“There are two things which I have always looked upon as difficult. The one is, to make the wicked sad; the other is to make the godly joyful.” So begins Thomas Watson in his great Puritan classic, All Things for Good. If you have not read this book, I highly suggest that you do so [...]
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Pastor's Notes
All Things For Good
August 11, 2008 – 8:39 pmChurch: Tough 3
July 23, 2008 – 10:55 pmOne last time: The hardest thing a Christian will do is to live well within his church. This difficulty is mostly due to the fact that he must live with others within the church. To review previous notes, we shouldn’t confuse the biblical idea of church with something that approximates it, like:
watching the preacher on [...]
Read this entry »Already and Not Yet
July 12, 2008 – 12:46 pmThis Pastor’s Notes entry was written by Ronald Kunselman, who is serving as a pastoral intern at EBC through this summer.
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The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It [...]
Church: Tough 2
July 12, 2008 – 12:43 pmWhat I have offered is this: The hardest thing a Christian will do is to live well within his church. Part of this “living well” means being a member among other members. But don’t think of member-ing mainly in terms of member-roles! Here I’m asking you to hear “member” as Paul first metaphorically described the [...]
Read this entry »Your New Favorite Bible Verse
July 2, 2008 – 7:10 pmIt has been said that Americans have a new favorite Bible verse. We have dropped John 3:16 in favor of Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” This is a half truth. When interacting with unbelievers or my friends (not that I actually have many) in the main-line churches, I encounter this pervasive [...]
Read this entry »Church: Tough
July 2, 2008 – 2:56 pmA few months ago, while meeting with “the Molitor” in the New Member’s Class, a phrase crossed my lips, which I, after some thought, believe to be true. The phrase is following:
The hardest thing a Christian will do is to live well within his church.
It grieves me that the word, thing, has found its way [...]
We Should Never Forget, and should Occasionally Contemplate…
July 2, 2008 – 2:54 pmThat it was a group of 150,000+ foreigners that built Solomon’s temple, the place where God met with Israel for 500 years. (2 Chronicles)
Read this entry »Church Fellowship
June 23, 2008 – 9:27 pmThis Pastor’s Notes entry was written by Ronald Kunselman, who is serving as a pastoral intern at EBC through this summer.
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“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. [...]
Notes from Heschel
May 14, 2008 – 10:31 amDear EBCers:
Proverbs 14:16 - A wise man is diffident and shuns evil/ but a dullard rushes in confidently.
Listen to Abraham Heschel, a mid-twentieth century Jewish teacher, discuss the Ashkenazim Jews. We can learn something here:
“For how do we appraise the historic significance of a period? By what standards do we measure culture? It is customary [...]
Read Chesterton for the Imagination.
April 25, 2008 – 10:16 amIn college I picked up a book of long excerpts from Gilbert Keith Chesterton and have never thought the same. He teaches us to look around again for the first time, and wonder:
“A thing may be too sad to be believed or too wicked to be believed or too good to be believed; but it [...]