A Fire of Devotion before God

"Luther's piety may be likened to a fire, a fire of devotion before God. If coal be our symbol of burden and responsibility, then huge loads were deposited on that fire. One might think such loads would extinguish the fire, but in Luther's case, the opposite was true--the fire of piety only came to burn more heatedly and brightly. A life of devotion explains his accomplishments. We can be sure that Luther laid his preaching commitments, writings, burdens, problems, gladnesses, and griefs before God Triune during that prime time of communion." Erroll Hulse in The Preacher and Preaching, The Preacher and Piety, page 65.

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My Teachers

Ephesians 4:11-14

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (ESV)

In the last couple of months, I've heard of the death of a couple of influential professors. The tributes I read reminded me of how God has blessed His church with these men. I began to think about the teachers and professors who have influenced me.

And then I read a post recently from someone who graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS). What he wrote about WTS was foreign to me. He admitted it was based on "his experience" but it was full of char…

Departing in Peace--Book Brief

She received her diagnosis in August of 2010. Lung cancer. Now what? She was presented with a number of treatment options with varying degrees of side effects. None of the treatment options would cure her, the cancer was too advanced. But each would extend her life. Whether it would be weeks or months, even a year or two, nobody knew.
We know our birth date.
Only God knows our death date.
My mom chose “none of the above” when it came to treating her for lung cancer. She was determined to live her final days, weeks, months or years to their fullest, as much as she was able. She died within two months of her diagnosis. But those final two months, with the exception of the last few days, she lived fully. She worked in retail, kept her house clean, prepared her meals, read and, most importantly for her participated in worship at her local church. This was how she defined “quality of life”.

Bill Davis is a philosophy professor at our denominational college, Covenant College. He teaches …

My Teachers, Part II

I wrote a blog post a few days back out of gratitude for those who taught me at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. What prompted me to write the first post were the recent deaths of pastors/teachers/theologians and reading those who wrote tributes to them. And then a former student from WTS wrote a nasty, "victimy" blog post about the culture, faculty and student body of WTS when he was there.
If you want, take a look at the previous post on what I wrote there.

Below are five more professors God gave me to help prepare me for pastoral ministry. I continue to be grateful for them.

As in the last post, I've linked to a book they've written. Some of these men have written many books and I encourage you to take a look at all of them.

Winston Smith--I had the opportunity to worship in the same church as Winston and his wife Kim and their then small children. He led our small group. Winston's passion for equipping future pastors in the counseling classes…

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