Tramadol and Preaching

Tramadol is a wonderful painkiller. Although it has taken my mind off the pain it is not a great help when I want to concentrate on a subject. Even so, there are one or two things that have got beyond my medicated haziness and have made me think.

The little that I have read from T. David Gordon I have found to be helpful, bold, and shrewd. He is a good writer. I particularly liked the following excerpt from his new book Why Johnny Can't Preach that I found over at Kevin DeYoung's blog:

Ministers [in our culture] are not at home with what is significant; ministers whose attention span is less than that of a four-year-old in the 1940s, who race around like the rest of us, constantly distracted by sounds and images of inconsequential trivialities, and out of touch with what is weighty.

It is not surprising that their sermons, and the alleged worship that surrounds them, are often trifling, thoughtless, uninspiring, and mundane...

The great seriousness of the reality of being human, the dreadful seriousness of the coming judgment of God, the sheer insignificance of the present in light of eternity–realities that once were the subtext of virtually every sermon–have now disappeared, and have been replaced by one triviality after another

Scott Clark also has a post on the book here.

As well as a brief review of the book Kevin also has some worthwhile posts on essential doctrines that are worth checking out:

Truths that transform, doctrines that damn (1)
Truths that transform, doctrines that damn (2)
Truths that transform, doctrines that damn (3)