Prayer and temptation

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon once. I was in my early 20s and was just there for one afternoon while on a cross-country trip. Because I wasn’t sure when or if I would ever return, I took many pictures. But I wanted only the pure beauty of the canyon; I didn’t want man-made objects […]

Help for mortifying the flesh

This morning I finished preaching a brief series on the mortification of the flesh (Rom. 8:12-13 and Col. 3:1-17). Fighting against remaining sin is the greatest difficulty in the believer’s life and the greatest opportunity to experience the sufficient power of Christ and the Spirit. As I have studied and thought about this topic over […]

BCDC Teaching Notes

Yesterday concluded the second weekend of our Biblical Counseling and Discipleship Conference (BCDC). This year, in addition to the basic training track (the first step in ACBC certification), we are also providing the teaching for specialization in marriage and family counseling and reconciliation counseling. I taught in both tracks and am happy to provide my […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh (Pt 4)

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh (Pt. 4) Colossians 3:10-17 October 21, 2018 How can one become good? Only by God’s transforming work — which is what Colossians 3 has said — 3:1 — “you have been raised up” (i.e., God raised you) 3:3 — “your life is hidden with Christ” 3:4 — […]

Beware of the seasons of temptation

Every believer in Christ has been freed from the domain of Adam and placed in Christ, meaning that sin is no longer his master. Sin no longer controls him; Christ controls him. Jesus is his master. He no longer gives his allegiance to sin. Yet he still has capacity to sin. He still on occasion […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh (Pt 3)

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh (Pt 3) Colossians 3:1-9 October 14, 2018 Several years after inventing the radar, Sir Robert Watson Watt was arrested in Canada for speeding. He’d been caught, ironically enough, by a radar trap. To commemorate this infamous event in his life, he wrote a brief poem about himself: […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh (Pt 2)

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh (Pt 2) Colossians 3:1-17 October 7 2018 “In April, 1983, Robert Vierling of Winchester, Missouri was found in his bed, crushed to death by his sixteen-foot, one hundred pound, pet Burmese python. Vierling’s wife said he had complete trust in the snake and often played with it […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh Romans 8:12-13 September 30, 2018 One of the hardest parts of the spiritual life is dealing with the daily reality that we are in a fight. Spiritual maturity does not come easily. Sin rarely waves the white flag of surrender. The flesh often proposes a truce with […]

Sermon: Life in the Spirit, Pt 2

Life in the Spirit, Pt. 2 Romans 8:9-11 September 23, 2018 A couple of years ago a Great Dane was brought into the DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital in Portland, Oregon because the dog had been retching and vomiting all through the day. The doctors examined the dog with abdominal radiographs and found “a severely distended […]

Sermon: Life in the Spirit

Life in the Spirit Romans 8:5-8 September 16, 2018 Columnist Sydney Harris rightly summarized the feelings of many of us when he observed, “Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” Yup. That’s me. However, […]

Christ came for sin

In Romans 8:3, Paul identifies the reason for Christ’s advent — He came “for sin” (ESV). That is, He came for the purpose of addressing the problem of sin. He came for sin because sin was (and is) the great problem of mankind. We tend to think we have bigger problems than sin. We have […]

Sermon: No Condemnation! (Pt 3)

No Condemnation! (Pt. 3) Romans 8:1-4 September 2, 2018 It wasn’t long after we were married, that Raye Jeanne observed my curiosity about everything. On one occasion a massive storm moved through Dallas, where we were living at the time, and tens of thousands of residents lost power. Our home was without power for several […]

Sermon: No Condemnation! (Pt 2)

No Condemnation! (Pt. 2) Romans 8:1-4 August 26, 2018 Several years ago, author Brett McKay wrote on his popular blog site, “The Art of Manliness,” that he learned the skill of picking locks. After learning the basic principles and being given the tools, he picked his first lock in two minutes. He says this about […]

Remembering Christ

Familiarity may not always breed contempt, but it will likely breed forgetfulness. If you have been around for 20,000 sunrises, it takes an extraordinary sunrise to capture your attention. If you have seven children, the arrival of the last child and his acquisition of language and mobility probably won’t produce wonder in you. After 62 […]

Have holy conversations

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is from The Great Gain of Godliness. Christians, when they meet together, should use holy conference.…Have not you matter enough in the Word to furnish you with something to say? Let me suggest a few things to […]