Sing Spiritually

While reading Bible Baptist Church's statement on music philosophy, I came across this excellent reminder.

Above all, sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing Him more than yourself or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve of here, and reward you when He cometh in the clouds of heaven.

--John Wesley, Select Hymns (1791), taken from the Introduction

Thought on Preparation and Preaching from Dever

Definition: a sermon on a portion of Scripture in which the point(s) of the passage is the point(s) of the message.

Goal: the Word of God in the context of the people of God.

Read the text and not questions I have--what people will be asking of the text--then address those questions.

Say what you think the text says--then have a conversation with some commentaries.

Mark always asks the preacher (where he will be that Sunday) what the text will be. That passage becomes the source of his Bible reading--which is thus more corporate than individual. This also serves to prepare his heart for the preaching of God's Word.

Always include the gospel (contra Keller).

Mark noted that Mark Twain said, "The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug."

A sermon should not be able to be preached anywhere at anytime.

Conclusion is a wedge. The weight is all on a point--to be driven into their soul.

In regards to illustrations, two thoughts: (1) work hard to say something worth while and (2) they can communicate a lightness not becoming of the message.

How Sweet And Aweful Is The Place

How sweet and aweful is the place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores!

Here every bowel of our God
With soft compassion rolls;
Here peace and pardon bought with blood
Is food for dying souls.

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.

--Isaac Watts

"Lord, why was I a guest?"

The Whole Effulgence

I could write Charles Bridges quotes all day. If you haven't read The Christian Ministry, please do. It is a joy. He has the flavor of the Puritans, but like Ryle is readable and markedly devotional. And to help you down this trail, here is his opening sentence:



"The Church is the mirror, that reflects the whole effulgence of the Divine character."

From Dr. Lovitt's Last Letter

T'AI-YUAN-FU, June 28, 1900.

DEAR FRIEND--We do not know whom you may be, but we thought it well to leave this letter in the hands of a trusty native to give to the first foreigner who might come along . . . .
We would like our dear home ones to know we are being marvellously sustained by the Lord. He is precious to each of us. The children seem to have no fear. We cannot but hope for deliverance (hope dies hard), and our God is well able to do all things--even to save us from the most impossible surroundings when hope is gone. Our trust is in Him entirely and alone. We at the same time are seeking to do all that is in our power, and asking guidance at every step. . . .
There is not much time. We are ready.

ARNOLD E. LOVITT, M.R.C.S

--from Last Letters and Further Records of Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, p48.

The Cross and Christian Preaching

"If you get into a valley (say in Leviticus) and can't see the cross, keep working because the cross is always in view."

--Dever

Who should a church support?

"A church should support workers who are strategic, excellent, and known."



--Andy Johnson