Dan Greenfield

Category: Current Reading

  • Culture and Faith

    I’ve had to cut writing out for the last couple of weeks due to a couple of irregular life circumstances (i.e. flu in the family and both vehicles dying!), so I’m trying to get back in the saddle here. So, here’s an excellent statement to hopefully do that– More often…

  • Separatism, Individualism, Culture, and…Clothes?

    Erik Wesner at Amish America pointed my attention to yet another resource on the Amish and other Anabaptist groups (there’s been a lot published lately). This one is by renowned Anabaptist scholar Donald Kraybill,  Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Erik’s post includes a brief interview with Kraybill,…

  • What to Preach

    One should preach his beliefs, not his doubts. –A. T. Robertson, The Glory of the Ministry, p. 62.

  • Ministry Notoriety

    Notoriety always comes to the preacher who betrays his Lord or his gospel (60). –A. T. Robertson, The Glory of the Ministry, p. 60.

  • Sincerity in Ministry

    (Commenting on 2 Cor 4:2) The temptation was often yielded to then as now, to put the best apples on top of the barrel, the best strawberries on top of the basket. The Judaizers made a plausible plea and show. Paul, in contrast, grounds his confidence on two reasons. One…

  • Humility

    The man wins more men to the ministry who is unconscious of any special halo on his own head. He sees only the face of Jesus his Lord. –A. T. Robertson, The Glory of the Ministry, pp. 57-58.

  • Your Point of View

    The sense of the nearness of God in his own life and ministry is the overmastering conviction of Paul…if Paul is able to find joy in the midst of his misfortunes, he has pointed the way for every preacher of Christ. The secret lies in looking at one’s life from…

  • God’s Will

    It is easier to see the hand of God after we have passed through a crisis. –A. T. Robertson, The Glory of the Ministry, p. 41.

  • Mountains and Valleys

    The sun often shines on the mountain when it is dark in the valley (39). –A. T. Robertson, The Glory of the Ministry, p. 38.

  • Call to Preach

    The temptation is easy to settle the question of being a preacher on the dead-level of business, expediency, and convenience. It is the spiritual view of the eternal values as seen by Paul in this prophetic passage that will win and hold the noblest type of man to the service…

  • Press On

    It is a great mistake for any preacher to reach a final conclusion in his moments of despondency. One can see better in the light than in the dark. The light will come if one press on towards it. –A. T. Robertson, The Glory of the Ministry, p. 37.  

  • Quit the Ministry?

    Deep down as Paul had gone, it did not occur to him to quit the ministry. –A. T. Robertson, The Glory of the Ministry, p. 28.  

  • A Pastor in Jeopardy

    At such a time [the day-to-day sameness and toil of ministry] one is oversensitive and imagines all kinds of slights and insults. The real difficulties and problems of the ministry are magnified out of all proportion to the facts. In such a case a minister is in jeopardy. He is…

  • The Glory of the Ministry

    I’m going to post several “sound bites” from A. T. Robertson’s 1911 exposition of 2 Corinthians titled, The Glory of the Ministry: Paul’s Exultation in Preaching. You can get it for free from Google Books (I am so thankful for Google Books! Has saved me a lot of $$$). It’s…

  • Strong Women

    It’s funny how one thing often leads to another. Tonight we’ll look briefly at Hebrews 12:9–“Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?” While reading a commentary on this, the author noted, The strong Christian is the disciplined Christian. ‘Women who are brought up…

  • April 19-25 Quotes

    In the course of my week’s studying and reading I always get way more than I can give in my preaching and teaching. Often I read a stunning sentence or two that I just have to put out there. I’ll try to collect these and post them together rather than…

  • Rob Bell: Hermeneutics

    I’m almost done with Rob Bell’s first book, Velvet Elvis. It’s been an interesting read, to say the least, with something interesting to blog about in every chapter. What I read last night was too “wow” not to share. Commenting on John 20:15 when Mary thought the resurrected Jesus was…

  • God’s Chosen Instrument

    On pp. 17-18 of Lectures on Revivals of Religion Sprague notes the first of three indications of a genuine revival of religion, viz., that genuine revival is brought about by Scriptural means. As God’s Word is the only rule of both faith and practice, those who seek to do God’s…

  • Revivals of Religion

    In William Sprague’s book, Lectures on Revivals of Religion, he begins the subject’s treatment by giving a general definition of “revival”– special occasions on which the agency of the Spirit would be signally manifest (p. 2) With respect to revivals of religion, Sprague then gives an excellent paragraph on the…

  • He Got Saved!

    (Continuing from yesterday…) The diligent and faithful use of the word of God, as the rule of judgment, would have an influence peculiarly important in regard to those who have just begun to attend to the subject of religion. Take the case of a sudden conversion. One who has long…