Reformed Christian Education 2014: Floodlight or Candlelight?

In Matthew 5:14-16 we read: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (ESV). What are some functions of light? Experi­ence teaches us that among the purposes of light are these two: to dispel darkness and to enable work to be done. This article sheds some light on Reformed Christian education.

Ears to Hear: Experiential Preaching

What is experiential preaching? Sometimes called "experimen­tal" preaching, this kind of preaching tends to apply the preaching text to the personal spir­itual experience of listeners. Often the phrase "experiential preach­ing" refers to sermons addressed to the heart. The preacher's expla­nation of the Bible passage issues in calls for self-examination and warnings against presumption, accompanied by the summons to surrender to God and to fight the reflexes of the old nature.

Ears to Hear: Evangelical Preaching

Covenantal preaching is most fully and biblically evangelistic preaching. I want to be clear about our objective in this article. Please do not expect that this article on evangelistic preaching will say everything that needs to be said about evangel­ism — even Reformed (biblical) evangelism. We will not be dis­cussing the value of strategies like advertising, book tables, home Bible studies, tape ministry, newsletters, or prison ministry. Rather, our focus will be on the kind of preaching that may be called evangelistic preaching.

Ears to Hear, Covenant Preaching and Unity in Scripture

In popular thinking, all of these unfortunate distinctions that easily arise from the very way our Bibles are arranged usually become — if we don't think carefully — spiritually fatal separations. Grace is separated from law, faith from works, the work of the Father from that of the Spirit, external form from internal intention. Among the earliest thinkers in church history who fell into this error was Marcion (2nd century). He taught that the OT came from the God of the Jews, who was also Creator and Lawgiver.

Ears to Hear: Covenant Preaching

We hunger for sermons that throb with our Father's heartbeat. His pulsating heartbeat we have felt and heard in His very flesh-born Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Since Pentecost, their energizing Spirit now pumps divine life through the church (and thereby through individual believers); their Spirit regulates the rhythm of our own hearts, purges our impurities, strengthens weak members for the work of faith-obedience.

Ears to Hear: Thoughts on the Congregation's Role in Preaching (1)

The sermon belongs to the church's worship. If we are unaware of what we should be hearing from the pulpit, if we are vague about what sermons are supposed to "do," then God will be robbed of sincere and glo­rifying worship. We dare not do anything in our worship out of ignorance. Ignorance in the pew about the preaching of the pulpit is nothing less than superstitious worship, an abomination to the Lord.

Ethical Dimensions of the Lord's Prayer: Hallowed Be Thy Name

Rightly know­ing God (in order to glorify Him as God) is the first component of hallow­ing His Name. There is a second compo­nent, according to the Heidelberg Catechism: "...further also, that we may so order and direct our whole life, thoughts, words, and actions, that Thy Name may not be blasphemed but honored and praised on our account.

Engineering Humans

Genesis 1-3 is foundational to our discussion of biotechnology because of its teaching concerning human beings as those who are created by God in his image. There are things we may do with respect to plants and animals that we may not do with respect to human beings, by virtue of the nature of human creation. Human beings are created in the image of God. In other words, human nature is not something we fashion for ourselves, but something that we receive.