Is our worship becoming too complex? Is it in danger of losing its focus?

The New Testament pattern for the corporate worship of the church is simple: the reading of Scripture, public prayer, singing and the preaching of the Word are the components. Of these, the preaching is to be the climax, as we listen to God speaking to us through his appointed servant. God's people are to join together in these activities with hearts that are pure, through the blood of Jesus Christ, approaching God through his Son, with faith in him.

As we have seen (30th April), the human race was no better after the flood than before it. The flood did not cure us of the sin we inherit from Adam. Before the flood, God’s verdict on mankind was ‘evil’; after the flood it was the same: ‘every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood’ (Gen. 8:21).

God would therefore be justified in destroying us all, at any time, just as he did in Noah’s day.

Apologies for the lack of blogs over the past few weeks. I have been away - visiting seminaries in the USA, teaching and preaching in Romania, attending the Banner of Truth ministers’ conference and taking a week’s holiday. I hope to resume normal blogging service shortly.

In the meantime, please read and enjoy Barry King’s article on church planting, which you can find on the ‘articles’ tab of this journal. 

I read a sad sentence this morning. It is in Invitation to the Septuagint, by Karen Jobes and Moisés Silva (Baker, 2000), an excellent introduction to the Greek OT. After a review of some of the leading LXX scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries and their painstaking, detailed language and textual work, the authors comment: