I don’t know of any contemporary author who lays open the heart of God to us like the Puritans. I know they get a bad wrap from some circles today, but perhaps no other literature has affected me more outside Scripture than the writings of the Puritans. To give you a taste of what I’m [...]
Archive for the ‘Puritan Persuasion’ category
Sappy Assurance from the Spirit
February 2, 2012The Deeps
July 27, 2011It still amazes me how much a particular prayer from The Valley of Vision resonates with my soul at various seasons or periods in my spiritual journey. This particular prayer, called “The Deeps”, has been the source of meditation and supplication for me recently, and I thought I’d pass it along. BTW, if you are [...]
The Greatest Gift – The Incarnation
December 13, 2010O Source of all good, What shall I render to You for the gift of gifts, thine own dear Son, begotten, not created, my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute, his self-emptying incomprehensible, his infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp. Herein is wonder of wonders: he came below to raise me above, was born like me [...]
Hope Loves Best to Live There Most
December 3, 2010Thomas Brooks, in his amazingly encouraging book, Heaven on Earth, writes about the nature of the Christian hope. He explains that the first property of our hope is that it “elevates and raises the heart to live above, where its treasure is.” He adds: This hope is from above, and it makes the heart to live [...]
Jeremiah Burroughs: The Sum of the Gospel
November 3, 2010Ligonier Ministries has posted an excellent excerpt of Gospel Conversation by Jeremiah Burroughs wherein he gives this great summary of the gospel: The gospel of Christ is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ. As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of death, [...]
Resurrection
April 4, 2010O God of my Exodus, Great was the joy of Israel’s sons, when Egypt died upon the shore, Far greater the joy when the Redeemer’s foe lay crushed in the dust. Jesus strides forth as the victor, conqueror of death, hell, and all opposing might; He bursts the bands of death, tramples the powers of [...]
In Prayer
March 28, 2010This prayer from the Valley of Vision is working me over. Had to pass it along to you. “In Prayer” O LORD, In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel [...]
Lord, increase my faith.
January 8, 2010This Sunday, I’m preaching on “the sin” of unbelief which ensnares believers in the Christian race. I have been meditating on this prayer from The Valley of Vision called “Faith and the World” as it has been very fruitful in my thinking. Would that God increase our faith and cause us to run with our [...]
Praying in the New Year
January 1, 2010O Lord, Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in Thy presence, in Thy service, to Thy glory. Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour, that I may not be one moment apart from Thee, but may rely on Thy Spirit to supply every [...]
Plough Deep In Me
October 18, 2009Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Yours alone. Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in You, the ground of my rest, the spring [...]
We are not antinomians . . . we have something to do – repent.
October 8, 2009“Repentance is necessary for God’s own people, who have a real work of grace. They must offer up a daily sacrifice of tears. The Antinomians hold that when any come to be believers, they have a writ of ease, and there remains nothing for them now to do but to rejoice. Yes, they have something [...]
True Repentance: A Wound That Bleeds Till Glory
October 7, 2009“[Repentance] is not a transient action, as Papists and some ignorant creatures imagine, as if a sigh for sin, an act of sorrow for it, a confession of it with a ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’ were repentance. No, no; these may be acts of repentance while they proceed from a truly penitent [...]
Who Is Richard Baxter?
November 4, 2008[Reformation Heritage Books has graciously provided this biographical and reprint essay on the life and works of Richard Baxter. You can find this information and others in the book, Meet the Puritans.] Richard Baxter (1615-1691) Richard Baxter was born in 1615, in Rowton, near Shrewsbury,in Shropshire. He was the only son of Beatrice Adeney and [...]
Reformation Heritage Books Acquires Soli Deo Gloria Publications
February 3, 2008This is great news to all of us who are lovers of Puritan literature! Very exciting stuff . . . From Reformation Heritage Book Talk Blog (emphasis mine): We are delighted to announce that Soli Deo Gloria Publications, which has put numerous Puritan books back into print, has been acquired by Reformation Heritage Books in [...]
Blue Collar Theology 19: Packer on the History and Theology of the Puritans
January 21, 2008[Here is a fantastic point where Blue Collar Theology and the Puritan Reading Challenge collides. The Puritans were the forerunners to BCT through their "conventicles," town lectureships, and blue-collar language in their preaching.] J.I. Packer delivered 16 lectures entitled “History and Theology of the Puritans” at Reformed Theological Seminary. RTS has been gracious to provide [...]
Recent Comments