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Children’s Church Videos

During these times of social distancing, we don’t want any of our kids to miss out on Children’s Church. We can’t really capture the same thing as being there in person, but here’s a heartfelt and serious attempt to fill that void the best we can. 1 Introduction: God Creates the World 2 God Creates Man & Woman 3 Adam & Eve Disobey God 4 Cain & Abel 5 God Chooses Noah 6 The Rainbow of God’s Promise 7 The…
candle flame

Every Christian Evangelism

Is Every Christian Expected to Share the Gospel? The question is not whether the church has been gifted with expert fishermen.  The question is whether each Christian is a fisher of men.  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.  Proverbs 11:30 ESV Our fruitfulness is said to be life-giving.  And the poetic parallel makes it explicit that evangelism is in view.  So, it’s wise to save souls. It’s heroic to save souls, and it’s…

The Woman Caught in Adultery: Why We Aren’t Preaching It

The Woman Caught in Adultery As we arrive at the end of John 7 in our sermon series, we find a story that, in the ESV it is set apart through [[double brackets]] and an editorial note: “The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53-8:11”, to which there is attached a footnote: “Some manuscripts do not include 7:53-8:11; others add the passage here or after 7:36 or after 21:25 or after Luke 21:38, with variations in the text.”  This is an…

Christmas first, then The Wedding!

Christmas first, then The Wedding! We are all abuzz around the Flora house with the upcoming wedding celebration of our son Kevin to his lovely bride-to-be, Meredith! We are now close enough to count down the time in hours until their exchange of marriage vows. The closer we get to the day, the more frenetic the pace seems to be as we rush around with all the last minute arrangements (well, not so much me, but many in the two…

MEAT: Christology 4

Christology, Lesson 4:  A Doggie Bag Adapted from a Christology class taught at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, PA.  The class was taught by Dr. Richard B. Gaffin III, in the spring of 1997.  The class is freely adapted from my notes for M.E.A.T.  I have not been careful to indicate quotations versus summaries of Gaffin’s content. [dropcap]As[/dropcap] we try to delimit the topic of our study, i.e., as we try to circumscribe Christology as a topic of inquiry, Dr. Gaffin…

Doctrine of Christ, 3

The Doctrine of Christ (3): The Center of Christology adapted from WTS seminary notes of Doctrine of Christ, Richard B. Gaffin (ST223, February- 1996) for M.E.A.T. In our first ‘meating’, to study the doctrine of Christ, we considered the nature, task and method of systematic theology itself.  We saw that systematic theology is about revealing the unity that is present in the text of all the scriptures as God speaks in it to particular topics. That is, Systematic Theology is a Topical Approach to the…

Doggie Bag … leftovers from M.E.A.T. (men enthusiastic about theology)

If you missed our first M.E.A.T.ing on March 3rd, here is a summary of our discussion: Remember, this is a retooling of a class I took in Seminary under Dr. Gaffin.  I am not careful in it to distinguish his work or wording from my own.   As we set out on our journey through the “Doctrine of Christ”, we thought it best to discover what we mean by “doctrine”.  Broadly, when we are talking about “doctrine”, we are doing theology…

Anatomy of an Arrogant Heart

As we read the Scriptures it becomes clear that there are only two types of hearts within man: either a proud heart or a humble heart. The proud heart does not recognize a need for God and attempts to live life without any acknowledgement of Him. In contrast, the humble heart not only recognizes the need for God, but also demonstrates that recognition by relying on Him to provide everything necessary to live life in this fallen world. James 4:10…