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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David Powlison (1949-2019)

David Powlison died around 11am on Friday, June 7th, 2019.

I wrote this about him a couple of years ago:

He taught some of my counseling classes at WTS and is the Executive Director of CCEF. His ability to pastor the human heart and his relentless pursuit of the glory of Christ was on display in the classes he taught. We would often begin classes by singing a hymn together and Dr. Powlison would pull a nugget of truth from the hymn and riff for a few minutes. It was always encouraging to our faith. I will forever be grateful to Dr. Powlison and his wife Nan for how kind they were to me and my young family.

He has left a treasure for us in what he has published. Without reservation, I recommend everything below:

The Journal of Biblical Counseling. You can subscribe to the digital copy or a hard copy. He was the editor and past copies are available.

Seeing with New Eyes. This is a "vision shaping book" that makes the case that the Bible is sufficient for all we experience.

How Do…

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…

Suffering--Book Brief

Paul Tripp is a faithful counselor and has served me and many of you through his conferences, books, video series, newsletters and booklets. He has written on the transition to middle age, love, sex, and money, raising teens and many other subjects. If you are not familiar with him or his writing, I highly recommend him.
His latest book, Suffering, is the best thing he has written.
There are multiple contact points any reader will have with this book because suffering is universal. We all experience it. We can’t escape it. Tripp, through his decade's long association with the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) has counseled hundreds of sufferers. You will hear many of their stories in this book. More importantly, you will hear how a skilled biblical counselor helps the sufferer frame her experience in such a way that the truths of the Bible connect to the experience of the sufferer.
The chapters “The Awareness Trap”, The Fear Trap”, “The Envy Trap”, “The Denial T…

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