Preaching is rightly dividing the Word of God with a view to persuasion – a balance of all things that make a preacher one who is persuasive. In 1941, J. Harwood Patterson defined preaching: Preaching is the spoken communication of divine truth with a view to persuasion. Patterson explained his definition had three aspects: THE MATTER: divine truth | what to preach THE MANNER: spoken | how to preach THE PURPOSE: persuasion |why we preach Patterson modeled after Guthrie’s Three P’s: Proving Painting Persuading Preaching must be more than a lecture or a talk. A sermon must tell us how […]
How to Be an Imaginary Christian
PART ONE A Christian is a person who has chosen to believe in the Jesus Christ. If you think you are a Christian, but you don’t have faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ, then you are an imaginary Christian. A Christian believes in the authentic Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels. If you claim to be a Christian, but you believe in an amended version of the person of Jesus, such as the “good-teacher-but-not-divine Jesus”, then you are an imaginary Christian. A Christian follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you don’t know what Jesus taught, if you haven’t […]
How to Be Deplorable
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton insulted American voters by categorizing many of them as a “basket of deplorables”. She did this on both Saturday and Sunday. One of the reactions has been to call her speech “hate speech”. Therefore, she offered an apology for her choice of words. However, I may agree with many of the words that she used. I have observed that some Donald’s Trump supporters actually do hate people of other races, nationalities and ethnicity. And then I think that Mrs. Clinton was ill, possibly running a fever, when she made the statements. Donald Trump has been […]