Pastors’ Blog

Welcome to 16 weeks with John Newton!  We’ll take most of these letters in two parts (Mondays & Fridays).

These are short reads but full of the very things needful for our sanctification.

Prayerfully take these readings in, try and relate to specific scripture, and reflect on how they might parallel what’s happening in your life.  Also, don’t forget to leave a comment for the group if you’d like.

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A few people have asked about sources for Puritan literature.  Don’t buy anything!  One of the the many benefits of reading the Puritans (and those that preach and teach the Puritan genre) is that most of the material is free and easily accessible.  Here are a few of my favorite “watering holes” for those of you that may be ...

I’m not much of a blogger.  As I look around to find new things to read I become acutely aware that much of what I want to say has already been said better by someone else.  I’ve just embraced the fact that I’m not much of an original thinker and I’m good with that.  With that in mind, I post things ...

Getting Started with the Puritans

Over the last few years I’ve gradually focused my reading in such a way as to address specific issues in my spiritual growth and my ministry.  Like many of us I am just not as scholastic as I should or need to be.  Unfortunately, there for a while I laid down some of the heavier works and turned to blogs.  Blogs are great for the commute in to work but they won’t and can’t sustain you.  ...

What about the question of temperament? Do “people who tend to be more thoughtful also tend to be sadder”? From one angle that makes sense. For example, Ecclesiastes is a prime example of careful noticing and hard thinking about every little thing that goes on under the sun. One of Solomon’s conclusions is that “in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases ...

Is it abnormal to feel saddened by the lovelessness and wrongness of much that happens in life? No. “Every little thing that happens” often contains sorrows. Even with lovely things, there is often a worm in the apple. At minimum, good things do not last—“Pleasures pass but sorrows stay,” as an old saying put it. And many everyday things are plain wrong: backbiting in the workplace, ...

Recently I received the following letter from a woman who raises searching questions about herself and her experience of life

Have you found that people who tend to be more thoughtful also tend to be sadder? I am the type of person who thinks about every little thing that happens— and sometimes I get really sad.

I’m not sure that the sadness I feel is the type of ...

Reading “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Why was Jesus Christ made flesh? First, the chief cause was free grace. It was love in God the Father to send Christ, and love in Christ that he came to be incarnate. Love was the intrinsic motive. Christ is God-man, because he is a lover of man. Christ came ...

Stay tuned for blog posts from DRBC pastors.