleasurable…
Read MoreAdding to Our Faith? (2 Peter 1:5)
Layton Talbert Second Peter establishes that our salvation is secured by means of a faith that gives us equal standing with the apostles themselves because our faith, like theirs, is not attained but obtained (1:1). Everything necessary for our sanctification has also been provided by God (1:3), accessible to us via priceless promises (1:4). Then…
Read MoreInsight into Substantive Preaching (6)
Mark Minnick In Part One of this series, Dr. Minnick introduces a substantive sermon by Benjamin Keach. We also gave you just a taste of the first couple of paragraphs of the sermon. In Part Two of this series, we offered the full introduction to the sermon and the first major point. In Part Three,…
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