Dan Russell

Pastor to Calvary Baptist Church in Brewer, Maine.

[Mark Hallock @MarkHallock]

Just want to share my perspective as one pastor in Colorado tonight…

I have served as a pastor in this great state since 1999, the year the shooting at Columbine High School (5 minutes from my house) took place. This week, Evergreen High School (11 miles from my house) became the 13th school in Colorado to experience a mass shooting since Columbine.

Let that sink in…13th….in Colorado.

I have lost track of the number of children, teenagers, and parents I have walked alongside and ministered to who have been either directly or indirectly involved with, and/or impacted by, one of these 13 school shootings. With every new shooting that takes place there are folks I know and love, both inside and outside our church, who are triggered once again as they are reminded of the incredible pain they went through with a previous shooting they or a loved one experienced first hand. These are the long term effects of mass shootings, specifically in schools, with kids, that no one talks about and few are aware of, years after they take place.

I am not claiming to know the solution to school shootings but I will tell you that each one is an act and expression of pure evil and wickedness…a direct assault against the Maker of the universe and those He created in His image. It makes me angry and breaks my heart at the same time.

On weeks like this I am once again reminded of the core message the Lord has called me to teach and preach…that the risen Christ truly is our only hope and comfort in this fallen and broken world. He holds everything in the palm of His hands... “For in him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 2:16-17)

This week reminds us (with brutal force) that things are not the way they are supposed to be…our world has been radically corrupted by sin and evil of all kinds…but it will not always be that way. Our sovereign Lord will one day perfectly redeem and restore all things for His glory. His justice against all that is evil will ultimately prevail, as will His unmatched mercy and grace to all who call on His name. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. This world is His. And so in the face of all that is evil, including death itself, I will hold tightly to my Savior knowing He holds even more tightly onto me. Until my dying breath, by God’s grace and power, I will seek to point as many people as I can to Him. There is no other hope. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Colorado needs Jesus. The world needs Jesus. I need Jesus. You need Jesus.

Run to Him and find life, now and forever.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” - John 3:16

Jesus said , “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” - John 14:6

[Dan Russell @BatPastor]

@JustineBateman Yes please. I am battling cancer. God has been very good to me during this journey, but I can still and always use more prayer.

[Dan Russell @BatPastor]

"Life is short. Live it totally for Him every moment."

--Tom Rainer

[scott iken @scottiken]

"Christians are to the earth what salt is to food. As salt makes food taste better, followers of Jesus are to influence this sinful world for the kingdom of God. We are to be kingdom condiments...We are to add godly flavoring to this insipid world."-H.B. Charles Jr

[Dr. Henry Cloud @DrHenryCloud]

God and faith are not weird. My own relationship with the very real, living God and the realization that His ways are true is what saved my life back when I was suffering. And ever since then, He has sustained me, grown me, and led me into a life I never thought I could have.

[The Gospel Coalition @TGC]

Don Carson: Is it desirable or possible to preach systematic theology? Or what is the relationship between textual preaching and systematic theology?

That’s an extremely important question and one I feel passionately about. In other words, you’ve pressed my button, and that’s dangerous. I could rabbit on about this one for the next hour and a half and rather lose the point of this exercise. Let me at least say this. The danger of expository preaching, which I hold to deeply.… There’s a danger nevertheless, and it is this. It is possible so to focus on the text at hand, on the immediate text at hand, that you lose a certain kind of horizon, a certain kind of perspective.

You decide to do 10 sermons on the first 5 chapters of Jeremiah, and you never mention Jesus or the gospel or the cross. You’re just being faithful to the text. Then you do a whole series on the Psalms, and Jesus doesn’t come up either, oh except a few places where there seems to be a messianic prophecy or something … the New Testament seems to quote the Old. We’re going to deal with that a bit tomorrow too. Apart from that, you just want to keep your finger on the text, so you don’t mention any of those things.

In other words, the danger with expository preaching is that it can focus so narrowly you don’t see how the ties are made to the large structures of biblical truth. That’s the danger of expository preaching. Sometimes it’s the people who are best trained in seminaries and theological colleges to do their work in Greek and Hebrew and so on who will take you heavily from clause to clause through each genitive absolute and each casus pendens and so on.

You’re supposed to be very impressed! The little old lady who just lost her husband doesn’t really care about the third genitive from the right, but somehow this is expository preaching. Do you see? I think that’s a great mistake. You must explain the thrust and drive of the passage, but in many, many sermons, it is essential then to tie that in one fashion or another to the larger structures of Christian theology.

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Don Carson explores spiritual rebirth through Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, emphasizing the distinction between natural and spiritual birth and God’s essential role in salvation.

He teaches on the following:

• Spiritual birth and its relationship to natural birth
• The importance of connecting expository preaching with broader biblical truth
• Modeling good Bible study and application, rather than just teaching it
• Understanding the semantic range of words in different languages
• The evolution of words in the Bible and their changing meanings over time

Listen to the Carson Center Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. For a full episode transcript: https://t.co/Cdydf4reDK

[Mark Hallock @MarkHallock]

If you truly desire to experience all of the joys, blessings, and spiritual growth a local church can give you, you must first give yourself to it. Commit yourself and become a member of a local church. Through the ups and downs, be all in. Watch what God does in your life.

[Albert Mohler @albertmohler]

Are American Evangelicals More Concerned About Politics and Policies Rather Than Personal Holiness?

From The Mailbox on the Friday, February 2nd, 2024 edition of #TheBriefing. You can listen to the episode at the link: https://t.co/WEVOCYF9KA

[Dan Russell @BatPastor]

https://t.co/YXFP47B8NU

Check out this book!

Next week, we'll begin going through Ephesians. This little book by John Stott is an excellent devotional supplement--and will be the basis for our midweek devotions!

[Dan Russell @BatPastor]

If we resolve anything this year, let us resolve to grow closer to the Lord.

[Dan Russell @BatPastor]

https://t.co/YtYjtbLHsf