My friend, Paul Stith, who pastors Grace Heritage Church in Auburn, Alabama, asked me to consider writing about the tragic mining accident that left 12 miners dead and another in critical condition in West Virginia earlier this week. Paul was watching a televised news report when friends and family…
Have you ever noticed how many times and how many ways the Bible warns of being deceived? By clear admonition as well as by graphic example God repeatedly calls us to be on our guard against believing lies. That’s what deception is–believing what is not true. It is one…
A few years ago Joel Beeke and Reformation Heritage Books republished a slightly edited version of Octavius Winslow’s Morning Thoughts. It contains daily readings gleaned from his dozens of books. Winslow himself made the selections and arranged their order. It has become my favorite devotional book of this sort,…
With Christmas around the corner and the (welcome) interruption to our normal patterns of life for a few days, I am finding it increasingly hard to write new posts to my blog. So, I plan to take the next two weeks off and hope to return to regular posting…
The Baptist Faith and Message makes several good points on cooperation that are worth highlighting. 1. Each local church is autonomous and no other ecclesiastical organization may exercise authority over it. 2. Each association and convention is autonomous and holds no authority over local churches. 3. Cooperation is right…
The Baptist Faith and Message statement on cooperation makes several helpful points that are worth highlighting. 1. Each local church is autonomous and no other ecclesiastical organization may exercise authority over it. 2. Each association and convention is autonomous and holds no authority over local churches. 3. Cooperation is…
The Baptist Faith and Message has become much more prominent in Southern Baptist life over the last six years. With its revisions that were adopted by the 2000 Southern Baptist Convention it has been used as a standard to help define the doctrinal borders of official SBC agencies and…
“Tom, Thanks. I’m a younger pastor (28), and it sounds like you’ve got us figured out….” -Pastor Brian I don’t know if I have younger pastors figured out or not, but I used to be one (a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away), I have…
Gene Veith wrote a few weeks ago in WORLD Magazine that, on average, about $.02 of every dollar given in a Protestant church offering goes to overseas missions. Southern Baptists have done better than most in funding the spread of the Gospel overseas through the collaborative effort of the…
What I find even more disturbing than churches actually cancelling their Lord’s Day services are the reasons that are being given to support their decisions. So far, what I have read or heard (from both the internet and our local media) as justifications for shutting down Christian churches on…