vassal of the King

From Jonathan Edwards — “We can conceive but little of the matter. To help your conception, imagine yourself to be cast into a fiery oven or a great furnace, where your pain would be as much greater than that occasioned by accidentally touching a coal of fire, as the heat is greater. Imagine also that your body were to lie there for a quarter of an hour (15mins), full of fire, and all the while full of vivid sense. What horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace! How long would that quarter of an hour seem to you. And after you had endured it for one minute, how overbearing would it be to you to think that you had it to endure the other fourteen! But what would be the effect on your soul if you knew you must lie there enduring that torment to the full for 24 hours! How much greater would be the effect if you knew you must endure it for a whole year! And how vastly greater still if you knew you must endure it for a thousand years! O then, how your hearts would sink if y

WHAT IS BIBLICAL PREACHING? Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Every minister of the gospel is called by God to an all-consuming task -- to preach the Word (2 Tim 4.2). It’s not that churches today need more preaching in general; rather, churches need the right kind of preaching. So what is this kind of preaching that God requires? What must the man of God devote himself to? God blesses not just preaching but the right kind of preaching. So, in this essay, I will define biblical preaching with four essential ingredients. 1. GOD-FOCUSED Biblical preaching is always God-focused. This means the source of the message is from God, the thrust of the message is about God, the end goal of the message is directly focused on God, and the spotlight all throughout the message rests only and always upon God. Contrary to many -- if not most -- pulpits and speakers today, the kind of preaching that God requires is one that is God-focused not man-focused. That is to say, the sermon

STUDENTS!  SEIZE THE SUMMER TO GROW IN GODLINESS NOT DECLINE IN LAZINESS! Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Usually at this point in the late Spring/early Summer floods of students finish their last finals and have a lengthy few months of ‘summer time’ ahead of them. This brief article serves as an exhortation to the young people to seize the summer to grow in godliness rather than declining in laziness. Remember this: you will either grow more in godliness or decline further in laziness. This article provides five simple exhortations for every Christian student. 1. Plan Your Time! If you don’t plan you’ll fail. If you don’t busy yourself with the right things you’ll make yourself busy with time-wasters. If you do not plan and organize a schedule the days will quickly pass and before you know it the summer will be over and you’ll be heading back to school wondering: “what in the world did I accomplish over this summer?” So, plan your time! Plan to be diligent! Plan

THE HIGH CALLING OF MOTHERHOOD Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church No greater calling exists, in all the universe, for a mother than the God-given responsibility of being a worker at home and caring for her own children. No prestige, money, fame, social status, or honor that the world gives could ever remotely come close to the supremely high calling of motherhood. Indeed, no calling in all the world is more difficult than that of the full-time task of motherhood. The Bible clearly presents motherhood as a supremely high responsibility for all women with children. To abdicate this role is to lose everything. A most pitiful woman would be one with the highest accolades in the corporate world, an untouchable reputation, comfortable paychecks, an ever-growing social network, and honorable achievements in her workforce but at the same time her home life is a wreck. God’s design for women with children is to be workers at home and to be busy doing what He has perfectly

How To Get the Unction [Power] of the Spirit! Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Mighty men of God are used mightily of God not because of their gifts or abilities but because of their mighty weakness. The power of God overcomes the weakness of His messengers so that the mighty gospel produces a miraculous, eternal, sovereign change in the hearts of God’s elect. Men of God must recover this absolute, necessary, and desperate dependence upon the sovereign power of the Spirit of God to produce any spiritual fruit in preaching. What is unction? Unction refers to the work of God the Spirit in attending the declared Word of God with supernatural power. In a word, God’s men have simple dependence upon spiritual aid. The man of God must desperately ask for and confidently trust in the Spirit of God to help him, empower him, fill him, and speak through Him so as to bring results in the preaching event. But, one may ask, how does one get the unction of the Spirit?  This

Charles Spurgeon addresses this... "It is said by some that children cannot understand the great mysteries of religion. We even know some Sunday-school teachers who cautiously avoid mentioning the great doctrines of the gospel, because they think the children are not prepared to receive them. Alas! the same mistake has crept into the pulpit; for it is currently believed, among a certain class of preachers, that many of the doctrines of the Word of God, although true, are not fit to be taught to the people, since they would pervert them to their own destruction. Away with such priestcraft! Whatever God has revealed ought to be preached. Whatever HE has revealed, if I am not capable of understanding it, I will still believe and preach it. I do hold that there is no doctrine of the Word of God which a child, if he be capable of salvation, is not capable of receiving. I would have children taught all the great doctrines of truth without a solitary exception, that the

True Marriage: The Only Valid Definition of Marriage Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church What Is Marriage? Marriage is an institution created by God (Gen 2:18-24) as one man joins himself to one woman (Gen 2:24) in an unbreakable covenant (Mal 2:14) for life (1 Cor 7:39; Rom 7:1-2). Marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman for life. The joining together of any other people is not sanctioned by God and thus does not fit within the parameters of marriage (e.g., same-sex marriage, bestiality, etc.). What Is the Meaning of Marriage? The reason the definition of marriage is so exclusive is because the meaning of marriage is so emphatic. In the Bible, God provides the meaning of marriage in very clear, explicit terms. The Bible says a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh (Eph 5:30; cf. Gen 2:24). The Bible speaks of this union between one man and one woman as a mystery — that is, something that w