Consecutive expository preaching has become vogue in many churches. I come from a background where it was not so common. In the Scottish Highlands, pastors tended to preach what the Lord “laid on their hearts and minds” each week. They were definitely expository sermons, yes, but they were not part of a months-long-series of sermons on one book, verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter.
Read More →
Search Results: 'books+to+read'
Pros and cons of consecutive expository preaching
Aug 24, 2011 • By David Murray • 25 Comments
Mr & Mrs Israelite read Ruth
Aug 9, 2011 • By David Murray • 2 Comments
Inspired by my friend Tim Challies’ fascinating and insightful preaching (here) and blogging series (here and here) on Ruth, I returned to the book myself for a recent sermon. Whenever I preach from an Old Testament book, I start by trying to ask the same questions that the original readers would have asked as they…
Read More →Why I left my congregation
Jul 25, 2011 • By David Murray • 7 Comments
I’ve been preparing lectures for “The Minister and His Ministry” course at PRTS this coming semester. One of the subjects I’ve been re-visiting is how a pastor knows when to leave a congregation and accept a call to another. I could only find scattered references to this huge challenge in the standard pastoral theology books….
Read More →How do they do that?
Jul 18, 2011 • By David Murray • 1 Comment
One of my favourite childhood books was How do they do that? The Discovery Channel took the same idea and made it into a TV programme called How do they do it? The Internet has its own howstuffworks.com. These and other similar books, programmes, and web sites tap into our natural human curiosity. We want…
Read More →Some Faulty Theological Arithmetic
Jun 27, 2011 • By David Murray • 16 Comments
God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment by James Hamilton is a superb book in so many ways (and only $7.69 on Kindle). If I recall, I think John Piper said that it was one of very few books that he read all the way through without putting it down. Given that it’s 640 pages long,…
Read More →Top 20 most influential books in my life
Jun 21, 2011 • By David Murray • 10 Comments
A few weeks ago, one of my students asked me for a list of the 20 most influential books in my ministry, with a view to getting these books before returning to his home nation. Here’s what I came up with, and why. Biographies The Diary and Letters of Andrew Bonar: First book I started…
Read More →Pastoral Picks (6/16)
Jun 16, 2011 • By David Murray • 1 Comment
Gospel-driven effort Important conversation between Kevin DeYoung and Tullian Tchividjian about the role of effort in sanctification. Once again, Kevin manages to think my thoughts more clearly and express them more articulately. It’s a weird and humbling feeling. Key sentence from Kevin: “I agree sanctification requires the fight of faith to believe this scandalous good…
Read More →God’s been hunting me down
May 31, 2011 • By David Murray • 12 Comments
“God’s been hunting me down for months.” That was my immediate and instinctive understanding of why the Lord recently sent multiple blood clots into my leg and lungs (read about it here). Three weeks and two complications later, I’m more convinced than ever that God’s been tracking me for months, with loving arrow after loving…
Read More →What was Jesus doing in the OT?
May 5, 2011 • By David Murray • 1 Comment
What was Jesus doing throughout the 4,000 years of Old Testament history? Was He just idling His time away while waiting for His incarnation? Did He have no interest in or involvement with Old Testament believers? Of course he did. In fact, on numerous occasions, He broke into Old Testament history by way of Theophanies…
Read More →The Dangers of Redemptive-Historical Preaching
Apr 20, 2011 • By David Murray • 5 Comments
Having looked at some of the strengths of redemptive-historical preaching, we shall now consider some of the dangers. Maybe “danger” is too strong a word, but there are at least weaknesses in the way that some redemptive-historical preaching is practised. 1. Under-applicationWhile some redemptive-historical preachers do, eventually, get to personal application in their sermons, it…
Read More →Self-examination for the digital age
Apr 11, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments
I was expecting a lot from Tim Challies’ new book, The Next Story: Life and faith after the digital explosion. But it has far surpassed my expectations. Thinking that I already knew quite a lot about the subject, and also confident that I already knew much of Tim’s thinking on it, when I first saw…
Read More →Pastoral Picks
Apr 7, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments
As a passionate believer in Martyn Lloyd-Jones view of regular evangelistic preaching, I enjoyed this on Evangelistic Preaching without bolt-ons Ten things Seminary never taught me. I think most pastors could get to 100 things quite quickly, but this is a good start. Should non-preachers reading preaching books? I hope so, because I’ve written one…
Read More →Caring for the depressed (2): Sympathy
Apr 7, 2011 • By David Murray • 2 Comments
Thoughtful and prayerful study of depression should naturally and automatically increase our sympathy for those who suffer from it. By sympathy, I mean an ability to communicate that we truly understand the problem and the symptoms, that we are deeply concerned, and that we will do all that we can to help. In many cases…
Read More →Caring for the depressed (1): Study
Apr 5, 2011 • By David Murray • 4 Comments
A depressed Christian’s family and friends, and fellow Christians, will be involved to one degree or another in helping a depressed person get better. Usually these caregivers have no medical training, and often they have limited or incorrect knowledge of depression or anxiety. However, they have a critical role in helping a depressed person get…
Read More →CK2:8 The Next Story
Apr 1, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments
Download here.As Tim was in Grand Rapids this week to meet with Ryan, Andrew, and the rest of his publishing team at Zondervan, we recorded a first-ever face-to-face Connected Kingdom about his excellent new book: The Next Story. Ryan joined us for the discussion and then we all went for a Hibachi, finished off with…
Read More →10 P’s of Time Management
Mar 29, 2011 • By David Murray • 3 Comments
Here’s part of the lecture I gave to the students in my Leadership class on managing time in pastoral ministry. I’ve given you a theology of time and a devil-ology of time. In the light of that, let me now give you 10 practical ways to manage time. 1. PeaceThe most important time of the…
Read More →Lord, teach me how to teach
Mar 17, 2011 • By David Murray • 11 Comments
Preaching is not easy, but it is far easier than teaching. Although preachers and preaching styles vary, preaching is still quite predictably monolithic: a male voice monologues for 30-40 minutes. No visuals. No interruptions. No discussion. No great surprises. That’s what everyone expects. Some may take some notes, but most people just listen (or, at…
Read More →Why “The Daily” is Doomed
Mar 15, 2011 • By David Murray • 6 Comments
I’m not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. However, I’m going to make a prediction: The Daily is doomed. It takes a brave man (or a fool) to bet against Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch, but here’s my reasoning. About aged 9 (35 years ago!), I discovered the daily newspaper. I used to…
Read More →5 questions to ask a depressed person
Mar 9, 2011 • By David Murray • 4 Comments
When I start counseling a depressed person, I’m looking for answers to five questions at an early stage in the conversation. I don’t ask them in a checklist or condemning manner, but I try to probe sympathetically to get a sense of where they are at. 1. Do you accept you have a problem?Don’t assume…
Read More →The good news about stress
Feb 17, 2011 • By David Murray • 1 Comment
This is probably not the article that my wife wanted me to read this morning. However, it has a fascinating take on how to how to change stress from debilitating to enhancing by changing the way we view it. The researchers from Yale and Harvard start by demonstrating how most books and presentations on stress…
Read More →About David Murray
- Follower of Christ
- Preacher of the Gospel
- Professor of Old Testament & Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary
Books
