Yearly Archives: 2012

‘We’ve a story to tell to the nations.’ So how does it go? We need to think about that. Barna has his statistics, and it looks like a lot of us struggle in just knowing what that story is. Is it what you once heard the evangelist say, that you’re a hell-deserving sinner and that […]

Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) was a well known Puritan Pastor who was known as the ‘heavenly doctor’. This work is twenty sermons preached by him on Song of Solomon 4:16 to 6:3. For Sibbes the Song of Solomon is ‘nothing else but a plain demonstration and setting forth of the love of Christ for his church, […]

The Christian Medical Fellowship have drawn up 10 sound reasons for opposing the government’s proposals to legalise homosexual marriage. 1. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman Throughout history in virtually all cultures and faiths throughout the world, marriage has been held to be the union of one man and one woman. […]

It has often been said: if you wish to start reading the Puritans, begin with Sibbes – the point being that he is simple and direct. (Others may suggest Watson or Swinnock.) Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), ‘the heavenly doctor,’ was one of the foremost among Puritan preachers and divines.The Love of Christ was first published under […]

Paul Wolfe is a new author on the British scene who deserves to be read. He came close to never writing at all. At only 28 years old, newly married, he was diagnosed with cancer. He was studying for the ministry at Westminster Theological Seminary, and to use his phrase, had his life all scripted […]

Raymond Oakley, esteemed former pastor of the church at Hope Chapel, Arcal Street, Sedgley (1980-2007), and an acceptable supply minister for many years, passed to his eternal rest on December 3rd, 2011, aged 84 years. Our friend was a faithful minister of the gospel for sixty-two years and served the churches as a supply minister […]

This book of the law . . . you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it . . . then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8) Do you drink in the […]

Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. (Psalm 119:11) If we wish to be blameless (Psa. 119:1), if we hope to be blessed (Psa. 119:2), if we desire to live righteously (Psa. 119:3), if we want a shame free life (Psa. 119:6), if we long for lives […]

‘The author has chosen his subject matter to show readers the glory, importance, and beauty of God’s character, plan of salvation, and the church . . . He communicates sound theology in understandable terms. ‘[Byron Snapp on Eric Alexander’s Our Great God and Saviour at the Calvary Herald website. Below are links to selected online […]

I am, apparently, something of a book nerd. I did not realise this, but it does occasionally get pointed out or exposed (for example, when someone makes a passing reference to some musty volume, and my instinctive response is, ‘Which edition?’ or something of that order). It feels very normal to me. But there we […]

Martin Holdt, well known as an evangelical and reformed leader in his native South Africa and around the world, went to be with his Lord suddenly on 31 December 2011. This tribute by his son, Jonathan, Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Lyttleton, Pretoria, was given at the Memorial Service for his father on 6 […]

Hodge lived from 1797 to 1878 and was one of the outstanding theologians of the nineteenth century. In a fragment of autobiography which forms the first chapter of the book, Charles Hodge provides recollections of his family background and early life. Much of the remainder of the book consists of letters and other documents collected […]

Surely some of the most staggering words in the New Testament are found in 2 Corinthians 2:14: ‘But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.’ If you are a Christian, however bad or poor or despondent you […]

Mr. Murray has done the Christian world a great service by writing this biography of Archibald Brown. Mr. Brown was one of the great pastors and preachers of the late 19th and early 20th century yet today he is hardly known. This probably because up to now no complete biography of this life has ever […]

Francis Nigel Lee died on December 23, 2011 in Australia. One thing he left behind is the story of the conversion of the man who murdered his father. In April 1994, I was invited to fly round the world and expound the Lord’s Prayer in the USA during September. Having acquired the plane ticket, as […]

Today [November 30, 2011] more than a million public-sector workers in the United Kingdom are on strike. Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his autumn statement, which made clear the limited prospects for growth in the British economy this year and next, a situation which led analysts to predict that living standards in 2015 […]

The conversion testimony of Kevin McGrane, elder of Bury St Edmunds Presbyterian church. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family, my father having been born in Dublin of Roman Catholic ancestry. Baptism, Confession, Holy Communion and Confirmation followed in regular course. After junior education under Ursuline nuns, I moved to a boys’ grammar school […]

Don’t blur the frontiers of the law. It works well as it is. There are two key tests to apply to Lord Falconer of Thoroton’s report: does it present convincing evidence that the law we have now is in need of change? And, if it does, are the safeguards proposed adequate to protect vulnerable people? […]

We may be amazed that so few people seem to have been brought into the kingdom of God through Christ’s direct activity while he was in this world. One reason no doubt was that the course of providence must run on unimpeded that would bring him to Calvary, to be slain by the hands of […]

At a time when the importance of biblical preaching is downgraded in so many quarters it is important that we consider the history of preaching. John the Baptist was a preacher and great crowds went to him to be baptized in the Jordan but were at the same time stirred by his powerful preaching. He […]

This collection of Tyndale’s writings was originally brought together by the Parker Society and is a reprint of their 1848-1850 edition. It is now excellently bound in two volumes* which have attractive dust jackets. Numerous historical notes have been supplied which are based on careful research. These notes will be of interest to historians of […]

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations. (Matthew 24:14a) Jesus preached the gospel (Mark 1:15), and he told us to preach the gospel (Matt. 24:14a). Paul knew that he was under obligation to preach the gospel (Rom. 1:15-16) and he also knew he […]

Big events call for big celebrations – parties, food, balloons, streamers, noisemakers. But when God sent his Son to be born in Bethlehem, he came with much less worldly celebration than you might expect. In fact, many of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, as recorded in Luke 2, were downright pitiable. What does God want […]

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9) The apostle has been referring to the fact that man was originally made a little lower than […]

This is not a book so much about heaven, but rather the Christian’s attitude to heaven. The author’s aim is to make Christians more heavenly minded. The book is in two parts. In part one Mr. Wolfe looks at the Bible’s teaching on heaven, how we get to heaven and what it means to set […]