Crumbs from the Master's Table

"Think before you speak."  Many of us first heard this counsel from our mothers.  It is actually biblical: "The heart of the ...

Doug Wilson speaks a lot of good sense on the education front.  It does offend many of our idolatries, however, so brace yourself if you are...

Hear Wilson and Calvin on the collective wisdom of our government and her citizens.  Click on the title of this post to take you to the link...

Chapter I in Book 1 of Anselm's Why God Became Man raises the question upon which hangs the whole work.  The question is this: "By...

St. Anselm (1033-1109), bishop of Canterbury, is perhaps most famous and known for his setting forth of the ontological argument for God...

Emily and I are wrapping up reading through Calvin's Institutes this year. And how healthy it has been to trek through the thick theolog...

Praying aloud is a practice that used to be commonplace in the Church until fairly recently, as far as I'm able to discern.  Today, howe...

What is the essence of prayer?  Luther taught the common person that "prayer is nothing else than the lifting up of heart or mind to Go...

Conservative Christians ordinarily make quite a big deal out of being Bible people.  They say that we should all obey the Bible and go no f...

In Calvin the Christian we see reason clothed and in her right mind.  Speaking of the mystery of the Sacred Supper, Calvin says, "I rat...

Calvin on the Sacred Supper is without doubt in my mind dead on.  His view, amid the muddle, clarifies and illuminates.  It also tends towar...

As often as we celebrate the Table of the Lord, we engage in proclamation of his death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26).  This simple truth is ...

Here is another solid, soul-strengthening sermon by Pastor O'Donnell on Mt. 9:18-26.  It is full of resurrection healing and hope.  This...

Here is a definition of baptism that I like a great deal. It seems to me to embrace the biblical data on the matter, and is not truncated a...

In Calvin's Institutes, Book 4, Ch. 14, Sect. 4, Calvin continues his discussion of sacraments.  In doing so, he speaks of how outward s...

Calvinists, particularly newborn or young ones, are often charged with arrogance. And for a moment, I want to grant the charge. Maybe it is ...

Ephesians 2:8-9 deals a death blow to man's pride and vaunted powers: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is ...

Check out Ignatius, the ultimate youth pastor. When Emily and I first watched this some months back, we enjoyed many belly laughs and rolls ...

This past weekend Em and I attended Desiring God's National Conference at the Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis. We had a wonder...

Doug Wilson's sermon four Sundays ago (8-23-9) on Col. 3:12-14, entitled Father of Mercies , was outstanding. The Word is applied with g...

It is recorded in Ezek. 6 that idolatrous Israel would "fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence" (v. 11). Thus, says YHWH,...

The following outline is the basic method for doing an exegesis paper as taught by Prof. G. K. Beale in his Principles of Interpretation cou...

It is generally acknowledged that "context is king" in the interpretative enterprise. That is to say, extracting meaning from a te...

YHWH's word to the man called to speak in his name: "Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. I...

It ought to be said repeatedly that for all our methods and industry, it is God who must bestow light. For in his light alone do we see ligh...

For those who want to see the "syntactical bone structure" (as Prof. G. K. Beale calls it) of a text, a sentence flow is a method ...

Piper's sermon two Sunday's ago on greatness, humility, and servanthood is helpful and searching. Helpful, I say, because humility i...