This book is coming soon! 25 Reformed ministers (Baptist, Presbyterian, and Independent; from the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia) address why they preach from the Received Text.
JTR
Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."
This book is coming soon! 25 Reformed ministers (Baptist, Presbyterian, and Independent; from the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia) address why they preach from the Received Text.
JTR
Posted this thread to my twitter today, @Riddle1689:
In Thomas C. Oden's A Change of Heart memoir he notes how his
"conversion" from Protestant liberalism to traditional Christianity
led him to rethink pastoral care and "psychotherapeutic fads" (see
pp.150-153).
In 1971 Oden gave the Finch Lectures at Fuller looking at empirical
outcome studies of the effectiveness of psychotherapy. This later became the
book After Therapy What? (1974).
After reviewing over 300 empirical outcome studies, he found "that
the average psychotherapy cure rate was not better than the spontaneous
remission rate."
"The average outcomes of all types of therapy approaches turned out
to be the same rate of recovery as that which occurred merely through the
passage of time, approximately 63 percent."
"Indeed those studies found that symptoms would disappear
spontaneously about two thirds of the time without any therapeutic
intervention."
"That finding was coupled with the alarming specter of 'client
deterioration,' which showed that 10 percent of the patients found their
conditions worsening under the care of professional psychotherapists."
"Those empirical facts took me aback. I had spent two decades
trusting the assumed effectiveness of psychotherapies, but now I had actual
rigorous empirical evidence of their average ineffectiveness."
These discoveries led Oden to move from study of modern psychotherapy to
classic pastoral works like Gregory the Great's Book of Pastoral Rule
(AD 590).
JTR
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 14:13-21.
But Jesus said unto
them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat (Matthew 14:16).
We can focus on three
figures in the feeding of the five thousand:
First: It tells us
about the person and work of Christ.
It makes us stand in
awe at the power and authority of Christ. Who has power over nature to be able
to multiple loaves and fishes? Who can do such things but God himself? Christ
did these things. Jesus is Lord.
Second:
It tells us about the apostles (and beyond them the church today):
What
does he say to the apostles?: “give ye them to eat.”
The
risen Christ will tell Peter when he recommissions him: “Feed my lambs” (John
21:15); “Feed my sheep” (v. 16); “Feed my sheep” (v. 17).
At
the end of this Gospel the risen Christ will say to these apostles in the Great
Commission: “Go and teach all nations….” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The
commission given to the apostles continues in the church, built on the
foundation of the prophets and apostles with Christ being the chief
cornerstone: “Give ye them to eat.”
There
is significance here in the fact that the disciples had so little, humanly
speaking, to offer. Spurgeon: “It is good for us to know how very poor we are,
and how far from being able to meet the wants of the people around us.” Truly,
our very little goes a long way in Christ’s hands.
This
is a reminder that we have but one thing to give the world and that is Christ.
Third: It tells us about the multitude who were fed by Christ:
As Christians we can relate to the apostles, but more
foundationally we can relate to the hungry, sick, and bewildered multitude.
We are reminded that Christ did not look upon us with indifference
or disdain, but he looked upon us with compassion. He saw us as sheep without a
shepherd.
He healed us and he fed us.
V. 20 describes the experience of all those who find faith in Christ:
“And they did all eat, and were filled.” Christ is the only one who can fill
and satisfy our hungry souls.
The deepest needs of men, our deepest needs, will not be satisfied
when the church offers politics, or yoga classes, or financial counseling, but
when we offer the only thing that matters and the only thing that satisfies:
Christ himself.
So, when Christ says, “give ye them to eat,” let us give them
Christ.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 14:1-12.
“And [Herod]
sent, and beheaded John in the prison” (Matthew 14:10).
What
do we learn from the account of the martyrdom of John the Baptist (Matthew
14:1-12)? Here are at last four lessons:
First:
We must be willing to stand and bear witness for Christ—even at the cost of our
lives. John provides us an example of this.
We
must be willing to speak the truth, even if we stand alone, even if the truth
is not popular with men. Yes, even if it costs us our lives. We must not slavishly
try to tell men what their itching ears desire to hear (cf. 2 Tim 4:2-4). We must be witnesses for
Christ.
Second:
We must avoid the negative example of Herod and his house. We should not make
rash vows. We should not use manipulation to control others. We should be
guided by godly principles, and not expediency.
Third:
We can learn from the disciples of John who went to Christ in their distress.
See v. 12: “And his disciples… went and told Jesus.” Spurgeon: “When we are in
great trouble, we shall be wise to do our best, and at the same time tell the
Lord Jesus all about it, that he may direct us further as to what we are to
do.”
Fourth:
John was a great man, but Christ is greater. Both came as prophets, and neither
were not honored but were instead put to death. John was beheaded; Christ will
go to the cross. But John’s body remained in the state of death. His disciples
placed his body in a tomb. But when the disciples of Jesus came to the tomb,
they found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.
I saw
someone post a twitter poll last week which began, “If Jesus were alive
today….” The problem with that line: He is alive today! And he is still bearing
witness through his people to the reality of his death, burial, resurrection,
ascension, and glorious second coming. All praise be to him.
Grace
and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle