Terry Pruitt's Blog

For years I have been focused on Thanksgiving being about the good things that happen in my life. That is true, we should be thankful for those good things when we are blessed by God. I have founded it harder and wiser to also be thankful when things do not go my way. This is a favorite passage of one of my daughters. I was always surprised by her attraction to it. I heard a sermon podcast on it this past Monday about this passage. "I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet...

It is not clear where the teaching comes from but I have often heard that the word 'go' in the Great Commission is not the command.  The supporting evidence given is this, the word 'go' is not in the imperative.  Certainly grammatically the word 'go' is a participle so the imperative is not a choice.  That may sound like an open and shut case, the word is not in the imperative mood so therefore it is not a command.  While this is true that the word 'go' is not in the imperative, it is a participle, so what does that mean?  In New Testament Greek (Koine Greek) the participle often has an enriching function in the sentence.  One of the main uses of the participle is to combine two or more actions as a combined action.  While we can't do this in English to the same extent as New Testament Greek can, if we say "he ran the ball to the end zone and won the game" we usually would think that the act of running the ball was how he won the game.  Thi...

I bought the book Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography by Iain H. Murray for a family member.  Initially she told me she liked it but as she read, she got frustrated.  She actually gave up on it and gave it to me.  I just finished reading it myself.  It took a while.  The book lacks direction is one of its main faults.  Rather than guiding and interpreting the life of Jonathan Edwards, it seems like the author accumulates many facts.  Murray seems to go into depth on issues which for me which would have served the average reader better by summarizing the issue or by excising the material altogether.  This book best serves someone with a strong interest in history and lover of detail.  If you desire to learn a bit of church history, historical theology, or be inspired by a great Christian man, you should look for another biography.

I took Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Greek in seminary.  I am maintaining my Hebrew and Greek by continuing to use those skills.  I translate my preaching passages.  I use Bible Works which I highly recommend.  It is my favorite Bible software since as they advertise, focus on the text.  Sometimes I'm being overly literal, so the English is poor, but it helps to figure out how Hebrew is different that English.  They just do things differently with language sometimes.   ‎  אִ֛ישׁ הָיָ֥ה בְאֶֽרֶץ־ע֖וּץ אִיּ֣וֹב שְׁמ֑וֹ וְהָיָ֣ה׀ הָאִ֣ישׁ הַה֗וּא תָּ֧ם וְיָשָׁ֛ר וִירֵ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים וְסָ֥ר מֵרָֽע׃   (Job 1:1 WTT) There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and he was a man who was whole and straight and feared God and turned from evil.  Notes:  The location is east of Israel.  ‎  וַיִּוָּ֥לְדוּ ל֛וֹ שִׁבְעָ֥ה בָנִ֖ים וְשָׁל֥וֹשׁ בָּנֽוֹת׃   (Job 1:2 WTT) And there was born to him seven so...

In his book The Master Plan of Evangelism Robert Coleman points out the example of Jesus in his ministry as individual instruction, small group instruction and preaching to large congregations.  These three are at least helpful in considering how a church should organize the discipleship ministry of the church.  Making disciples is a direct command in Scripture (Mt 28:18-19).  Jesus’ example of making disciples when working with individuals, small groups, and larger gatherings is strategic for the modern church. This blog post focuses on one to one discipleship.   Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in his book “The Reformed Pastor” describes how he traveled from home to home teaching the catechism.  He had a clerk arrange appointments for the members of the parish.  Rev. Baxter would visit each family in the parish. The church provided printed catechisms which he left with his congregation members.  His approach was to talk with all members of the ho...

Πόθεν πόλεμοι καὶ πόθεν μάχαι ἐν ὑμῖν; οὐκ ἐντεῦθεν, ἐκ τῶν ἡδονῶν ὑμῶν τῶν στρατευομένων ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ὑμῶν; (Jas. 4:1 NA28) Where do wars or conflicts come from in you? Do they not come from the pleasure you find in war making in your members? (James 4:1 my own working translation) We have conflict and fight with each other because we like it. I know people often are the victims of other people's love of the fight, however, we have to be constantly vigilant of our own hearts. We have to be aware of our own instinct to dig someone else, to go head to head, or to just compete in an unhealthy way. In recent years people have often thought that war comes from lack of resources. That may be a contributing factor, but the heart of mankind is the real source. People often think poor communication techniques or lack of empathy is the reason we have personal conflict. Communications techniques can help, but often our heart will turn good techniques on t...

If we go to a clothing store, we expect choose according to our taste and preference.  There are practical concerns like size and season that may inform our choices, but we can buy any article of clothing in the store.  It need not be our size or fit our marketing demographic.  I can buy a pair of jeans that would be more suitable for a young man in his twenties.  Besides the functional issues, clothing choice is a matter of style and taste.  These define what we want to communicate about ourselves.  It is our choice.                          There are other decisions we make in life that define our story.  If we accept or reject a marriage proposal, it has a great deal of impact on our life story.  If we are able to choose between two career paths that appear to be significant, meaningful work, that choice will influence our income, our life-work balance, our mobility, our...

I've been a student of evangelism for years. I've taken multiple college and seminary courses. I've been trained in church based programs. The motivation and theological reasons to do evangelism are often addressed. Sometimes these are the only issues of evangelism addressed because we are more comfortable with theological reflection than meeting people. At other times the techniques of evangelism get addressed. As one explores techniques, it is often the same as general persuasive communication used in business decisions, sales, policy debates, and public speaking...but watered down to one sales pitch which addresses one dimension. Often one sales pitch takes into account all the great public speaking techniques, but the techniques are usually not taught explicitly. These techniques of persuasive speech are incorporated into the structure of the canned presentation, but not taught explicitly. This would be indicative of training, not education. It is my observation that th...