Jesus Teaches: On the Heart

Jesus Teaches: On the HeartLuke 6:43-45July 13, 2025 Theodore Dalrymple is a British medical doctor and psychiatrist who has spent his life with the worst of the worst people; he has spent the last 15 years of his life working in British prisons treating “serial killers, petty thieves and everything in between.” Much of his […]

The problem with idols

Israel had a persistent problem with idols and idolatry. The yearning for idols first appeared in Abraham’s granddaughter (by marriage) who stole her father’s idols when she left his home to marry Jacob (Gen. 31). And idols were a problem for Micah (not the prophet; cf. Judges 17-18), Michal (1 Sam. 19), Solomon (1 Kings […]

Identifying and resisting idols

When traveling overseas, you may have seen a variety of pagan gods and deities represented by various kinds of idols. You may have even visited a pagan temple and seen large, ornate, and impressive looking idols. I suspect that no matter how impressive, you weren’t tempted to bow in worship to those man made structures. […]

The Bad Shepherds

The Bad ShepherdsZechariah 10:1-5June 4, 2023 One of the beauties of Scripture is that it takes a transcendent, infinite, unknowable God and reveals Him to us not only so that we can know Him, but that we can understand Him. One way the Bible does that is by taking things that we know and […]

Is God alive?

“They decorate it with silver and with gold; They fasten it with nails and with hammers So that it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can […]

Building idols

In a remarkable — almost comical — passage, Jeremiah exposes the folly of ungodly worship: “They decorate it with silver and with gold; They fasten it with nails and with hammers So that it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because […]

Is Your Heart An Idol Factory?

From Mike Leake’s blog this morning: “From this we may gather that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols…Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives […]

The beginning of idolatry

D. A. Carson — With everybody wanting to be at the center of the universe, there can only be strife. I know full well that nobody goes around chanting, “I’m at the center of the universe.” Yet if I were to hold up your high school or college graduation class photo and say, “Here’s your […]

Do you believe this?

I believe it was Mark Twain who once said, “It is not what I don’t understand about Scripture that concerns me; it is what I do understand that concerns me.” There indeed are passages that are difficult to comprehend; but there are a great many more passages that are clearly comprehended. But do we really […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week or two: Ten “Wives Speak Out” about their role in marriage and their practice of submission in their marriages. I find myself gravitating more to biographies these days — and here are two new ones on theologian Charles Hodge that appear interesting. Kevin DeYoung takes a closer look […]

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 […]

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 […]

What confession looks like

Jon Bloom contemplates what it would have looked like for Zacchaeus to confess his sin to those whom he’d defrauded and in the process, dismember an idol from his own heart: “Dad, there’s a man at the door. He said his name is Zacchaeus.” “Zacchaeus!” Judah’s face flushed with sudden anger. “What does he want?” […]

Well-said at the conference

A few things that I thought were particularly well-said at the biblical counselor training conference last weekend (due to limitations in my transcription skills, these may not be exact quotations): Biblical counseling discerns thinking and behavior that God wants to change. [Lance Quinn] There is a two-fold purpose in and for our lives: becoming more […]

Idolatry possible for Christ-followers

J. C. Ryle offers the following sober warning that idolatry is not something just practiced by unbelievers: It is not necessary for a man formally to deny God and Christ in order to be an idolater. Far from it. Professed reverence for the God of the Bible and actual idolatry are perfectly compatible: they have […]