Thursday, August 20, 2009

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest Name I Know!


Here are a few quotes by Charles Spurgeon that I will be thinking about every time I preach from now on:

"The motto of a true servant of God must be, "We preach Christ; and Him crucified." A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching."

"Leave Christ out? O my brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether. If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ's name in it, it ought to be his last, certainly the last that Christian ought to go to hear him preach."

"A sermon without Christ as it's beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and crime in execution. However grand the language, it will be much ado about nothing if Christ be not there. And I mean by Christ not merely His example and the ethical precepts of His teaching, but His atoning blood, his wondrous satisfaction made for human sin, and the grand doctrine of "believe and live".

"Yes, it is Christ, Christ, Christ, whom we have to preach; and if we leave him out, we leave out the very soul of the Gospel. Christless sermons make merriment for Hell. Christless preachers, Christless Sunday school teachers, Christless class leaders, Christless tract distributors - what are all these doing? They are simply setting the mill to grind without putting any grist into the hopper, all their labor is in vain. If you leave Jesus Christ out, you are simply beating the air, or going to war without any weapon with which you can smite the foe."

Monday, August 17, 2009

Friday, August 14, 2009

File Under: Get Ready...It's Coming.

A principal and an athletic director are being put on trial for praying in the teachers lounge:

"The criminal charges, which carry up to a $5,000 fine and a six-month jail term, originated with a Jan. 28 incident in which Mr. Lay, a deacon at a local Baptist church, asked Mr. Freeman to offer mealtime prayers at a lunch for school employees and booster-club members who had helped with a school field-house project.

Mr. Staver said no students were present at the event, which was held on school property but after school hours.

"He wasn't thinking he was violating an order," he said. "Neither did the athletic director. He was asked to pray and so he did."


Can you see the situation...people are about to eat, and someone says hey would you pray for the food? Sure, no big deal, right? Except when it can result in 6 months in jail.

Read the whole article here.

In other related news, California is getting ready to release hundreds of inmates because of budget cuts. At least we know the real criminals will still be doing hard time in Florida.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Pirate Christian Radio

As you may have noticed (but not particularly cared), I added a link on the sidebar to Pirate Christian Radio. It intrigued me, so I thought I would listen for a while.

A few observations so far:

Most (if not all) the teachers are Lutherans
They really really like being Lutherans
I don't agree with everything that the Lutherans teach

But, that aside....

It has some good programs about Apologetics (defense of Christianity from false teaching) and good explanation of the Gospel.

I am still determining if it is something that I would listen to long term, but I thought I would throw it out there for you so that you can decide with me.

p.s. If anyone cares to prepare for Sunday, we will be studying 2 Kings 22 @ 23 and it's corresponding passages in 2 Chronicles, or page 983 - 987 in your Daily Bible.