The story is told of Pres. Calvin Coolidge, a man known to be one of few words. It seems he attended church one Sunday without his wife in attendance. On returning home, she asked, "What was the pastor preaching about today?" He replied, "Sin." "Well what did he have to say?" she asked. "He was against it," Calvin replied.
As a pastor, I must preach regarding sin often. I include here some good words from A.W. Pink.
Inasmuch, then, as Christ’s salvation is a salvation from sin—from the love of it, from its dominion, from its guilt and penalty—then it necessarily follows that the first great task and the chief work of the evangelist is to preach upon SIN: to define what sin (as distinct from crime) really is, to show wherein its infinite enormity consists; to trace out its manifold workings in the heart; to indicate that nothing less than eternal punishment is its desert. Ah, and preaching upon sin —not merely uttering a few platitudes concerning it, but devoting sermon after sermon to explaining what sin is in the sight of God— will not make him popular nor draw the crowds, will it? No, it will not, and knowing this, those who love the praise of men more than the approbation of God, and who value their salary above immortal souls, trim their sails accordingly. "But such preaching will drive people away!" We answer, far better drive the people away by faithful preaching than drive the Holy Spirit away by unfaithfully pandering to the flesh.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Undeniably Sovereign
My daughter and were talking yesterday. She and my grand-daughter are helping us remodel our "new" fixer-upper. We discussed the Sovereignty of God and what joy it is to know that He is in control. This is my dear girl who had to bury her son last November.
I found this from her on my desk this A.M.
I found this from her on my desk this A.M.
Undeniably Sovereign
by
Evangelyn
I was God's enemy,
Till He made me His friend.
He wiped out my hate
With the blood of His Son.
Irresistible grace
That captured me
As I desperately fled
From Calvary
I am His bondslave
For He purchased my soul,
Then made me His son
For His pleasure alone.
Unrestrained faith
That planted a seed
Which grows to produce
His good fruit in me.
I was beloved by Him
As I cursed His good name.
He knew that I would,
Yet His will did not change.
Undeniably sovereign,
His divine plan for me,
To know Him, to love Him,
And to be holy.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
A Little Family History
I have shared some of this story with Ingrid Schlueter at Crosstalk and now include it here for us to remember what the Reformation cost. Agnes Wilson was the matriarch of my family in America, we truly know what it means to face the tide.
Based upon an account Rev. C. H. Dick's "Highways and Byways in Gallowayand Carrick" (published in 1916)
Upon the 11th of May,1685 came the wicked execution of two excellent women, Margaret McLachlan and Margaret Wilson, near Wigtown, in South West Scotland .
Margaret Wilson, eighteen, and her sister, Agnes, not yet thirteen years old, were the daughters of Gilbert Wilson, tenant of Glenvernoch in the parish of Penninghame. They conformed to Episcopacy. Adherents to the Covenants, the girls fell into the hands of the persecutors, and were imprisoned.
Upon their release, they left the district and wandered through Carrick, Galloway, and Nithsdale with their brothers and some other Covenanters. But on the death of King Charles, there was some slackening of the persecution, and the girls returned to Wigtown.
An acquaintance, Patrick Stuart, betrayed them. He proposed drinking the king's health; this they modestly declined: upon which he went out, informed against them, brought in a party of soldiers, and seized them.
They were thrown in the thieves' hole, and after they had been there some time, were removed to the prison where Margaret McLauchlan was.
Margaret Maclachlan was a woman of more than ordinary knowledge, discretion, and prudence, and for many years of singular piety and devotion: she would take none of the oaths now pressed upon women as well as men, neither would she desist from the duties she took to be incumbent upon her, hearing presbyterian ministers when providence gave opportunity, and joining with her Christian friends and acquaintances in prayer, and supplying her relations and acquaintances when in straits, though persecuted. It is a jest to suppose her guilty of rising in arms and rebellion, though indeed it was a part of her indictment. She was very roughly dealt with in prison, and was allowed neither fire nor bed although she was sixty-three years of age.
All the three prisoners were indicted "for rebellion, Bothwellbridge, Ayr's Moss, and being present at twenty field-conventicles".
None of them had ever been within many miles of Bothwell or Ayr's Moss. Agnes Wilson could be but eight years of age at Ayr's Moss, and her sister but about twelve or thirteen; and it was impossible they could have any access to those risings:
When the Abjuration Oath was put to them, they refused it, the assize found them guilty, and the sentence was that "upon the 11th instant, all the three should be tied to stakes fixed within the flood-mark in the water of Blednoch near Wigtown, where the sea flows at high water, there to be drowned".
Gilbert Wilson secured the liberation of the younger girl under a bond of a hundred pounds sterling.
The sentence was executed on Margaret Maclachlan and Margaret Wilson.
The two women were brought from Wigtown, with a numerous crowd of spectators. Major Windram with some soldiers guarded them. The old woman's stake was a good way in beyond the other, and she was first despatched, in order to terrify the other to a compliance with such oaths and conditions as they required. But in vain, for she adhered to her principles with an unshaken steadfastness.
When the water was overflowing her fellow-martyr, some about Margaret Wilson asked her, what she thought of the other now struggling with the pangs of death. She answered, what do I see but Christ (in one of his members) wrestling there. Think you that we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us, for he sends none a warfare upon their own charges.
When Margaret Wilson was at the stake, she sang the 25th Psalm from verse 7th, downward a good way, and read the 8th chapter to the Romans with a great deal of cheerfulness, and then prayed.
While at prayer, the water covered her: but before she was quite dead, they pulled her up, and held her out of the water till she was recovered, and able to speak; and then by Major Windram's orders, she was asked, if she would pray for the king.
She answered, 'She wished the salvation of all men, and the damnation of none.'
One deeply affected by her words said, 'Dear Margaret, say God save the king, say God save the king.'
She answered in the greatest steadiness and composure, 'God save him, if he will, for it is his salvation I desire.'
Whereupon some of her relations near by, desirous to have her life spared, called out to Major Windram, 'Sir, she hath said it, she hath said it.'
Whereupon the major came near, and offered her the abjuration, charging her instantly to swear it, otherwise return to the water.
Most deliberately she refused, and said, ' I will not, I am one of Christ's children, let me go.'
Upon which she was thrust down again into the water.
The name of the man by whose information the women were arrested is well known, and his memory execrated still. One of his descendants getting into an altercation was thus taunted: 'I wadna like to have had a forebear who betrayed the martyrs; I wadna be coomed o' sic folk'.
Based upon an account Rev. C. H. Dick's "Highways and Byways in Gallowayand Carrick" (published in 1916)
Upon the 11th of May,1685 came the wicked execution of two excellent women, Margaret McLachlan and Margaret Wilson, near Wigtown, in South West Scotland .
Margaret Wilson, eighteen, and her sister, Agnes, not yet thirteen years old, were the daughters of Gilbert Wilson, tenant of Glenvernoch in the parish of Penninghame. They conformed to Episcopacy. Adherents to the Covenants, the girls fell into the hands of the persecutors, and were imprisoned.
Upon their release, they left the district and wandered through Carrick, Galloway, and Nithsdale with their brothers and some other Covenanters. But on the death of King Charles, there was some slackening of the persecution, and the girls returned to Wigtown.
An acquaintance, Patrick Stuart, betrayed them. He proposed drinking the king's health; this they modestly declined: upon which he went out, informed against them, brought in a party of soldiers, and seized them.
They were thrown in the thieves' hole, and after they had been there some time, were removed to the prison where Margaret McLauchlan was.
Margaret Maclachlan was a woman of more than ordinary knowledge, discretion, and prudence, and for many years of singular piety and devotion: she would take none of the oaths now pressed upon women as well as men, neither would she desist from the duties she took to be incumbent upon her, hearing presbyterian ministers when providence gave opportunity, and joining with her Christian friends and acquaintances in prayer, and supplying her relations and acquaintances when in straits, though persecuted. It is a jest to suppose her guilty of rising in arms and rebellion, though indeed it was a part of her indictment. She was very roughly dealt with in prison, and was allowed neither fire nor bed although she was sixty-three years of age.
All the three prisoners were indicted "for rebellion, Bothwellbridge, Ayr's Moss, and being present at twenty field-conventicles".
None of them had ever been within many miles of Bothwell or Ayr's Moss. Agnes Wilson could be but eight years of age at Ayr's Moss, and her sister but about twelve or thirteen; and it was impossible they could have any access to those risings:
When the Abjuration Oath was put to them, they refused it, the assize found them guilty, and the sentence was that "upon the 11th instant, all the three should be tied to stakes fixed within the flood-mark in the water of Blednoch near Wigtown, where the sea flows at high water, there to be drowned".
Gilbert Wilson secured the liberation of the younger girl under a bond of a hundred pounds sterling.
The sentence was executed on Margaret Maclachlan and Margaret Wilson.
The two women were brought from Wigtown, with a numerous crowd of spectators. Major Windram with some soldiers guarded them. The old woman's stake was a good way in beyond the other, and she was first despatched, in order to terrify the other to a compliance with such oaths and conditions as they required. But in vain, for she adhered to her principles with an unshaken steadfastness.
When the water was overflowing her fellow-martyr, some about Margaret Wilson asked her, what she thought of the other now struggling with the pangs of death. She answered, what do I see but Christ (in one of his members) wrestling there. Think you that we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us, for he sends none a warfare upon their own charges.
When Margaret Wilson was at the stake, she sang the 25th Psalm from verse 7th, downward a good way, and read the 8th chapter to the Romans with a great deal of cheerfulness, and then prayed.
While at prayer, the water covered her: but before she was quite dead, they pulled her up, and held her out of the water till she was recovered, and able to speak; and then by Major Windram's orders, she was asked, if she would pray for the king.
She answered, 'She wished the salvation of all men, and the damnation of none.'
One deeply affected by her words said, 'Dear Margaret, say God save the king, say God save the king.'
She answered in the greatest steadiness and composure, 'God save him, if he will, for it is his salvation I desire.'
Whereupon some of her relations near by, desirous to have her life spared, called out to Major Windram, 'Sir, she hath said it, she hath said it.'
Whereupon the major came near, and offered her the abjuration, charging her instantly to swear it, otherwise return to the water.
Most deliberately she refused, and said, ' I will not, I am one of Christ's children, let me go.'
Upon which she was thrust down again into the water.
The name of the man by whose information the women were arrested is well known, and his memory execrated still. One of his descendants getting into an altercation was thus taunted: 'I wadna like to have had a forebear who betrayed the martyrs; I wadna be coomed o' sic folk'.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Welcome to Our New Blog
This is a new wrinkle for our website.
I will begin with a recap of my trip to The True Church Conference. My son, Sam, went with me and we were richly blessed.
Last summer began a journey for me deeper into the grace of God and the understanding of His will. Several catalysts were used by God to accomplish this. As many of you know from my posts at Christian Research Network, Last year I began realizing just how far away from reformation doctrine our own SBC has been drifting. In my research, I came across the sermons of a man named Paul Washer. God used His Word poured out through this jar of clay to break my heart and call me to a higher standard of doctrine and Biblical evangelism. Later in 2006, through the devastating loss of our dear grandson, Isaac, God used his death to refine in me a determination to focus on basically two things , God's Word and God's glory. I wrote a letter to various friends, relatives and leaders in my own denomination outlining my views, based in the five solas. This letter was used by a fellow CRN contributor in an article. From this article I received positive responses from around the world and became one of the reasons for launching this website. Interestingly enough, the same article is the reason our website is not listed with our local association website and also was used as evidence to remove me from a leadership position in our association.
Imagine my joy when I received a flier for a "True Church Conference". My dear wife, upon reading it, insisted that I go, regardless of the cost. My daughter-in-law had the same response for my son, Sam. So we went.
It was so refreshing to participate with pastors from 30 states and several foreign countries. It was humbling to meet friends that I had made through CRN. As we rejoiced in the Sovereignty of God in Conversion and heard pure Bible doctrine, our hearts "burned within us as He walked with us by the way". We stayed with the dear Malone family and were treated like kings. May God richly bless them for their faithfulness!
I will begin with a recap of my trip to The True Church Conference. My son, Sam, went with me and we were richly blessed.
Last summer began a journey for me deeper into the grace of God and the understanding of His will. Several catalysts were used by God to accomplish this. As many of you know from my posts at Christian Research Network, Last year I began realizing just how far away from reformation doctrine our own SBC has been drifting. In my research, I came across the sermons of a man named Paul Washer. God used His Word poured out through this jar of clay to break my heart and call me to a higher standard of doctrine and Biblical evangelism. Later in 2006, through the devastating loss of our dear grandson, Isaac, God used his death to refine in me a determination to focus on basically two things , God's Word and God's glory. I wrote a letter to various friends, relatives and leaders in my own denomination outlining my views, based in the five solas. This letter was used by a fellow CRN contributor in an article. From this article I received positive responses from around the world and became one of the reasons for launching this website. Interestingly enough, the same article is the reason our website is not listed with our local association website and also was used as evidence to remove me from a leadership position in our association.
Imagine my joy when I received a flier for a "True Church Conference". My dear wife, upon reading it, insisted that I go, regardless of the cost. My daughter-in-law had the same response for my son, Sam. So we went.
It was so refreshing to participate with pastors from 30 states and several foreign countries. It was humbling to meet friends that I had made through CRN. As we rejoiced in the Sovereignty of God in Conversion and heard pure Bible doctrine, our hearts "burned within us as He walked with us by the way". We stayed with the dear Malone family and were treated like kings. May God richly bless them for their faithfulness!
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