The Whole Counsel

This is our final week of previewing studies Media Gratiae has produced through the years. If you have been through Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, or Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty, you have seen Jordan Thomas. He contributed to the interview segments of those two studies. When we started producing smaller studies, we knew we wanted Jordan to make one. We approached him and as...

We are continuing our special series highlighting studies Media Gratiae has produced through the years, and this week, we are presenting to you one of our newer studies. Published in 2024, The Nature and Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship was written and taught by Dr. Ian Hamilton. If you are unfamiliar with Dr. Hamilton, we highly encourage you to seek out his books and preaching. His style is...

We are taking a break from our series on letters from Christian history to give Teddy James and his family a short break while they care for their new addition, Jack. During this time, we are presenting to you the first session from several studies that Media Gratiae has produced over the years. This week’s special is Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty, which is a follow-up to our first study....

We are celebrating an addition to the Media Gratiae family over the next few weeks. If you have listened to The Whole Counsel for a long time, you may remember Teddy James. His family is welcoming their newest addition, Jack. To give Teddy some time to focus on his home needs, we are running a series of special episodes highlighting some of the studies produced by Media Gratiae over the years. Fir...

Public prayer, whether it is praying in a corporate setting or simply asking a blessing over a meal with friends, can cause many Christians to feel uncomfortable. It may be easy to think we are the only ones who feel awkward in the practice, but this has been a reality for much longer than we think. In this week’s letter from the past, Dr. John Snyder reads a helpful correspondence from John Newto...

Dr. John Snyder has spent the last two weeks looking at John Newton’s seasons of the Christian life, which he likens to a growing stalk of corn. The Christian life starts as a blade sprouting from the soil. Then there is a small, immature, but very real fruit showing. Lastly, the season we are discussing this week is the mature Christian life. Each stage has its distinguishing marks, and this seas...

We are doing a giveaway. You can sign up for it here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway The book we are giving away can be seen here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/letters/select-letters-of-john-newton/ If you have been following The Whole Counsel for the last few weeks, you know we are looking at helpful letters throughout Christian history. We aren’t taking the letter...

We are doing a giveaway (that we will announce next week). You can sign up for it here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway The book we are giving away can be seen here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/letters/select-letters-of-john-newton/ Last week we looked at a letter from John Newton to a student studying for ministry work. This week’s letter is also from Newton, but it...

John Newton is best known today for his hymn, Amazing Grace. But in his day, he was better known for his letters. Christians, pastors, and others would write to him for pastoral advice. In our ongoing series about timeless letters from the past, we will spend a large percentage of our time reading his letters. In part because he was so prolific in his letter-writing. But lots of people have writte...

We are beginning a new series this week on The Whole Counsel. It is a series our team has wanted to make for a long time, but we have finally decided on the best way to deliver it to you. For much of his Christian life, Dr. John Snyder has benefitted from the letters of Christians throughout history. These are far from historical curiosity or museum exhibits to be visited from time to time. They a...

This week we have Dr. Stephen Yuille in the studio again. During his last visit, he told us about a reading challenge through George Swinnock’s The Blessed and Boundless God. Today, Dr. Yuille and Dr. John Snyder have a broader discussion in mind. Because of his profession and experience, many people ask Dr. Yuille how they can read and benefit more from the Puritans. He sought to develop a concis...

This week, we are happy to announce a new project from the personal study of Dr. John Snyder. This study originated from a desperation within John’s own heart. It deals with the life of a person whom God trusts with leadership in his kingdom. Titled Studies for Christ’s Under-Shepherds, this 11-week study is a series of talks by Dr. Snyder to a group of ministers local to New Albany, Mississippi....

We spent the previous several weeks discussing Charles Spurgeon’s small work on the weighty responsibility of parents and Sunday school teachers. While we covered everything Spurgeon said in that series, we wanted to leave the topic with an example of how we can speak to our children about eternal issues. To that end, we pull help from a contemporary of Spurgeon, an Anglican bishop named J. C. Ryl...

On this week’s episode of The Whole Counsel, Dr. John Snyder is joined by Dr. Stephen Yuille. Dr. Yuille has been with us before when he produced a study on the book of Galatians ( https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/gospel-realities-lessons-from-galatians ). He is in the studio this week with us because he just filmed a new study focusing on the Sermon on Mount. Make sure you are following...

This week we conclude our series based on Charles Spurgeon’s pamphlet Feed My Lambs. In these final segments, Spurgeon gives us three admonitions: remember whom you are teaching, remember that you are teaching on behalf of God, and remember that your children need this teaching. Keeping these things in mind will be a help in both preparing and in teaching theological matter to children. Spurgeon l...

In this week’s episode of The Whole Counsel, John and Misty Snyder come together again to continue discussing the small pamphlet Feed My Lambs written by Charles Spurgeon. He wrote this small work with Sunday school teachers in mind, but John and Misty find particular help for parents in this week’s segments. When it comes to presenting the warnings of hell to children, we must do so carefully. To...

In this week’s episode, Dr. John Snyder and his wife Misty continue discussing Charles Spurgeon’s small pamphlet, Feed My Lambs, focusing on teaching the gospel to young children. Today they focus on getting the most out of Sunday school. Some argue the practice is worse than unnecessary but claim it is bad. Provided that the Sunday school teacher is converted, we, along with Charles Spurgeon, dis...

This week we continue our series on presenting the gospel to children in our churches and families with Dr. John Snyder and his wife, Misty. The pair has spent years considering the topic, not just as parents, but as the authors of Behold Your God: Seeking Him Early, a curriculum that aims to present the realities of the gospel to children on their level. We are continuing to get help from Charles...

This week we begin a new series with a new guest, Misty Snyder. Misty is the coauthor of Behold Your God: Seeking Him Early and the wife of Dr. John Snyder. For help in this series, we are looking to Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle. Spurgeon’s little work, Feed My Lambs, was written for Christian parents and Sunday School teachers. This week, we focus on the opening section where Spurgeon hones in...

On this week’s episode, Dr. John Snyder hosts a former member of Christ Church New Albany, Josephine Rose. Josephine began coming to CCNA while she was in college. It was during her time in the fellowship there that God revealed Himself to her and rescued her. After graduation, she came down with a serious illness that forced her to move back in with her parents. Bedridden and anxious, she and her...

This week's sermon is the final in our series of revival sermons from Rev. Vernon Higham. Isaiah saw the need for revival in his day, and he cried out for it. We are also in great need of revival, and we hope the previous episodes have led you to cry out to God for it. In this final sermon, Rev. Higham shares with us the hope for revival from Isaiah 64:8-12. This hope is not the hope the world has...

This week’s podcast is the third of four sermons on revival preached by Reverend Vernon Higham in 1984. Rev. Higham felt the need for revival in his own land, and his desire for revival is expressed throughout this powerful sermon based on Isaiah 64:1–7. We pray this series benefits you and burdens you to pray for revival in your own soul, family, church, and land. If you would like to hear more s...

“Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah? This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? ’It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’” Isaiah 63:1 This week’s podcast continues the sermon series by Reverend W. V. Higham. Mr. Higham was the pastor of John Snyder and his family while he spent time in Wales working on...

While Dr. John Snyder was in Wales pursuing his doctorate, he and his family attended Heath Evangelical Church, where Mr. W. Vernon Higham was the pastor. Mr. Higham was also a close friend of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones and his wife. Through the years spent at Heath Evangelical, John and his family benefited greatly from Mr. Higham’s preaching, but there has been one series that John has gone back to...

Sitting in the prayer service of a church can feel like a passive experience. But it does not have to be. As we conclude our series on the corporate prayer service, Jeremy Walker preaches to his local flock at Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley, England about the practice of engaging with the prayer service. It may seem there isn’t much to do with your head bowed and eyes closed, but nothing co...