Over the next 3 weeks nearly everyone will be talking about Christmas. Schools will close and stores will stay open longer as everyone makes plans to celebrate the most widely observed holiday on our calendar. Of course, for many (perhaps most) Americans, Christmas is simply an excuse to spend…
JM asked about Spurgeon’s view of Christmas. I like Spurgeon on this subject because he does not fit easily into either of the simple pre-cut molds that tend to dominate those with strong opinions on whether Christians should even acknowledge, much less celebrate Christmas. In one corner you have…
“Great News! Walgreens Says ‘Next Year Will Be Different!’” That was the headline of the December 1 email I got from the American Family Association (AFA). Because of the efforts of those who threatened boycotts, Walgreens got the message. And they are not the only ones. Lowe’s also got…
A few years ago our family was visiting a church on the first Sunday of December. The pastor stood up and announced, “Tonight, we will have the hanging of the greens.” I leaned over to my wife and whispered, “I don’t know what the Greens did but it must…
We observed the Lord’s Supper last Sunday as a part of our worship that included a sermon on apostasy from Jeremiah 18:13-23. In verse 15 the Lord summarizes Judah’s apostate condition with this simple charge, “My people have forgotten Me.” That succinct assessment is repeatedly made in the first…
Every year we get assaulted with complaints about how the world is “taking Christ out of Christmas.” The AFA letter I posted last week is a case in point. We should be far more concerned to see Christ kept in the Church and in professing Christians than we are…
I got an email from the American Family Association asking me to sign a petition threatening companies that do not use “Christmas” in their advertizing at this time of the year. Here is the complete text of the email: Companies Ban ‘Christmas,’ Not Worried About Backlash Dear Thomas, Several…
I was out of the country when I learned about the death of Adrian Rogers, longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. I was saddened by the news and those I was with on the Founders Cruise prayed more than once for his family. We prayed with…
The following excerpt comes from a well-known Southern Baptist pastor: “In the forty-sixth chapter of Isaiah and beginning at the ninth verse, listen to the Word of the Lord: For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,Declaring the end…
My comments on this important book continues. Chapter 7 calls for the “Recovery of a Grace-Centered Theology” in order for significant reform to come to Southern Baptist churches. Nettles acknowledges that all Christians, of whatever stripe, believe that sinners are saved by grace. However, Roman Catholicism, as well as…