“God should be reverenced as visibly present”: Edwards on singing

Edwards makes the following acute observation about singing in his Some Thoughts Concerning the Revival. Note not only his connection of irreverence to the third commandment, but his insistence that reverence has an “appearance”:
I believe it to have been one fruit of the extraordinary degrees of the sweet and joyful influences of the Spirit of [...]

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Minnick and Edwards on how young ministers address their elders

I recently listened to Pastor Mark Minnick, who pastors the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church of Greenville, S.C., address the FBFI (mp3). He gave what I took to be good advice to young men (specifically bloggers):
To me it is an irony that some of our young fundamentalists, who express such disdain for the older generation who [...]

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Why you space out during prayer, Bible reading, and corporate worship

As a Christian, John Owen argued, you have a responsibility to be on alert against the noetic affects of indwelling sin. Regeneration does not remove the corruption of depravity on our faculties. And, Owen warns, if we are not careful, the corruption of our minds is but the stepstool ruining the whole soul.
It is one [...]

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A relevant word about 335 years old

While reading some John Owen recently I thought that the following remark was particularly “relevant,” as Owen keenly observes that the depravity of our natures has so entangled itself in man’s understanding that there is a resulting factory of continuous vain rebellion against God. Man’s only hope against this malady is regeneration.
Surely this is no [...]

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Qualifying remarks on the importance of devotions in sanctification

This is the kind of piece that begs misunderstanding, so allow me to begin by saying that I myself maintain a time of daily personal Bible study and prayer, and have no intention of ever giving it up. I am humbled that my God and King asks me to come regularly (unceasingly, actually) into his [...]

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Give to the Winds Thy Fears (by Paul Gerhardt) to TERRA BEATA

One of the hymns that has been a true fount of encouragement for me over the past several weeks has been Paul Gerhardt’s classic (translated by John Wesley) “Give to the Winds Thy Fears.” A friend of mine introduced this hymn to me a couple years ago, and I am very grateful to him for [...]

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How I became a “Calvinist” (and it wasn’t because of Piper or MacArthur)

In some respects, I should not call myself a Calvinist. The real Calvinists would get upset. Who can reduce the sum of Calvin’s great theological contributions to five theological axioms dealing with the sovereignty of God in salvation? So for those “real” Calvinists out there, who accept the Genevan’s system to a much greater extent [...]

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