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Packer on AnglicanTV

Don't miss the recent posts on AnglicanTV of Dr. J. I. Packer in Virginia this past weekend.

Joy in Our King

In the midst of all the troublesome stuff in the news, I've been meditating on the kingship of Christ. There is a man, who is just as much a man as any other head of state alive today, that sits on the throne of the universe. All these other people in their various offices who struggle with serving the country or serving themselves are all answerable, right now, to this King. They themselves live in this monarchy! And someday they will answer for what they have done with the positions that have been given to them. The kingship of Christ is not a merely spiritual truth. It is a historic fact. All the nations of all the earth, whatever they may think of themselves, are literally subordinate to the divine monarchy. This king is daily active - in office - ruling over the affairs of mankind, directing them according to His Father's will. When the King was with us, he spoke of his kingdom in spiritual terms: "the kingdom of God is within you." This is still true today. Yet,...

North American Anglican Article

A new periodical is coming out for orthodox Anglicans called The North American Anglican . I have written an article for the periodical, and you may read it on their website . It is about the importance of biblical, expository preaching for the renewal of Anglicanism. In the midst of all the reorganizing, realligning, and attempts at continuing former programs under new auspices, little is being done to renew the Anglican pulpits in our country. We can little hope for real, lasting renewal without it.

Motivation and Desire For Comfort

By Phillips Brooks on 2 Cor. i. 3,4: The desire for comfort may be a very high or a very low, a noble or a most ignoble wish. It is like the love of life, the wish to keep on living, which may be full of courage and patience, or may be nothing but a cowardly fear of death. We know what kind of comfort it must have been that St. Paul prayed for, and for which he was thankful when it came. We have all probably desired comfort which he would have scorned, and prayed to God in tones which he would have counted unworthy alike of God and of himself. And the difference in the way in which people ask comfort of God, no doubt, depends very largely upon the reason why they ask it, upon what it is that makes them wish that God would take away their pain and comfort them. The nobleness of actions, we all know, depends more upon the reasons why we do them than on the acts themselves. Very few acts are so essentially noble that they may not be done for an ignoble reason, and so become ignoble. Very...

An All Time Favourite: Bridges on the Ministry

May I highly recommend Charles Bridges' volume on the Christian ministry for all interested in that calling. It never ceases to challenge and edify. The Banner of Truth website has the following: Description: One of the best and most comprehensive books ever written on the work of the ministry. The revival of the Church seems to be closely connected with the condition of its ministry. Bridges sub-titled the study of the Christian Ministry, 'An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency', and, rightly used, it is well suited to promote a faithful and effective ministry. Bridges begins by considering the general and personal cause of ministerial ineffectiveness, and goes on to examine comprehensively preaching and pastoral work. This book was one of the few which the godly Robert Murray M'Cheyne took with him to the Holy Land, and, in its field, it is without an equal. Charles Bridges (1794-1869) was one of the leaders of the Evangelical party in the Church of Engla...

His Cross and Ours

The following is the bulk of my sermon today from Galatians 5:24. The stuff about Bishop Moule will be no surprise for readers of this blog! One my heroes for the last 30 years has been Bishop Handley Carr Glynn Moule, born in Dorsetshire, in 1841, and died in Cambridge, in May of 1920. The son of an Anglican priest - who, by the way, was of French extraction; his mother was Welsh - he became the dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, the first president of Ridley Hall, Cambridge - which is where I would have liked to have studied if I had done my schooling in England. A friend of mine is currently studying there, and I'm a bit envious of that. Eventually Moule was consecrated the Bishop of Durham, following on the heals of two other great Bishops of Durham, J. B. Lightfoot, and B. F. Westcott, both of whom remain still today, like Moule, giants in New Testament studies. Though raised a Christian, it was not until September the 18th, of 1884, that Moule seems to have gone through...

Neither Here Nor There

In the path of duty, many of us have left behind lovely places with artistic elements which inspired our worship. One year, Boswell wished to be able to visit London that he might worship at St. Paul's Cathedral, as had been his wont annually at Easter. However, this year he could not afford it. Johnson's comment to Boswell on the matter was written as follows: "Your last reason [for wanting to come to London] is so serious that I am unwilling to oppose it. Yet you must remember that your image of worshipping once a year in a certain place, in imitation of the Jews [Boswell had said it was like going up to Jerusalem], is but a comparison; and simile non est idem [the likeness of something is not the same thing as itself]; if the annual resort to Jerusalem was a duty to the Jews, it was a duty because it was commanded; and you have no such command, and therefore no such duty. It may be dangerous to receive too readily, and indulge too fondly, opinions from which, perh...