Over the past generation, many churches have left behind the singing of hymns. Some have asked whether hymns are still appropriate or relevant for today. Yet at the same time, there are new hymns being written that honor the tradition of the ancient, Biblical hymns of the faith. Among these hymn writers are Keith Getty […]
Read More Why sing hymns?Al Mohler’s analysis of Time magazine’s current cover story (“The Grassroots Abortion War”) on Crisis Pregnancy Centers is helpful and illuminating. Read it here.
Read More Abortion and Crisis Pregnancy CentersWhat does a man think and write as he faces imminent death? Read the words of grace penned by Al Groves prior to his death, as he anticipated that death. The letter was read at his memorial service.
Read More More dying and livingPeople are clueless about Christ (if they are unbelievers) and the power of Christ in their daily activities (if they are believers) because they do not want Him to intrude on their lives. They want trivial happinesses and self-indulgent pleasures (and lack of pain) without the transforming work of Christ in their hearts. Jesus said […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (2/18/07)I regularly read books and magazines and journals and websites and have conversations with people that remind me that many marriages are in desperate need of God’s grace to intervene and save them from self-implosion. I also listen to several audio sermons each week to stimulate my own heart to joyful obedience to Christ. And […]
Read More Help for marriagesThe audio from the recent Sola Scriptura conference hosted by Countryside Bible Church has now been posted. There are six messages in all, two each by Steve Lawson, Bruce Ware, and Don Whitney. I could only attend one evening, but have downloaded the rest of the messages and am looking forward to listening to all […]
Read More Sola ScripturaI like leftovers. It hasn’t always been that way. Mom always had a meal schedule. I don’t remember exactly how it went, but it was something like, Sunday is turkey legs, Monday is chicken, Tuesday is pork, Wednesday is ground beef, and so on. And periodically there would be a surprise “clean out the refrigerator […]
Read More I like leftovers…It is a common occurrence that a man struggles with how to provide spiritual leadership to his wife and children. Why is that? Perhaps it is because — Laying aside all flattering words, I may say plainly that I regard the neglect of family worship as springing from lukewarmness and worldliness in religion. [J. W. […]
Read More Family worshipProximity to Christ does not guarantee faith in Christ. This was the reality of the half-brothers of Jesus prior to His resurrection (though they later trusted in Him; cf. Gal. 1:19; Jude 1). It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, how they could be so close to Christ — seeing His lack of sin day after […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (2/11/07)I have a book in my library that always makes a friend of mine laugh when he sees it on my shelf. The book is Lauren Winner’s recent release, Real Sex: the Naked Truth About Chastity. He laughs because the spine simply reads, “Real Sex Winner.” Yet (while I don’t agree with everything in the […]
Read More Sex and marriageGenerally we say, “living and dying.” Life comes first, then death. Yet for the believer, the order is reversed. There is death, and then there is life eternal in all its fullness. I thought of that as I read the blog accounts of the passing of J. Alan Groves. I was unaware of the life […]
Read More Thoughts on Dying and LivingIn this morning’s devotional, Oswald Chambers asks a number of helpful questions to stimulate sanctification in our lives: When we pray to be sanctified, are we prepared to face the standard of these verses? We take the term sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared for what sanctification will cost? It will cost an intense […]
Read More Questions to sanctify your lifeI just finished reading Adolphe Monod’s Living in the Hope of Glory this morning. Several statements stood out as I completed the book: “We have no idea of what we would be able to do if we were completely lost in such total harmony with God; if we would seek no other will than his. […]
Read More Final Thoughts from Adophe MonodA comment made by David Wells in his book God in the Wasteland resonates in my mind as I think about discipleship and the state of the church: “God rests too lightly — too inconsequentially on His church.” That is, too many believers follow God too superficially. And too often, He is followed weakly because […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (2/4/07)Speaking of the difficulty the disciples had in hearing Jesus’ words concerning marriage in Matthew 19, John Piper said Sunday, “…how much more will the magnificence of marriage in the mind of God seem unintelligible in a world that we live in where the main idol is self, and its main doctrine is autonomy, and […]
Read More A pmrovocative statement about arriage
