The importance of the covenant, and other matters

I've been a bit quiet on the interwebs lately. I preach my first sermon here on Sunday night (Galatians 3:1-14) so I've been neck deep in theology books and commentaries and Greek and things.

In the process I've been freshly reminded of something I have been learning for the past year: the covenants that God makes with his people are an essential structure in the Bible, so how you understand them makes a huge difference for how you understand the rest of Scripture and, ultimately, how you understand Christ. Covenant theology is not just something that professors discuss in ivory towers; it has tremendous repercussions in the Church and in the lives of believers. Misunderstand covenant theology badly enough, as some in Galatia did, and you can lose the gospel entirely! (Gal 1:9)

I'm too brain-tired to do a detailed post on the issue, which is very large and complex, and I'm still getting to grips with it myself. I hope at least some of my reflections will come across in the sermon, which I'll post here once it's online; though it will be a sermon, not a theology lecture... at least I hope it will, anyway.

Other news:

• We have another American here now, a gal doing some work with us from the PCA's Mission to the World.
  
• Tomorrow we've a Presbytery meeting, so I hope to have lots of interesting impressions to share. I'll be wearing my Westminster tie! Holla...
  
• Heard a presentation from an Albanian missionary representative; good work is going on there but that's a hard part of the world for the gospel.

More when there's more. Thanks, everyone, for reading; it's a huge encouragement to hear from you all.