Now that I have spoken of the suffering Saviour, I desire this of you. Rouse yourselves up to be suitably affected with what I have spoken from these truths. There are three or four ways you should respond.
Wonder
And the first thing I would exhort you to be taken up with is wondering. What man or woman is there among you that can hear these things spoken of, and not wonder at it? That Christ should have suffered all this for the like of you and me! That He who is the Son of God should have quit heaven, and that the Son of God should have become man, that He should have been put so sore to it as to die — for sinners!
I cannot tell what calls for wonder from us, if this doesn’t. O the height! O the breadth! O the length! O the depth of this mystery! That the Son of God should have been put so sore to it as to die for sinners, and not only to die, but to drink the cup of the Father’s wrath! Who can hear this declared, and not wonder at the hearing of it? O wonder! O wonder at it! Wonder at the hearing of it!
Detest Sin
Did our Lord Jesus Christ have to suffer such great sufferings? Well then, see how you should look on sin. Should not sin be very detestable to you, and very abominable? Should not be at very much pains to forsake sin, when it was sin that brought our blessed Lord Jesus Christ to undergo such great sufferings, sufferings which would have brought you to such sad condemnation, and to lie under the wrath of God eternally and eternally?
Sinners, I think that supposing there was nothing else to motivate you to forsake your sins, and to hate every false way, and to hate the very least word and thought of sin, that this might be a motive — that it brought our Lord Jesus Christ to undergo such great sufferings.
Love to Him will call for this. “All ye that love the Lord, hate evil” (Psalm 97:10).
Don’t Disappoint Him
Our Lord Jesus Christ was brought to so many and so great sufferings. And He has undergone them so cheerfully. Has He not? And He is satisfied to see the travail of his soul.
O do not yet then do what you can to disappoint Him, while He is making offer of His blood to wash you! Do not do anything that will make Him regret that He shed His blood for the like of you! For when you do not give him a suitable meeting, you give him good reason to regret it, for you are doing what in you lies to make His sufferings of none effect.
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Doug began his pastoral ministry in Trenton, NJ at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) from 1971-1975 before becoming the pastor of New Life in Christ Church (NLICC) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1975, where he served faithfully until his death in 2024. Doug started NLICC as an unaffiliated church but steadily led the church into the Presbyterian Church in America in 1998.

Rev. Dr. Douglas Warren Kittredge was called into the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on February 10, 2024. His earthly journey was distinguished by a deep commitment to his God, his family, his church, and the global mission of the church, leaving an unmistakable impact on all who knew him.
Douglas is survived by his devoted wife of 54 years, Mary Jane, their four children: Douglas Charles, Rachel Marie Whitman (James), Andrew Mark (Sarah), Naomi Elizabeth Wilson (Chad); and 13 grandchildren: Juliet (Ryan), Tyler, Isabel, Lincoln, Elijah, Esther, Abigail, Jordan, Judah, Wren, Sybil, Margaret, and Faye. His legacy also lives on through his sister, Jeanette Stadick of Roselle, Illinois.
His academic journey laid the foundation for his ministry, beginning with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wheaton College in 1968, followed by a Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1971, and culminating in a Doctor of Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1988.
Doug began his pastoral ministry in Trenton, NJ at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) from 1971-1975 before becoming the pastor of New Life in Christ Church (NLICC) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1975, where he served faithfully until his death in 2024. Doug started NLICC as an unaffiliated church but steadily led the church into the Presbyterian Church in America in 1998. As such, he transferred from the OPC to the “Delmarva” (Delaware, Maryland & Virginia) Presbytery (of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod) in 1975 and was received into the James River Presbytery (of the Presbyterian Church in America) in 1982.
Doug had the perseverance and the kind blessing of God to pastor NLICC for nearly 49 years. During his tenure in Fredericksburg, Doug and Mary Jane pioneered much of the community’s spiritual and educational development. They demonstrated a strong commitment to Christian education, helping to inspire the vision behind Fredericksburg Christian School, contributing to its early success, and serving on its board. Recognizing the needs of homeschooling families, in 2004 they led in organizing Christ Covenant School, a homeschool cooperative in Fredericksburg.
Doug’s commitment to the dignity of God-given life led him to support the establishment of pro-life ministries in Fredericksburg. His early support and vision were instrumental in bringing Bethany Christian Services and a crisis pregnancy center to the area.
His passion for equipping future church leaders motivated and supported the launching of the Fredericksburg branch of New Geneva Theological Seminary in 2002. Here he taught and mentored many men to licensure and ordination within the James River Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Under Doug’s visionary leadership, several new churches were started, and he helped organize three city-wide evangelistic campaigns in collaboration with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization. He was pivotal in advancing the work of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Mary Washington by supporting the first full-time worker on campus.
Doug had a strong conviction of the church’s responsibility to reach the Jewish people with the gospel. He made numerous trips to the nation, fostering friendships with local churches and leading many groups on tours of the land to connect with Christian workers. In 2012, he helped start the Jerusalem Gateway Partnership, a missionary partnership aimed at establishing and supporting churches in Israel and surrounding areas. His written works, “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” and “God’s Plan for Peace in the Middle East,” underscore his commitment to building the church in the Middle East.
However, the crown jewel of his ministry was undoubtedly New Life in Christ Church, which he began in 1975 with just 10 organizing families. The church has since grown significantly, impacting thousands worldwide through its ministry and missions’ arm. Doug was a torchbearer of historic evangelicalism, influenced by his childhood church (Park Street in Boston), his childhood pastor (Harold J. Ockenga), the martyrdom of the “Auca missionaries”, and his time at Wheaton. His evangelical commitments shone through in his conviction on the truthfulness of the Bible, his faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and his efforts in evangelism and worldwide missions. Doug was certain that the local church of Jesus Christ would make a significant difference for the kingdom of God and was the driving force behind his lifelong ministry. He was a pastor at heart, caring to know and be involved in the lives of each person at the church. Countless people have testified of his caring pursuit like a shepherd to the sheep.
When Doug was young, still a young man, he had a chance to join his pastor and Billy Graham as Graham spoke at the Harvard Law Forum. It was a significant day in Doug’s life as Billy Graham challenged these law students to consider the claims of Christ even as they prepared for their career in law.
Doug remembers traveling with his pastor Harold John Ockenga and Billy Graham in a car. Ockenga introduced young Doug to Billy Graham and said, “This young man wants to be a pastor”. Graham looked squarely at him and said, “Is that right, you want to be a pastor?”  Young Doug answered, “Yes, sir.” Graham’s response is something that Doug would remember all his life, “You’ll do well.”
On February 10, 2024, Rev. Dr. Douglas Warren Kittredge heard those words again, but this time, not from Billy Graham, he heard them from His Savior, “You have done well. Well done, good and faithful servant, enter in the joy of your master. He has received the crown laid up for him in heaven, a crown of God’s grace that he will place down in worship at his Savior. Doug Kittredge, a sinner saved by grace, now lives in the abundant love and grace of God in glory.
Sean Whitenack is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is the Pastor of New Life in Christ PCA in Fredericksburg, Va.
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True biblical meditation is not about emptying our minds or each of our thoughts. Instead, biblical meditation is about filling our minds with God’s thoughts as we seek to draw nearer and nearer to Him and then we process those thoughts. We reflect and ruminate upon those thoughts. We chew on those thoughts the way a cow chews the cud as we go about our day. Biblical meditation is not about contemplating the concept of infinity, chants, mantras, or our eyes rolling back in our heads. No, biblical meditation involves thinking deeply about biblical truth. It’s doing what Paul instructed us to do in Philippians 4:8 when he said, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, And on His Law he meditates day and night.He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.— Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB)
We live in a frenzied and fast-paced world that is increasingly demanding and digitized. A world where we are constantly being bombarded with marketing and messaging. The reality is we are constantly scrolling, skimming, surfing, and searching through a bottomless sea of data and information. And if we’re being honest, we all live incredibly distracted lives. The result is that for most of us, we’ve lost the ability to think deeply and critically about much of anything.
Like a rock protruding from the ocean, which was once jagged and sharp, we eventually become worn down and washed out by the waves of the times. And then the door swings wide open to Satan, attempting to lure us into falling for the lies of this world. What do we do to combat all of this? Well, we’ll do a five or ten-minute devotional reading of Scripture. We’ll send up a few brief “flare prayers,” and then we’re off and running. Now, as a pastor, I’m all for Bible reading. I’m all for prayer. I’m not at all trying to malign or undermine those important spiritual disciplines. But do you see the imbalance? Do you see the problem? How is it possible to face the onslaught of information we face every day? How is it possible to fight the spiritual battles we each face with such an imbalance between biblical content and worldly influence? What I hope to show you here is that biblical meditation is an essential spiritual discipline for a thriving Christian life. It’s a discipline that layers on top of our reading of God’s Word. It’s a discipline that builds upon the sermons we listen to on Sunday mornings. It’s a discipline that drives biblical truth deep into our hearts and cements those truths into our minds. It’s a discipline that enables us to fight and win the spiritual battles that we inevitably face every day.
The go-to text on biblical meditation is Psalm 1 and in the first three verses of that Psalm, it says, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”
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Can the church, therefore, (whom God has so graciously called out of that sinful world for the express purpose of succeeding where the world had initially failed) really also fail to esteem and exalt its precious Lord so miserably – and yet expect great blessing? It is necessary for the point to be made, making clear that revival – like individual salvation – is something that can never be earned. It is an act of the grace of God from beginning to end. But… we can forfeit God’s blessing, as David reminds us in Psalm 66:18, using the example there of heard prayer.

Firstly, some clarification:

There is still power in the gospel and its message in Wales in 2024. As recently as a couple of months ago I was one of many blessed attendees at the baptism of two teenage girls. There are many Christians around Wales today who are receiving much needed edification, comfort, conviction and more from sitting under the regular preaching of the gospel. There are still new converts being saved by the gospel’s preaching too. As Paul once wrote to the flailing church in Corinth:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18

This is one of the reasons why I become so exasperated by churches who downgrade a preaching service to something else because “preaching doesn’t seem to attract non-Christians”. We are told that yes, of course, non-Christians are going to find the preaching of Christ to be both foolishness and a stumbling block, but as Christians, we know it to be the power of God – in saving us, as all Christians once experienced, and in the building up of our faith. William Cowper was able to write during a time of great revival:
“Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power”
Thank God that this is still true for us today!
The country of Wales has had a great history of Christianity and revivals. Some of the most famous include the 18th century Great Awakening revivals, with preachers such as Daniel Rowlands, Howell Harris, William Williams, and even the English George Whitefield being greatly used, the revival of 1859 of Humphrey Jones and David Morgan, and the widespread revivals of 1904-5.
Although, thankfully, there are a good number of churches around Wales that are bucking the current general trend of Christianity today, there are also many churches that are dwindling in number at a startling rate, many churches are closing or are recently closed, and many churches of all types and denominations are feeling a great sense of powerlessness in the taking of the gospel to the lost.
One of the most wonderful stories I have come across from reading of the Welsh revivals of the past – this account coming from the 1904-5 revival – concerns a man named Levi Jarvis:
Levi Jarvis was a man who loved to drink, who loved to fight, and who was feared throughout the whole community. This fearsome man, however, became very scared of the revival that was now spreading throughout his locality… so much so that his wife thought he was going mad! He would even leave his house for work an hour earlier than usual, so as to avoid the conversations concerning the revival from his fellow workers as they walked together to the coal mining pit.
Well, one day, when Levi Jarvis returned home from work, his wife said to him, “Levi, you’ll never believe it! R.B. Jones (the preacher of that revival) has called round, asking to speak to you!” Levi Jarvis responded by taking a big drink of water, picking up the loaf of bread from the table and running off into the mountain to hide himself away!
A mere hour or two later, Levi Jarvis was found stepping into the entrance of the packed-out church, and as the preacher stopped speaking to look at Levi Jarvis, and all the congregation turning to look upon him also, Levi Jarvis asked in a trembling voice, “Can the Lord Jesus save such a sinner as me?”
40 years or so later, this same Levi Jarvis was known to gather the young people of the church to himself, and say, “Come, and let’s talk about that time when the Lord saved me!”[1]
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Life, Isaiah says, is not found in vain self-exaltation. It isn’t found through subjecting the world to our arbitrary whims. It isn’t found by blotting out every remembrance of our fallenness or seeking to indulge every craven lust. Rather, life is found through acknowledging the crushing weight of our rebellion against God and turning to Him in humble faith.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’ (Isaiah 57:15)
It’s hard to describe the degree to which the worship of self has become a foundational assumption of our age. It is, to borrow the old cliché, simply the “air we breathe.” And it’s a noxious fume at that.
But the kind of self-obsession I am thinking of goes deeper than any one example. It’s more than simply the general priority of self that has been endemic to every sinner throughout the ages. Rather, the kind of self-obsession I am referring to has more to do with our outlook on the world, with how we view the whole hierarchy of existence and our place within it.
Older breeds of self-interest, for instance, certainly preferred the interests of the individual over the interests of others, just as modern self-interest does. The difference, however, lay in the fact that those seeking to advance themselves in former times did so within an objectively established order. Their self-interest, in other words, was subordinated to the constraints of reality, like two ants fighting over the same leaf or two birds with a worm.
Modern self-interest, however, is different from this. It seeks to do away with hierarchy altogether and believes that the scope and priority of the self is unbounded. Thus, whereas previous generations recognized a world outside themselves to which their desires — even their selfish ones — were necessarily subjected, we recognize no such limitations.
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In most crucial areas of life, neutrality is a myth. It either does not exist, or seeking to remain neutral will just cause harm and hurt. We all must get involved, take a stand, and take sides. That certainly is the case with our eternal destiny. But it also matters in things like the culture wars. And as we read and study Scripture, we must admit that none of us are completely neutral and untainted by the ideas and input of others.

Can and should the Christian be neutral? Well, it depends on what we are talking about. Let me first deal with the term being used here. One online dictionary offers two senses of the word “neutrality”:-The state of not supporting or helping either side in a conflict.-The absence of decided views, expression, or strong feeling.
In some areas there can indeed be such neutrality, and it does not really matter if it is there. If a sporting event is on with two archrivals battling it out, and you are keen on that sport, and especially support (or hate) one of the teams, then you will not remain neutral. But if you are not into that particular sport, or have no favourite teams, then you can easily stay neutral, in the sense of not having strong feelings either way as to who wins or loses.
For the Christian, the idea of complete neutrality is quite questionable – at least in various key areas. Here I will offer three such areas, and show how taking sides is in fact what we are called to do, and refusing to take sides can be an indication of our lack of love for God and others.
The Myth of Spiritual Neutrality
In terms of the spiritual war that is taking place all around us, we have to go along with the words of Jesus: “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30a). There are only two sides in this cosmic conflict that we all find ourselves in: God’s side and the devil’s side.
The Bible makes it clear throughout that if we are not on God’s side, then we are on Satan’s side. This is especially the case when it has to do with those who are God’s children, and those who are not his children. You either is or you ain’t, to put it simply.
One way of putting this is to say that there are only two humanities: the redeemed and the unredeemed; the saved and the lost. And there are only two eternal destinies that people will find themselves in. So we all must choose, and choose carefully.
Sure, some people do not find such a black and white polarity to be to their liking. But repeatedly in Scripture we find this very thing. And I have written on this issue before, so have a look there for the numerous passages that make this so very clear: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/06/07/two-humanities-two-destinies/
Before moving on, let me say that some people are moving closer to God or further away. Conversion CAN be a process, something that may occur over time. So I am not saying all people MUST be able to pinpoint the exact moment that they passed over from death to life, from darkness to light.
The apostle Paul could certainly pinpoint the time and place, but for others, such as the apostle Peter, they may have been on a bit of a journey to get there. See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2022/07/17/on-becoming-a-christian/
The Myth of Cultural and Political Neutrality
My second area has to do with things like political involvement and the culture wars. These are matters I have of course written on quite frequently.
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Both the calendar and the development of mechanical clocks are rooted in the Church’s recognition of the need to see the world as sacred. Like the Sabbath and the feast of ancient Israel, time and seasons remind us that our lives are not ultimately our own and are instead part of the larger story of creation to redemption. In other words, as demanding as the clock can be, the Christian notion of time should help us from viewing the days of our lives in purely secular terms.

Throughout the Bible, for example in Galatians 4:4 or Paul’s speech to the “Men of Athens” recorded in Acts 17, God is described as a God of historical precision. He is outside of but fully in control of time and place. This distinctive of the Judeo-Christian understanding of God stands in sharp contrast to pagan and polytheistic notions of deities and time, and dramatically shaped human history. Today, Leap Day, is an appropriate day to think about our relationship to time.  
One of the earliest examples of time anxiety in history is found in the French song “Frère Jacques.” In it, Brother James is rebuked for sleeping and not ringing the Matins bells at midnight. The song reflects the seriousness with which the Church took the times designated for prayer. Following Psalm 119:164, which says, “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules,” monastic liturgies included seven set times for prayer.  
Initially, given the changing length of day and night throughout the year, liturgical hours were not fixed. Instead, the Church regularized the hours by measuring the passage of time. By the 1200s, the mechanical clock was invented to keep pace with a chime that signaled when to ring the bells for the monastic hours.  
Not long after, mechanical clocks appeared in city towers. In 1288, the predecessor to the tower clock known as “Big Ben” went up across from Westminster Abbey. In 1292, a clock was built in Canterbury Cathedral. The oldest surviving tower clock in England, dating to 1386, is at Salisbury Cathedral. In addition to time, these clocks often marked heavenly phenomena. The most elaborate surviving example is in Prague. Installed in 1410, this clock told time using a standard 24-hour day, as well as in “Italian time,” which put the 24th hour at sunset. 
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A Catechism for Christian Growth is specifically designed to fit into a variety of settings in the Christian life. It helps parents shepherd their children, new converts understand the fundamentals of the faith, and entire congregations learn sound doctrine like catechisms have for centuries. It is a succinct yet systematic scaffolding upon which Christians can fortify their faith and defend against all sorts of heresy. But defense is hardly the only benefit of catechesis, for it will also engender a deep and abiding reverence for the Creator (Prov. 4:20–27) and a warmth of affection for God as Christians rest in his electing love (Deut. 6:5–9). 

There’s an enduring misconception about the essential tool of the Reformation. While it is widely assumed that “the Protestant reformers placed the Bible in the hands of laypeople, it is more accurate to say they were handed catechisms to learn as apt summaries of divine revelation.”[1] The practice of using catechisms to help train children, adults, and even ministers placed the focus of the church back on a biblical trajectory––to affirm and live out sound doctrine. Sadly, Protestants, and especially Baptists, moved away from catechisms around the end of the nineteenth century for a variety of reasons,[2] but thankfully, there seems to be a growing interest in catechisms today. This is encouraging, for every pastor––better yet, every father––should consider a good catechism to help shepherd his flock. In this article, I begin with the need of every Christian to affirm sound doctrine, then show how catechisms can meet that need, and conclude by explaining why I ventured to write an updated catechism for the church today.
We Need to Affirm Sound Doctrine
Everyone has a theology. Everyone has a worldview. But Christianity is designed to be a worldview based on sound doctrine. Without sound doctrine derived from the Word of God, there are no guard rails for morality, there are no lanes to stay in while reading and interpreting the Bible, and there is no accurate framework to buttress our life. For generations, sound doctrine has been minimized, so much so that evangelicals are as apt as liberal Christians to say, “Christianity is all about a relationship not a religion,” or “Doctrine divides,” or “We want good deeds, not good creeds.”[3] When the church minimizes the importance of sound doctrine, there no longer remains an impetus to catechize. That which used to be very Protestant now seems foreign. The remedy? Rediscover that every Christian needs to affirm, cherish, and defend sound doctrine.
In Titus 1, God tells us that elders are to be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it (Titus 1:9). In 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul repeatedly made the connection from his faithful life to his sound doctrine (1 Tim. 6:3–5; 2 Tim. 1:13). The reason for God’s emphasis on sound doctrine? Sound doctrine nourishes the soul and promotes godly living. Therefore, the pursuit, knowledge, and protection of sound doctrine is essential to how God calls every Christian to live the Christian life. Perhaps we should counter modern evangelical clichés with, “Good creeds lead to good deeds.” The backbone for why the Scriptures support the use of a well-crafted catechism is simply that catechisms are excellent tools to communicate, learn, and study sound doctrine.
We Need Tools to Teach Sound Doctrine
I am not a handyman, nor the son of a handyman, and so it shouldn’t surprise that I often come at routine home projects with the wrong tools in hand. Like the time I tried to use a hammer drill to screw a broken chair-arm back together: it now sits with its arm split, hanging limply in my dining room, a constant reminder of my handyman inadequacies. For generations now, pastors have attempted to motivate fresh vigor for godly living with the power of positive thinking, emotional pleas to remember God’s love, calls to rededicate your life, or heaping guilt on their hearers over the urgent plights of a sin-cursed world. As many of these tools have failed, many are beginning to remember that catechisms were the tool churches used for centuries to equip the saints to know and to live out sound doctrine. After all, the goal of our churches isn’t to simply count decisions, but to make lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. Catechisms, used well, help Christians ruminate on sound doctrine. They allow this truth to seep in, rather than bounce off. So, a good catechism can become a pastor’s best friend.
In our home, starting when my children were toddlers, we taught them simple questions and answers. Some of those questions and answers were indispensable to the discipline process: Did you disobey daddy? Yes. What does God call that? Sin. What does God tell daddy he has to do? Discipline me. Others included echoes from church history: Who made you? God made me. What is our only hope in life and death?
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Not long ago I took our daughter Debbie and two of our grown grandchildren on a memory trip to places in Canada where I grew up.
One special spot we visited was on Lake Rosseau in the Muskoka lakes region. It was once the site of a Bible conference, long since defunct, where my mother took me many summers of my early life.
As we cruised by boat along the rocky shore, I could see the old buildings derelict and deserted, but the memories stayed with me. I recalled the children’s meetings where a retired missionary woman and a college student told us about Jesus, and how at the end of that week I put up my hand to say I wanted to know and follow him.