christianity

From the beginning, public speakers, notably the great classical rhetorician Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.), and later, the Roman statesman and orator Cicero (106–43 b.c.e.), divided the process of preparing a speech into five parts—invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery—called the canons of rhetoric.

I will never be on the wrong side again! This must become our declaration as well. It is not the mistakes or compromises we have made that define us, painful and costly though they may be. It is our next choice.

The second way of developing convictions is to have the person jot down all the reasons why he should be doing these things. Why have a quiet time? Why pray? Why study the Bible?

The right response to the survey of this wearying battlefield is not timidity or a pity party, but clinging more desperately to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The justification for the sin-prone pastor—by which I mean simply the pastor—is the same as it is for every sinner. There is no Justification 2.0 for ministers of the gospel.

Once preachers recognize the danger of preaching messages that imply that a person is able to achieve self-justification or self-sanctification, they have a natural compulsion to preach Christ-centered messages.

Our tone should always resonate with the humility of one who speaks with authority under the authority of another (2 Tim. 4:2).

Isaiah’s faith drives this lament. He believes three things about God: First, God is sovereign. He can do something. Second, God is love. He is for me. He wants to do something. And finally, God is a covenant-keeping God. He is bound by his own word. He will do something. Isaiah’s faith feeds off the character of God.

This is dangerous territory. You are not trusting the Holy Spirit at this point. You are not relying on His power to use His Word to accomplish His plan in His people.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. [Philemon 25]

It is Scripture alone, not any human authority, that must function as the normative authority for the definition of what we should believe.