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The Role of Preaching in Revival
Preaching and Revival Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the awesome topic of revival, and we’ve used the revival that took place in Beaufort in the 1800’s as our case study. I hope that this study has built within you a hunger for God to once again bring revival to our community. What we have seen thus far in our study is that revival is a powerful outpouring of God’s Spirit in which the lukewarm are awakened, unbelievers are converted, and a whole community seems to be saturated with the awareness of the glory of God. Surely, such a work is too great for the most…
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May 2024 Recommended Reads
Dear Saints, Each month, I make recommendations of books that I think will be a blessing to your walk with the Lord. While I do realize that reading books has fallen on hard times today (statistics say that almost half of college graduates never read a whole book after college), I do believe that Christians should have a particular interest in reading good books. Reading good books is like fellowshipping with dear saints of past and present. Through their words, we can gain new perspectives and deepen our understanding of God’s truth and how to apply it to our lives. With that said, here are some recommendations in various categories.…
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Reflections on the Beaufort Revival (Pt 2: Recognizing Revival)
Last week we began a study of the great revival that took place in Beaufort in the 1830s. We were introduced to Rev. Daniel Baker, the great preacher from Savannah whom God used greatly to spark this tremendous movement, and churches that were affected, such as our friends at The Parish Church of St. Helena and The Baptist Church of Beaufort. Through this period of revival, our small community became saturated with the glory of God! In the coming weeks, we’ll look with detail at those changes, which lasted for almost an entire generation in Beaufort. But before we look with greater depth at how God transformed Beaufort, and through…
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Remembering the Beaufort Revival (Pt I)
Beaufort’s Rich Spiritual History Living in Beaufort for the first 18 years of my life made it very easy to take for granted the beauty of this majestic town. I am probably not alone in that; I am sure that many of us forget that not every town has exquisite views, Spanish moss-covered oak trees, history that dates back centuries, all of which are only matched by the wonderful people who live here. As I’ve gotten older and returned to Beaufort, I’ve grown to appreciate this beautiful place more and more. “Beautiful Beaufort-by-the-sea,” as my grandmother used to call it, is undoubtedly the most wonderful town in America, and there’s…
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April 2024 Recommended Reads
Dear Saints, This is my monthly letter with books that I think will be a blessing to your soul. Before I get to my recommendations of what to read, I want to share a few thoughts from Charles Spurgeon on how & why to read: With that as my argument for why you should read, here are some recommendations of what to read. Because I know we have people with various interests, I send many different categories of books. Don’t be overwhelmed by the list- I’m giving you a broad selection in hopes that you’ll pick a book or two to read this month. My Main Read for March: As I…
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Longing for the Future Sabbath
Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the various rest-work rhythms that God has built into our world; night and day, rest and work, seed time and harvest. These rhythms are gracious provisions for weary pilgrims sojourning through this world. And yet, even those rhythms often leave us longing for more. We enjoy a vacation, but we know it will soon come to an end. We love the Lord’s Day, but we remember that Monday is lurking right around the corner. Many who have spent years looking forward to retirement often find themselves disappointed. We hope for rest in this world, but it’s never quite enough. C.S.…
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We Do Not Drift Into Holiness
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Gospel Grace and Sabbath Rest
This month in our pastoral letters, we’re thinking about the rhythms of rest and work that God has built into His created order. This week, I want to discuss one of our Lord’s sweetest gifts to His people: the rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest. The day of rest is known in Hebrew as the Shabbat, meaning “ceasing or stopping,” from which we get our word “Sabbath.” Because of the Judeo-Christian influence on our world, it can be easy for us to take this pattern of rest and work for granted. For a moment, rather than looking at this through the lens of 21st century…
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We Do Not Drift Into Holiness
Several years ago, I was out in the boat and dropped anchor to fish. We fished happily, not knowing that our anchor had not caught but instead was dragging along the mud beneath us. Next thing I knew, we had drifted into an oyster rake. Drifting is dangerous, and yet so often we can drift in our walk with the Lord without noticing it. Slowly, we spend less time in prayer or in the Word. What we once despised, we now indulge. Spiritual drift happens similarly to the way Ernest Hemingway described the way going bankrupt happens: it happens very slowly, and then all at once. DA Carson is helpful…
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Longing for the Future Sabbath
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What Does It Mean to Rest in Christ?
This month, we are studying the ways that God has designed us to glorify Him both in our rest and our work. As we saw in last week’s letter, God has designed the world with built-in rhythms for both: He has designed the day for activity and the night for sleep. He has designed seasons for harvesting and seasons for reaping. He has designed six days for working and one for rest. He even gives us a few months off from cutting grass each year! These rhythms all point to the wise design of an caring God. No Rest for the Weary If such rhythms are baked into creation, why…
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Rhythms of Rest and Work
Dear Saints, I hope that reading these pastoral letters have been as much of an encouragement to you as writing them has been for me. I don’t know if you have experienced this before, but I believe that the teacher often gets more from the lesson than the students. That was certainly the case with this series on the “one anothers” of Scripture, as the Spirit moved powerfully in my own heart, convicting and challenging me to not merely be a hearer of the word, but doer also (James 1:22). This month in our pastoral letters we will be considering rhythms of rest and work in the Christian life. This…
