Today I gave my first three lectures on the book of Galatians to 350 very attentive students at Word of Life Bible Institute in Pottersville, New York. Even though Galatians is amazingly contemporary, I face a huge challenge in making it seem relevant today because the major issue in the book deals with something we hardly ever talk about in church…
Since this Super Bowl week, I though I’d share this new video by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees in which he talks about his Christian faith….
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 12, “Building the Tower."A church likes to feel itself in the grip of a man who knows not only where he is going but also by what stages the goal can in all probability best be reached. Some men’s sermons are only bushwhackers fig…
This morning I am on the road again. Last week I was in sunny southern Florida, enjoying the weather and the warm fellowship of the retired missionaries at the SIM Missionary Village in Sebring. Today I’m going in the opposite direction, first to Atlanta, then to Albany, New York, and then 75 miles north, to Word of Life Bible Institute, high…
During a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, noted atheist Christopher Hitchens laid down some seriously good theology. Most people recognize Hitchens as the author of the bestselling book God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything. Since the book’s publication in 2007, Hitchens has toured the country debating a series of religious leader…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 11, “The Value of a Target.""It is easier to lose one’s way in the ministry than in any other calling.""Even men who work prodigiously on their sermons may forget the end for which sermons ought to be prepared.""An aiml…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson:"The world does not know how great a tax upon a sensitive man an earnest sermon is. No man can vitalize other men without devitalizing himself. Sermons that heal and lift have in them the red blood of the preacher’s heart.” “A disheartened man takes the…
In 1900 the noted British pastor J. D. Jones wrote a little book called “Paul’s Certainties” that contains a chapter on “The Unaccountable Man.” The chapter title refers to that moment in Christ’s ministry when he returned to his hometown and the people began to wonder, “Where did this man get this wisdom a…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 9, “Clerical Hamlets."Whatever else a minister may be he must be preeminently a man of good cheer.” …
Yesterday I received a note from someone who wanted to know my views on those who use my material in their own preaching and writing. It seems that he had run across an unusual case (at least it is unusual in my experience) and wanted to know my opinion. How do I feel when I find out that other people out there somewhere, unnamed and unknown to me,…