Sunday Leftovers (8/1/10)

A letter to Dear Abby a number of years ago reveals the heart of what many believe about giving: Is it considered proper to make change from the offering plate when it’s passed at church? A member of our family says it’s not OK. I say, it’s better than not putting anything in. Your opinion […]

Memories

Memories. The first day of school. The first date with your wife. The night your child was born. The funeral of your best friend. The aching regret of a mistake, a sin, that cannot be undone. Water skiing on the lake with friends. The smell of hot-dogs and popcorn that takes you in your mind’s […]

Storing treasures in our hearts

Richard Sibbes reminds us of the importance of not only speaking the truth, but thinking and meditating on the truth. This is the work and manifestation of a righteous man — one who speaks the truth in his heart: All sin is either from false principles, or ignorance, or thoughtlessness, or unbelief of what is […]

Grab Bag

Learn to “Read better with [puritan Richard] Baxter” Pastor Tim Keller tells us how to “How to Love One Another: Affirm, Share, and Serve” The Trellis and the Vine — one of my new favorite books on how to minister and serve in the church body — is now in paperback, and on sale for […]

Still studying

During a dinner party conversation, the neighbor of Albert Einstein asked the white-haired physicist, “What are you actually, by profession?” “I devote myself to the study of physics,” replied Einstein. The girl was astonished: “You mean to say that you study physics at your age? I finished mine a year ago!” What that poor young […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/25/10)

There is a kind of anger that is righteous. We know that because God is wrathful and Jesus demonstrated anger during His time on earth. It is also quite evident that virtually all human anger is unrighteous — and even when it is righteous initially, it tends towards unrighteousness over time. And that is why […]

Preparing for suffering

C. J. Mahaney has often encouraged pastors to prepare their people for suffering. Matt Chandler is one pastor who has done just that — and found that in the process he actually had prepared himself for his own suffering. Watch the video here: (HT: Justin Taylor)

A cake not turned…

This morning we read in Hosea the accusation that “Ephraim has become a cake not turned” (7:8). If you are reading carefully, you have to ask what the prophet means. Spurgeon provided one answer: A cake not turned is uncooked on one side; and so Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though […]

Reading Hosea

Hosea is one of the most unusual books in Scripture. It has to be labeled as such since the bitter marriage of the prophet Hosea to his prostitute wife stands as a picture of the tragic relationship between the gracious God and His disobedient and rebellious people. The tendency is for readers to align themselves […]

We are beggars

It’s generally not a welcome sight. And it’s not something that is often seen in my neighborhood, nor probably in yours either. But in the neighborhood where my wife and I had our first apartment, it was not unusual to see a man diving in the dumpster outside our apartment for small bits of edible […]

Having trouble memorizing Scripture?

Do you have trouble memorizing Scripture? Or remembering what you memorized last week, never mind last year? So do I; so does John Piper. How can you be more effective remembering what you’ve learned? Repetition. Review, review, review. There is no way to memorize Scripture that keeps you from losing it. Some people don’t lose […]

Joni’s new book

Joni Eareckson Tada has written a new book entitled, A Place of Healing which will be released in September. It will also be available then in audio format; the first hour of the book is available for a free download now, through Christian Audio. The book is described this way: In this eloquent account of […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/18/10)

Human anger is almost always portrayed in Scripture to be something unwise, foolish and ungodly. And even when men exhibit genuinely righteous anger, it is always prone to degrading into ungodly, unrighteous anger. A few observations about anger from Scripture: Anger, like every sin, is the result of allowing the flesh to rule one’s mind […]

Reading Song of Solomon

Today we began reading the Song of Solomon — a book that for many centuries has been read as typical of Christ’s love for His bride, the church. However, that is not how Israelites would have read the book 1000 years before the time of Christ. And, since the best way to read and understand […]

Life sentence? Don’t waste it.

Continuing the theme that he explained in his book, Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper visited Angola Prison last fall and encouraged the believers there not to waste their life sentence. I typically don’t watch videos like this — but when someone gave me a preview copy of this a couple of months ago, I […]