Doctrine, i.e., teaching, is the preacher’s chief business. Truth is the life blood of piety, without which we cannot maintain its vitality or support its activity. And to teach people truth, or to revive what they already know into freshness and power, is the preacher’s great means of doing good. The facts and truths which belong to the scriptural accounts of sin, providence, and redemption, form the staple of all scriptural preaching…The preacher who can make doctrinal truth interesting as well as intelligible to his congregation and gradually teach them the doctrines of the Bible is rendering them an inestimable service…Our task is loving these truths ourselves, to make others love them.

John A. Broadus, On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, 62-63.

reasons i love the fall:

1. new books due to the start of a new semester
2. the fiery trees as their leaves change
3. college football
4. fall picnics and festivals
5. all things pumpkin (bread, pie, donuts, lattes, etc.)
6. Sam Adams Octoberfest beer and Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale
7. FIGHTIN’ TEXAS AGGIE FOOTBALL!! (completely different from #3)

Tony Reinke, blogger at The Shepherd’s Scrapbook, has posted some helpful tips at keeping quotes organized for those who are seldom found without their nose in a book. i absolutely love organization like this and such a system would greatly help me remember specific things i had read, and would certainly help in my studies.

o, to have more time than i do to devise such a system and actually use it. perhaps at some point i’ll find the hours to spend going through books i’ve read, recording the things i’ve highlighted, and dividing them up into easily recognizable, sortable, and searchable categories. perhaps i should acquire an intern.

also of note at Tony’s blog is his series (part 1, part 2, and part 3)wherein he creates his own version of Jonathan Edwards’ blank bible. if i only had a table saw….