Blessings and woes

Every life has good and trouble — or to use the terms of Luke 6, blessings and woes. Each day has some of both. A card of encouragement and a hospital bill come in the same mail box: blessing and woe. A perfectly baked potato and an overdone steak are served as part of the […]

Ministry motives

I was in my first or second or second year of seminary when a retired pastor and an elder in our church stopped me in the hallway between Sunday School and the worship service. “I want to ask you a question. Why do you do what you do? Why are you wanting to be in […]

Dreaming of faithfulness

Have you ever had a dream? I have… When I was five, I dreamed of being a garbage man. When I was ten, I dreamed of being fifteen. When I was fifteen, I dreamed of being a baseball player. When I was twenty, I day-dreamed. When I was twenty-five, I dreamed of finishing school. When […]

I’m going to play golf…

Years ago I went to visit a couple that had visited our church. They had recently moved to our community but their previous church experience was in a church with a very similar doctrinal position and philosophy of ministry as our own. I was encouraged that they might be a good match for our ministry. […]

Grab bag

There has been much discussion lately in the Christian blogosphere about Hell and its duration (more comments coming at a later date). As Desiring God noted this morning, this is not a new discussion. And it predates DG’s conference in 1990 by many centuries as well! Paul Tripp continues his thoughts about the grace of […]

Thirty-eight years of getting what we want

This weekend it will be 38 years since the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in the United States. It is true that the total number of abortions and the abortion rate in the United States have been declining from 1990 until the most recent statistics in 2008, when there was […]

Happy with what you have received?

At Christmas, many presents are unwrapped and on occasion (frequently?) the revelation of what is inside is met with disappointment. The gift did not meet expectations. Life seems to work that way for some people, too. The unfolding of days and the accumulation of years yields a product that is less than what was desired […]

Grab bag

A few sites worth reading in-between bites of leftover turkey sandwiches or trips to the store(s): If you are doing some internet shopping this weekend, check out the collection of deals for Christian books and resources amassed by Tim Challies. Desiring God has a 3-part series of questions and answers with writer Jerry Bridges. Dave […]

Tantalized by the pursuit of pleasure

Tantalus was a mythological Greek king who stole ambrosia from the gods. For this crime, King Tantalus was sentenced to a life of eternal hunger and thirst. Whenever he would stoop to drink, the water would recede away from him. And when he reached to pluck fruit from a tree, it would lift its branches […]