Looking back to look forward

Is there a benefit to looking backwards — to evaluating the past in anticipation of setting goals for the future? Thinking not of individuals, but of the church, Stephen Nichols offers this insightful thought — The study of church history may be best viewed as a second-order discipline. It is subservient to our study of […]

Questions to start the new year

As Don Whitney notes, “The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.” What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God? What’s the most humanly […]

Saved from what?

The word “salvation” means “rescue.” And in this rescue the believer is rescued from two different objects. He is rescued from the wrath of God — in a very real sense, salvation is not just to God, but also from God — from His wrath. But the believer is also rescued from the ongoing effect […]

A prescription for contentment

Nina Fry, in an insightful article about raising girls to be godly women, notes a set of principles for cultivating contentment. These principles came from the diary of a woman who served as a missionary in the African bush for 52 years — in the most primitive of conditions and in extreme heat. How would […]

Book Review: Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ

Title: Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ: The Cost of Bringing the Gospel to the Nations in the Lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton Author: John Piper Publisher: Crossway, 2009; 126 pp. $17.99 Recommendation (4-star scale): In college and seminary I had very little affinity for history or biography. Now I naturally […]

Book Review: Bitesize Theology

Title: Bitesize Theology: the ABC of the Christian Faith Author: Peter Jeffery Publisher: Evangelical Press, 2000; 110 pp. $5.99 Recommendation (4-star scale): When I was in seminary, one of my Hebrew professors, who not only had a doctorate in Semitic languages from a prestigious university, but whose wife also had a doctorate in biology […]

Experiencing a post-Christmas let-down?

Each year Christmas night finds members of my family feeling some melancholy. After weeks of anticipation, the Christmas celebrations have flashed by us and are suddenly gone. And we’re left standing, watching the Christmas taillights and music fade into the night. But it’s possible that this moment of melancholy may be the best teaching moment […]

It’s Christmas day…

It’s Christmas day — a time to remember the advent of Christ. A time to remember both the fact that He came and the reason that He came. The circumstances of His arrival were quite remarkable. His birth was singularly unique because of the virgin birth, of course, but Joe Stowell reminds us even more […]

What Jesus thought of His birth

For the past several weeks, children around Granbury and the country and the world have been trying to listen in on the private conversations of their parents, hoping to gather hints about what might show up under the Christmas tree. Mostly, their attempts — I think — have been in vain (at least they always […]

Christmas Eve and Good Friday

There is a clear, unmistakable, and critical link between Christmas and Good Friday (Christ’s death). Celebrate Christmas without meditating on the cross, and you will have a Christmas devoid of meaning — all pretty paper, bows, lights, and tinsel, without any real treasure and joy. Christmas without the cross is a meal without the food, […]

Preach the gospel to yourself today

“Preach the gospel to yourself every day,” Jerry Bridges has written and said in numerous contexts. And he means that literally — each new day demands a fresh rehearsal (through the quotation of Scripture) of the essential components of the gospel so that we are reminded each day of our standing before God. In a […]

A little help with Revelation

This week we finish our annual reading through Scripture. We finish in Isaiah and Revelation — perhaps two of the more difficult books to interpret. As someone told me about Revelation yesterday, “I’m having a little trouble understanding what I’m reading.” This is a difficult book, but it is not unintelligible. And several accessible resources […]

Whate’er my God ordains is right

When we are discouraged, despairing, and disappointed with life and God, we need to be reminded of the truth of God’s character and His trustworthiness. He really is a good and gracious God, we need to be reminded. One such encouragement is an older hymn (which, to my knowledge, I’ve never heard sung), entitled, “Whate’er […]

Sunday Leftovers (12/20/09)

The story of the birth of Christ is populated by a broad variety of people who — superficially at least — seemed to have no particularly significant qualifications for their involvement in the story. The credentials for Joseph and Mary are humble at best: poor, young, alone, largely ostracized by family and friends. The shepherds […]

They saw Christmas, Pt. 2

[Continued from yesterday.] Consider two more groups of people who saw that first Christmas, and their kindred spirits who still see Christ today. Two oft-forgotten God-believers are Simeon and Anna (their story is told in Luke 2:22-38 if you wish to refresh your memory about them). There were a number of similarities between these two. […]