One of the greatest preachers of the 20th century was Martyn Lloyd-Jones, pastor of Westminster Chapel, London for 29 years until his retirement in 1968. He died March 1, 1981. But his writing and preaching continue.

There is very little great preaching today. Most of us are too bent on being good communicators to be good preachers. We are too clever and too funny. Where is the preacher today whom most hearers would put into this category:

We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not,…

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Karen Watson wrote her own epitaph. Its message has stirred me up to pray for more radical devotion to Christ. She has not died in vain. She was a Southern Baptist missionary to Iraq and was killed by unknown assailants March 15, 2004. I am mentioning it now simply because I was reading the book Lives Given, Not Taken: 21st Century Southern Baptist Martyrs, by Erich Bridges and Jerry Rankin. In it I ran across the letter that Karen wrote and left behind in an envelope that said "Open in case of death." It said in part:

Dear Pastor Phil and Pastor Roger,

You should only be opening this in the event of death.

When God calls there are no regrets. I tried to share my heart with you as much

…

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Recently a good friend shared with me these verses that he and his wife have prayed for their two daughters (now teens) since they were babies. I find them very helpful and have included them in my prayer folder for my children. I thought I’d pass them along to you as well. (Thanks, Chris!)

That Jesus will call them and no one will hinder them from coming.

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away. (Matthew 19:13-15)

That they will re…

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Some of you may know Charlie Handren as the guy in charge of the prayer ministry at several past DG conferences. He is also Bethlehem Baptist's Church Planting Resident and will be going out to start a new church in a few months. He preached this weekend while Piper is in Portland.

His sermon was on John 15:1-11. One of his points was that the word "ask" in the phrase "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" implies fervency. To put this passion for prayer in practice, he led his small group (the nucleus of the new church) on a 40 day fast from February 27 to April 7. Each day he blogged a short devotional on this passage in John and concluded each post with suggestions of w…

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It is a distinct pleasure to point out Sam Storms' good theology and bad advice. For the good theology read his essay "What if Christ is Not Risen?" There are few people on the planet who embody in life and in teaching the radically biblical and Edwardsian message of Christian Hedonism better than Sam Storms. He has a new website that I want you to know about.

But be careful. You may find sentences like this one:

If you haven’t read Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah Publishers, 2003 edition), repent, close down this website, and go purchase that volume.

No, Sam. Bad advice. Don't repent. Don't close down the Enjoying God Ministries websit…

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Sam Storms is on the Edwardsean and biblical wavelength when it comes to understanding the role of joy in radical God-centered Christian living. If you don't know Sam's website you might want to. It's called Enjoying God Ministries. The reason I mention it now is that I love this sentence from the newsletter I got from him today. He quotes Dave Smith, summarizing Sam's book, Pleasures Evermore: “When it comes to living a successful Christian life, and resisting the power of temptation, simply saying ‘No! No! No!’ won’t suffice. We must learn to say ‘Oh! Oh! Oh!’” In other words, being amazed at God is essential to fighting sin.

One of my joys during the sabbatical last spring in Cambridge was meeting with two of the authors of the upcoming book Pierced for Our Transgressions by Mike Ovey, Steve Jeffery and Andrew Sach. Their vision for the truth of what Christ achieved for us and what the needs are in British and American Evangelicalism were so compelling that I agreed to write the foreword for their book. I recommend the book to you. If you share the belief that we lose the gospel if we lose the substitutionary, wrath-averting triumph of the cross (Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:13; Isaiah 53:4-6) then you may want to order the book and visit their web site.

On December 21, 2005 when I was told to get a biopsy for pro…

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One of the speakers at the Desiring God Conference for Pastors is Thabiti Anyabwile, the pastor of the First Baptist Church, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (90 miles south of Cuba). He has written a book entitled The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three African American Pastors. I wrote the foreword mainly because the book embodies so many of my values. According to the Crossway Books web site the book is due out March 12. Here is my Foreword in the hopes of enticing you to get the book.