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March 4, 2020
In Mark 1:16–20, Jesus approached Peter, Andrew, James and John, and called them from their profession as fishermen to a new task of being “fishers of men.” Jesus would send them to draw people out of the darkness of sin and Satan by throwing out the net of the Gospel to catch men. This should be fundamental to our view of the ministerial calling. God makes ministers “fishers of men.” To change the analogy, they are ambassadors of Christ the King, and in his name they beseech men to be reconciled to God. Christians in general too are to be […]
February 19, 2020
The word sacrament is a term used to describe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which the Lord Jesus Christ appointed to be observed in the New Testament church. The word itself was used in first century culture to describe a Roman military oath of allegiance, and as such, it expresses one idea behind these ordinances, which is that Christ binds himself to us, and we bind ourselves to him in them. Sacraments in the Bible are more than this, however, and there have been many disagreements in history over what they do and how they do it. […]
December 11, 2019
Robert Blair (1593–1666) was a notable Scottish minister in the first half of the seventeenth century. Blair was born in Irvine, in 1593 and was brought up under the ministry of David Dickson in the town. He studied in the University of Glasgow from 1611 and later became the regent of the college. In 1616 he was licensed to preach the Gospel, at a time when it was becoming more difficult to hold to Presbyterian principles. In 1622 Blair resigned from the university and moved to Ulster, where he was ordained to the ministry in Bangor, County Down. His ministry […]
November 6, 2019
The reading and preaching of the Word of God is to be central in the life of a believer. We are to be like the blessed man of Psalm 1 whose “delight is in the Law of the LORD” (verse 2), but if we stop at simply reading and hearing the Word, we will not profit as much as we should. The psalmist also meditated in the law “day and night” and this was key to his fruitfulness (verse 3). The church will greatly benefit from recovering this lost art of meditation. The Difficulty of Meditation Meditation is serious, prolonged, […]
September 11, 2019
The LORD Our Righteousness; The Old Perspective on Paul. Obadiah Grew (1607-1689). Soli Deo Gloria 2005. 102pp. The New Perspective on Paul advocated by authors such as N. T. Wright has caused intrigue and concern in the church over the last few decades. It is a view that considers the Apostle Paul’s teaching to be in general agreement with first century Judaism’s idea of salvation, in which a man’s personal works contribute to his acceptance before God. Paul’s quarrel with the law in Epistles like Galatians was chiefly to do with Jewish pride, a false view of their national status […]
May 16, 2019
“I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.” Psalm 132:15 Psalm 132 has its context in God’s Covenant with David and looks back to his desire to build a house for the LORD v3-5. This noble wish was denied to him but granted to his son Solomon and later this Psalm was penned as a ‘Song of Degrees’ to be sung by the pilgrim Israelite as he travelled to Jerusalem to keep the appointed feasts in the Temple. They sang of God’s choice of Zion to be his dwelling place v13, and of their longing […]
March 27, 2019
“I have got infinitely more in my work from prayer than from the study and know much more help from the assistance of the Spirit than from books.” In his ‘Story of the Scottish Church,’ Thomas McCrie records an account of the last days of the life of George Gillespie as he drew near to death in 1648 at the age of just thirty six. Gillespie lacked a sense of heart assurance but held firm to the promises of God saying, ‘though the Lord has not allowed me comfort, I shall yet believe that my beloved is mine, and I […]
February 27, 2019
I remember as a child walking down the road I lived on into the nearby town. There was street lighting most of the way apart from one section in the middle which was dark. On the opposite side of the road the ground rose steeply, and the embankment was covered with large bushes and trees. Try as I might, irrational fears would grip me as I approached the darkened bend. My stride would lengthen, my pace would quicken and sometimes I would run the few hundred yards until I got back to the safety and comfort of the light. Looking […]
January 9, 2019
Prayer is one of the basic duties of the Christian life and has been described as the breathing of the pious soul. There are many descriptions and examples of prayer in Scripture which provide a clear view of what it is. To pray is to seek God (Dan 9:3), to lift up the soul (Ps 25:1) or to pour out the heart to Him (Ps 62:8), sometimes it is to wrestle with God, yet in the most basic sense prayer is to ask of God (Jam 1:6). Nobody reading this should have a difficultly understanding what prayer is, however, prayer […]