I am Emmanuel Akepogu from Hyderabad, India.I love the Puritans. Collecting good books by them and reading regularly. Dr. Beeke is absolutely right. I started to read Dr. Beeke's Theology book. It's a great book.
This is excellent. I so appreciate the Puritans and people like Joel Beeke who publish their works and encourage us to benefit from them. I think a reason the Puritans were so good with illustrations is that they viewed the material world from a spiritual perspective. The illustrations seem to come so naturally in their sermons, because (I believe) they came so naturally to their minds in general. They sought to ‘improve’ everything they encountered, meaning they labored to derive spiritual benefit from temporal objects and experiences in their day-to-day lives. When we come to the Bible with temporal prayer requests, we’re always met with spiritual truths. So we learn to pray for temporal things in a spiritual way, for spiritual ends; and we learn to see this world (and this life) as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. It’s turning material lead into spiritual gold, turning everything temporal into eternal benefit, experiencing a tiny taste of how God is mysteriously working all things for our good. The Puritans help us view the temporal world through an eternal lens. I believe they were good at it because they did it all the time, not just when preparing a sermon.
I just want to take this opportunity to thank Dr Beeke (General Editor) for the Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible, the pinnacle of my study collection. If I could only have 1 book, it would be that one, every Christian should own one. Thank you. To God be the glory.
When my father preached for most of the fifty years of his ministry... he like Billy Graham's association would pray for the Holy Spirit to touch the hearts. I would sit in the back of the service wondering how dad has lasted so long with this simple sermons. But as the members exited and spoke to my dad they would say things like this is exactly what I needed to hear. So... it is 99 percent the Holy Spirit a 1 percent man.
100% God. Only God can call you and only God alotted these spiritual gifts to each by measurement of faith (Romans 12:3). And when the Word is preached and pierced through, it is the Lord who has made that heart of stone to flesh and acceptable to hear. By Gods grace.
It’s the application part that I am looking for as I start to study the Puritans. I’m looking to stay firmly within the orthodox Christian, biblical, reformed path but I need help putting what I learn into practice.
