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What is the basic assumption of the God-honoring pastor as he begins to preach, and the God-honoring hearers as they actively listen to that same sermon? In other words, what is the intention of the pastor in delivering his sermon? Alistair Begg answers, in his sermon, "The Pulpit: It's Power and Pitfalls:"
From the pulpit of our country, we are supposed to hear not the bright ideas of men, not their rambling thoughts, not their theorizing or their speculation. We assume that the pulpit is not a place for sloganeering or for manipulation; that it's not the place for tall stories and emotionalism. But it is the place for Spirit-filled, Christ-exalting, Bible-based, life-impacting instruction and direction from God, through the words of a spokesman, which impresses upon the listeners the power of [the] text, and not the performance of the preacher. That is the foundational assumption…
Here are some blogs of interest from the past few days —
In the past two days, Al Mohler has written two articles that all parents ought to read. Yesterday he wrote, "The Death Culture Strikes Again," addressing the role of the internet in increasing suicide rates among teens, concluding with yet another admonition to parents to be wary of what their children are consuming digitally.
And this morning he wrote, "Are We Teaching Our Children to Lie?" addressing not only the issue that our children lie (they do — "In the end, 98 percent of the teens admitted lying to parents. At the same time, 98 percent of the same teens said that lying is wrong. Add to this the fact that many of these kids admitted lying a great deal. It turns out that children begin to lie very early. As a skill, lying seems tied to intelligence. The smarter kids lie earlier and more skillfully. Really smart kids can lie at 2 or 3."), but that they may be learning to lie from their parents! As people of the truth, this is an issue worth considering some honest self-evaluation.
And Terry Mattingly writes an interesting column on adultery, offering some data that hopefully suggests adultery may not be as pervasive as is commonly reported, but still concluding with this disheartening comment: "When it comes to matters of infidelity, Christian Americans act more like Americans than they do like Christians."
Here is a list of a number of resources on various topics that I've been accumulating over the past couple of weeks:
