Crumbs from the Master's Table

Recalling the man named "Help" in Pilgrim's Progress , C. H. Spurgeon has a wonderful chapter in his  Pictures from Pilgrim...

"Dear God, I am your creature. You have sent me a cross and suffering, saying to me: Suffer a little for my sake and I will reward you ...

Over at Blag and Mablog, Doug Wilson helpfully describes the task of systematic theology: Systematic theology is nothing less than remembe...

A Lutheran prayer for a robust faith: O Father and God of all comfort, through your word and Holy Spirit grant us a firm, glad, and gratefu...

A Lutheran prayer of thanksgiving for the sure sign of baptism: O my God, I am a sinner, and yet I am not a sinner. Alone and apart from Ch...

Ahhh. A breath of fresh air. Peter Leithart on our approach to the Scriptures: Since the Reformation, "grammatical-historical" b...

C. H. Spurgeon on a man's public conduct as a preacher called of God: My brethren, if the Lord has indeed ordained you to the ministry...

Jonathan Edwards gives the most profound explanation I've ever read or heard for the interplay between divine sovereignty and human will...

I judge that unless we seek to do what Mark Dever urges  here , our churches will never see the much needed reformation, growing maturity, s...

C. H. Spurgeon on the value of learning languages to the expositor of sacred Scripture: The acquisition of another language affords a fine...

When the time came for God to send his Son into the world, did he do so in the light of the categories that happened to be in place? In othe...

Are "affections" (what we would call "emotions" or "feelings" today) important in Christianity? In 1746, Jonat...

C. H. Spurgeon on devouring the Word à la John Buynan: Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God, and get that Wo...

C. S. Lewis defines what he calls "chronological snobbery" as "the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common t...

"All the rules of rhetoric, and all the artifices of oratory cannot make a man eloquent, it is a gift from heaven, and where it is with...

 Dr. D. A. Carson on plagarism in the pulpit over at The Gospel Coalition : First: Taking over another sermon and preaching it as if it we...

Commenting on the language of Rom. 5:17, 20, John Owen speaks of the natural tendency of the language, which natural tendency supports under...

Athanasius on the comprehensiveness and sufficiency of the Psalms: Let whoever reads this Book of Psalms take the things in it quite simpl...

A Lutheran prayer to the Good Shepherd: O God, these are your words: There is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ...

In Part One of his book The Supremacy of God in Preaching , John Piper unpacks four elements in making God supreme in preaching: (1) The G...

A Lutheran prayer before receiving communion: My Lord Christ, I have fallen, I would be gladly strong. For this purpose you have institute...

From the Letter of St. Athanasius to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms : Among all the books [of the Bible], the Psalter has...

Below is the outline (with bullet applications) we gave everyone for the sermon I preached last Lord's Day evening. President Philip Ryk...

A Lutheran prayer to the Lord Jesus: Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I feel my sins. They bite and gnaw and frighten me. Where shall I go? I look ...

David Powlison turns Ps. 131 into its opposite, the anti-psalm: Self,       my heart is proud (I'm absorbed in myself),       and my...

C. S. Lewis on keeping a diary (what we'd call "journaling"): If Theism had done nothing else for me, I should still be than...

A Lutheran prayer of confession and confident trust: Dear God, before you I confess that I am a great sinner. The Ten Commandments would ...

Do you know who you are? I'm talking to you, Christians. I mean, do you really understand who you are in God's Son? Consider the ad...

"Don't strive to be a kind of preacher. Strive to be a kind of person!"—John Piper —John Piper, T he Supremacy of God in Pre...

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...