Sunday Leftovers (8/2/09)

One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 2:7 — so that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God’s mercy, love, and grace that result in the salvation of sinners is for the purpose of demonstrating the magnitude of God’s grace […]

Today’s Quote – Heaven (Baxter)

Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest: He that makes not God his chief good and ultimate end, is in heart a pagan and a vile idolater. Let me ask, then, dost thou truly account it thy chief happiness to enjoy the Lord in glory, or dost thou not? Canst thou say, “The Lord is my […]

Today’s Quote – Spiritual Blessings (Burroughs)

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment: Every little that [the Saints, contented men] have is but as an earnest [guarantee] for all the glory that is reserved for them; it is given them by God as the forerunner of those external mercies that the Lord intends for them.

Today’s Quote – Heaven (Cuyler)

Theodore Cuyler, God’s Light on Dark Clouds: Heaven will have no ‘moving day’. No longer shall we be pulled away from associations which we love, and sent off into strange and uncongenial places. When you and I, brother, have packed up at the tap of death’s signal-bell, we shall never be obliged to change our […]

Today’s Quote – Heaven (Brainerd)

David Brainerd: I viewed the infinite excellency of God and my soul even broke with longings that God should be glorified. I thought of dignity in heaven, but instantly the thought returned, “I do not go to heaven to get honor, but to give all possible glory and praise.” Oh, how I longed that God […]

Why do you want to go to heaven?

John Piper has refined gospel presentation by asking the question, “If you could have everything good about heaven — no suffering, trouble removed, no pain, no death, no tears, fellowship with others, eternal life, etc… — and God is not there, do you still want heaven?” If the answer is “yes,” then the person has […]

Today’s Quote – Restoration (Sibbes)

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed: When we find our souls at all declining, it is best to raise them up presently by some awakening meditations, such as the presence of God, of the strict reckoning we are to make,of the infinite love of God in Christ and the fruits of it, of the excellency of […]

Today’s Quote – Heaven (Alcorn)

Randy Alcorn, Heaven: Satan need not convince us that Heaven doesn’t exist. He need only convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existence. If we believe that lie, we’ll be robbed of our joy and anticipation, we’ll set our minds on this life and not the next, and we won’te be motivated […]

What angels know

One of the things we talked about in the Systematic Theology class a few weeks ago was angels, including what they are, how they function, and what they know and don’t know. Writing about good angels in today’s blog, John Piper notes that it is clear angels are not omniscient — that they are always […]

Why do you want to go to Heaven?

This is the question asked by John Piper: “if you could have everything about Heaven — forgiveness, fellowship, absence of sin and pain and death, etc. — but God is not there, would you still want it?” The question is addressing the heart of the gospel. Do we want the gospel for our own self-exalting […]

Sunday Leftovers (10/1/06)

A left-over thought (or two) from Sunday’s sermon….. In 2 Timothy 4:8, 18, Paul again mentions the hope of heaven as his “crowning” joy. It has long seemed to me that, in general, believers long too little for heaven and are satisfied too quickly with earthly joys (and dissatisfied too deeply with earthly sorrows). Two […]