Category Archives: reading

Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference

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I was privileged to attend my 21st annual Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference this past week in Pennsylvania with about 250 other men. Although it was held in a new venue (Elizabethtown College) the format was the same, and the majority of the faces were longtime friends. It did seem that a record number of “first time attenders” were present, and I thank God for the growing interest in historic, experiential Christianity.

The conference theme was “The Glory of Christ” and speakers included Dr Sinclair Ferguson (always worthlistening to), Fred Malone, Jonathan Master (professor at Philadelphia Bible Univ.), Ian Hamilton, Iain Murray (a co-founder of Banner, former pastor and superb author), and Dennis Prutrow (professor of homiletics at RPTS).

Highlights for me were Ferguson’s two addresses on the high-priesthood of Jesus Christ, and Iain Murray’s address on William Tyndale, very inspiring. Of course, my frequent visits to the Banner of Truth “book room” (and friends Rob Wiley, John Rawlinson, and the crew) were most enjoyable! My primary purchase was a long-awaited acquisition of the six volume Works of (puritan) John Flavel. I also profited from talks with author Jim Garretson and as a result picked-up his new “Princeton and the Work of the Christian Ministry” (in two-volumes).

These times of conference — with great worship, passionate preaching, fellowship, and time for reflection – are always useful in refreshing my spirit and strengthening my resolve for serving in the ministry. The long drive home was filled with much thanksgiving and praise to our Lord for His grace and blessing in my life, and for the opportunity to serve Him in Clifton Park, NY.

It is well with my soul.
pdb

Read your Bibles more

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“Don’t rest on past reading. Read your Bible more and more every year. Read it whether you feel like reading it or not. And pray without ceasing that the joy return and pleasures increase” said John Piper in a January blog post.

While some might feel this is arm-twisting, or hear this as mere duty, Piper goes on to give three reasons this is not legalism — and then quotes the helpful JC Ryle:

(1) You are confessing your lack of desire as sin, and pleading as a helpless child for the desire you long to have. Legalists don’t cry like that. They strut.

(2) You are reading out of desperation for the effects of this heavenly medicine. Bible-reading is not a cure for a bad conscience; it’s chemo for your cancer. Legalists feel better because the box is checked. Saints feel better when their blindness lifts, and they see Jesus in the word. Let’s get real. We are desperately sick with worldliness, and only the Holy Spirit, by the word of God, can cure this terminal disease.

(3) It is not legalism because only justified people can see the preciousness and power of the Word of God. Legalists trudge with their Bibles on the path toward justification. Saints sit down in the shade of the cross and plead for the blood-bought pleasures.

So lets give heed to Mr. Ryle and never grow weary of the slow, steady, growth that comes from the daily, disciplined, increasing, love affair with reading the Bible.

Do not think you are getting no good from the Bible, merely because you do not see that good day by day. The greatest effects are by no means those which make the most noise, and are most easily observed. The greatest effects are often silent, quiet, and hard to detect at the time they are being produced.

Think of the influence of the moon upon the earth, and of the air upon the human lungs. Remember how silently the dew falls, and how imperceptibly the grass grows. There may be far more doing than you think in your soul by your Bible-reading.
(J. C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 136)