Dan Greenfield

Category: Current Reading

  • Remember and Repent, Part 3

    Horatius Bonar continues the 1651 Church of Scotland’s confession of ministerial sins in his Words to Winners of Souls— “Slighting of fellowship with those by whom we might profit. Desiring more to converse with those that might better us by their talents than with such as might edify us by their…

  • Remember and Repent, Part 2

    Horatius Bonar continues the 1651 Church of Scotland’s confession of ministerial sins in his Words to Winners of Souls— “Glad to find excuses for the neglect of duties. Neglecting the reading of Scriptures in secret, for edifying ourselves as Christians; only reading them in so far as may fit us…

  • Remember and Repent

    “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” —Revelation 2:5 In the year 1651 the Church of Scotland, feeling in regard to her ministers…

  • Hiding Error with Truth

    Exactly so it is with us as ministers: when we can rest satisfied with using the means for saving souls without seeing them really saved, or we ourselves being broken-hearted by it, and at the same time quietly talk of leaving the event to God’s disposal, we make use of…

  • “Use the Means and Leave the Results to God”

    One has written: “The language we have been accustomed to adopt is this; we must use the means, and leave the event to God; we can do no more than employ the means; this is our duty and having done this we must leave the rest to Him who is…

  • For the Glory of God and Good of Men

    [The experience of a barren ministry] was not so in other days. Our fathers really watched and preached for souls. They asked and they expected a blessing. Nor were they denied it. They were blessed in turning many to righteousness. Their lives record their successful labors. How refreshing the lives…

  • A Barren Ministry

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… Fields plowed and sown, yet yielding no fruit! Machinery constantly in motion, yet all without one particle of produce! Nets cast into the sea, and spread wide, yet no fishes enclosed! All this for years—for a lifetime! How strange! Yet it…

  • Ministerial Professionalism

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… To deliver sermons on each returning Lord’s Day, to administer the Lord’s Supper statedly, to pay an occasional visit to those who request it, to attend religious meetings—this, we fear, sums up the ministerial life of multitudes who are, by profession,…

  • Be Faithful!

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… “The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity” (Malachi 2:6). Let us observe the connection here declared to…

  • Walk with God

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… The biographer of the Rev. W.H. Hewitson begins his memoir thus: “‘To restore a commonplace truth,’ writes Mr. Coleridge, ‘to its first uncommon luster, you need only translate it into action.’ Walking with God is a very commonplace truth. Translate this…

  • A Life of Holy Devotion to God

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… The true minister must be a true Christian. He must be called by God before he can call others to God. The Apostle Paul thus states the matter: “God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to…

  • The Need is for the Truth of Jesus Christ

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… Let us, then, meet this “earnestness,” which is now the boast, but may ere long be the bane, of the age, with that which alone can bring down its feverish pulse, and soothe it into blessed calm, “the gospel of the…

  • Our One Object: To Win Souls

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… We take for granted that the object of the Christian ministry is to convert sinners and to edify the body of Christ. No faithful minister can possibly rest short of this. Applause, fame, popularity, honor, wealth—all these are vain. If souls…

  • Bold, Burning Sincerity

    Continuing Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (see here for book information)… “When he spoke of weighty soul concerns,” says one of his contemporaries of [Richard] Baxter, “you might find his very spirit drenched therein.” No wonder that he was blessed with such amazing success! Men felt that in listening…

  • Words to Winners of Souls

    About a year ago a good friend pointed me to Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls. It’s available for free both in print and mp3. My printed edition is 31 pages, so for several months I read a page a day. It’s a great challenge and blessing that I…

  • Substituting the Social for the Spiritual

    I’ve been perusing an old periodical, The Christian Worker’s Magazine (Nov 1919), published by the Moody Bible Institute. In an article titled “Christian Education: Its Relation to Modern World Life” the author Rev. Robert Russell marks out “five distinct lines of modern apostasy [that] stand out in world thought” where apostasy…

  • Sanctification and The Great Commission

    Excellent thoughts here: The Obedience of the Gospel. Too often acronyms cause more harm than good. Recognizing this, I have taught an acronym to the people I’ve been privileged to pastor over the last 14 years to help them with the basic points of the gospel message: Master-God is our…

  • Religion in Practice

    Religion, in practice, consists in loving and fearing God and keeping his commandments–in receiving his son Jesus Christ as our only Saviour–in loving all our fellow men as ourselves; particularly, in abstaining from murder, adultery, stealing, lying, cheating, slandering, and oppressing one another–in honoring and obeying our parents and governors–in…

  • Characteristics of An Awakening

    Here’s a typical account of a “revival” or as they were also often called, an “awakening” in 1798-1799– In the whole season, nothing noisy or tumultuous has been discovered, no outcries or swoonings, and none who have been disposed to relate their own experiences in conferences and public meetings; nor have the evening exercises ever been…

  • Precious in the Sight of the Lord

    I’ve been reading from the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine lately (July, 1800). It relates whatever information “on the subject of religion and morals may contribute to the advancement of genuine piety and pure morality” (p. 3). I’ve enjoyed it immensely. Here’s a paragraph I read this evening that was good– Among the  mysterious…