Crumbs from the Master's Table

A brief Lutheran prayer of self-dedication to Christ, based on Rom. 14:7: “O Jesus Christ, I live to you; I die to you; living or dying, I a...

This summer a group from our home church   is getting together six Sunday nights to strengthen our marriages. Like caring for a glorious gar...

“It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.” —Robert Mur...

“What my people need most is my personal holiness. — ” Robert Murray M’Cheyne —Andrew Bonar, ed., Memoir and Remains of Robert Murra...

 Luther offers a model prayer of contrition, confession, and childlike trust: My dear Father, I always confess and you can see that as I w...

The blog is on hold. The internet has been down at our place for days. I'm also now in the hospital getting testing for my heart, which ...

"Meekness is not weakness, but is what you get when a powerful wild horse has been tamed (all the same power, but now under control)....

Justin Taylor has labored in love to provide  this reading list  for children grades 1-8. Thanks, Justin!

Justin Taylor has now provided a reading list for sixth through eighth graders: follow this  link . Follow this  link  for the list for four...

"A man there was, though some did count him mad, The more he cast away, the more he had." —John Buynan,  Pilgrim's Progress...

Calvin tells us what he perceives to be the core of Colossians: "The principal object at which [Paul] aims to teach is that all things ...

Justin Taylor provides a helpful reading list for fourth through fifth graders: check it out  here . Look  here  for the link for first thro...

Now that our parents know the sex/gender of our baby (my wife is seventeen weeks along in her first pregnancy), we're happy to announc...

"No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save." — James Denney — Quoted in John Pi...

Luther on the empty needing filling: Look, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith; streng...

David Wells on the choice between love for God and love for the world: The choice for God now has to become one in which the church begins...

Justin Taylor provides a helpful reading list for first through third graders: check it out  here .

Since in recent months I've heard or read a number of people urging the reading of George Orwell's " Politics and the English L...

In the quotations that follow, John Owen speaks wisely to how we approach the doctrine of justification. He's talking about our posture...

In a chapter titled "Richard Baxter on Heaven, Hope, and Holiness," J. I. Packer expresses three convictions: The first is that ...

Commenting on the salvation language of Rom. 5:9 in particular and Paul's writings generally, Doug Moo says: This future-oriented use ...

From Baxter's Poetical Fragments :                A life still near to Death, did me possess                With a deep sense of Tim...

A Lutheran prayer for a right understanding: Lord God, dear Father, through your Holy Spirit you have taught and enlightened the hearts of...

"That is the best doctrine and study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy." — Richard Baxter,  culled from J. ...

To him who in the love of nature holds Communion with here visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a vo...

"A good prayer should not be lengthy or drawn out, but frequent and ardent" (Luther, vol. 43, Works , 209).

Packer on the essence of Puritanism: Puritanism . . . was a total view of Christianity, Bible-based, church-centered, God-honouring, liter...

What Jesus holds out to his disciples in Jn.15:7 simply staggers the mind: "Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." W...

Luther's instruction to his barber on how think about the eighth commandment (Luther was instructing him how to pray through it): I ca...

How the term pistis Iēsou Christou ( πίστ ι ς  Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ) in Rom. 3:22 (and elsewhere) should be interpreted has been a matter of inten...

In thinking through Paul's articulation of justification in Romans (e.g., Rom. 3:21-22), it is vital to see that Paul sees "a right...

“Justification not only refers to the forgiveness of sins and acquittal of believers, but it also establishes the believer’s membership in t...

In the last post, I gave the first five of "ten special helps and rules against Satan's devices,"  taken from Thomas Brooks...

In the conclusion of his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices , Thomas Brooks sets forth "ten special helps and rules aga...

The way covenants function in the Scriptures is what I consider a problem area for interpretation and theologizing. I suppose it may have so...

Doug Wilson began a series called "Father Hunger" about a month ago. You can find the first in this series  here . The series is p...

Here  is some really good news: Lloyd-Jones' preaching is now free for the world. God is good. And I am glad, and deeply grateful.

Luther's counsel for praying through the sixth commandment: "You shall not kill." Here I learn, first of all, that God desire...

A bit of Lutheran instruction on prayer for parents: If you are a father or mother, you should . . . remember your children and the workers...

Here is my rendering of the LXX of Hos. 1:1-11 from  Septuaginta : Vetus Testamentum Graecum (vol. XIII, Joseph Ziegler, ed.; Göttingen: Va...

"One of the most urgently needed things today is a careful treatment of how the gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought to shap...

With great wisdom and insight, John Frame speaks to the state of affairs in doing theology today: I think theology today has become preoccu...

Here's my translation of Rom. 10:4: "For the goal of the law is Christ for righteousness to everyone who is believing." And ...

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on God's salvation in Rom. 1:16: Let us never use the term "salvation" glibly, or lightly, or loosely. Let ...

"O give me that book! At any price give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be a man of one book....

Scholars often refuse to do theological synthesis or interpretive borrowing among different authors of the sacred text. So in the academic g...

How one should interpret the word "works" (Gk., ergon) when Paul speaks of our not being justified by works, or elected by works, ...

Ed Welch on medication use vis- á -vis the whole person: If your view of persons is that we are essentially bodies and nothing more, then m...

D. A. Carson on the "gospel" and "preaching" vocabulary in the Scriptures: Because the gospel is news, good news (even ...

John Piper on the preacher's dependence on the Holy Spirit in the work of preaching: All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of de...

A Lutheran prayer of confession for laziness in listening to God's Word on the Lord's Day: I confess and acknowledge great sin and ...

What does the doctrine of justification primarily or fundamentally address? This question is important. If we answer that it addresses first...

"Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy —but the Father, for love!"  ...

John Owen on handling the doctrine of justification with holy hands: It is the practical direction of the consciences of men, in their appl...

Speaking of the "God-given liveliness and authority" that used to be called unction , J. I. Packer gives this tribute to Martyn Ll...

Luther on Gal. 4:6: This is indeed a very short word, but it includes everything. Not the lips, but the feelings are speaking here, as thou...

"One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner." —John Buynan, Pilgrim's Progress (New York: Penguin, 2008), ...

A snapshot of D. M. Lloyd-Jones as pictured by J. I. Packer: He was a saint, a holy man of God: a naturally proud person whom God made humb...

Summarizing what D. M. Lloyd-Jones' ministry looked like from 1943, when he became the sole pastor of Westminster Chapel after G. Campbe...

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...

Scholars are sometimes fond of saying that Paul couldn't be alluding to (in a given instance) an OT passage in circumstances where his a...

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd; A host, of golden daffodils; ...

This  is undoubtedly true.

Here's my tentative summary of Romans in broad outline: Romans 1-4: The Gospel of God's Justification of the Ungodly by Faith Alon...

Yesterday some dear friends spent their last Sunday with our local church before they depart for Burma. They're going out for the sake o...