Christ’s Death and Joy

In a recent sermon I mentioned that I think about death regularly — daily. I think about my age and the reality that I am in the last third/quarter of life (at most). I think about my death because of the recent invitation that the Social Security Administration sent me to begin drawing funds from […]

“My Soul Exalts the Lord”

“My Soul Exalts the Lord”Luke 1:46-56July 28, 2024 After a second deployment in Iraq, Stacy Bare returned home but he wasn’t doing well: he was drinking too much, thinking suicidal thoughts, and struggling to think about the future and manage life. “What am I doing with my life? What does it mean to be […]

Sing for Joy

There are (seemingly) many reasons to be discouraged: The economy My economy Personal conflicts (especially the unresolved kinds) Temptations Suffering — both significant (cancer, totaled cars, lost jobs) and insignificant (four red lights in a row, paper cuts, lost computer files) Physical weakness Family concerns — marital needs, young children needing training and discipline, teenage […]

Pursuing happiness…

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield seriously said in an interview a few years before his death, “I have never been happy. My whole life has been a downer. Similarly, Katherine Hepburn once said, “I don’t know what one means by happy. I’m happy spasmodically. If I eat chocolate turtle, I’m happy. When the box is empty, I’m […]

Let us prize Christ

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Godly Man’s Picture. As we would prove to the world that we have the impress of godliness on us, let us be prizers of Jesus Christ; he is elect, precious. Christ is the […]

It is a sin not to rejoice

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Godly Man’s Picture. Let me tell you, it is a sin not to rejoice — you disparage your Husband, Christ. When a wife is always sighing and weeping, what will others say? “This […]

Learning to obey the command to rejoice

Paul’s command to “rejoice always” in Philippians 4:4 seems a little unreasonable. We naturally think that joy is something that happens to us, not something that we control. And even if we acknowledge that rejoicing is something that we can do and a command that we can obey, we naturally assume that certain circumstances are […]

Sermon: Rejoice Always

“Rejoice Always” Philippians 4:4-7 November 29, 2015 Tuesday afternoon I went to get a haircut. And while I was in the chair, the discussion inevitably turned to Thanksgiving and the meal ahead. “What kind of trimmings are you having with your turkey?” I asked. “Mom asked if I wanted pecan or chocolate pie…I told her, […]

That we may at last come to enjoy God

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from A Body of Divinity. Let this be a spur to duty. How diligent and zealous should we be in glorifying God, that we may come at last to enjoy him! If Tully, Demosthenes, and […]

Enjoy the chief good of Heaven

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from A Body of Divinity. Let it be the chief end of our living to enjoy this chief good hereafter [in Heaven]. Augustine reckons up 288 opinions among philosophers about happiness, but all were short […]

What is enjoying God forever?

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from A Body of Divinity. …what is enjoying God for ever but to be put in a state of happiness? As the body cannot have life but by having communion with the soul, so the […]

Death – an inlet to happiness

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Christian’s Charter. Death to a believer is an inlet to happiness Samson found an honey-comb in the lion’s carcase; so may a child of God suck much sweetness from death. Death is the […]

Sermon: Fearing God – A Life of Blessing

Fearing God — A Life of Blessing Psalm 112 March 22, 2015 When I read Scripture, not only am I instructed by the words I read, but I often also have emotional responses to those words: Some words make me feel comforted and encouraged and hopeful and happy — like being wrapped up in a […]

Our sins sink as lead in the mighty waters of the Redeemer’s blood

Thomas Boston, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State: God the Father takes the pen, dips it in the blood of his Son, crosses off the sinner’s accounts, and blots them out of his debt-book. The sinner outside of Christ is bound over to the wrath of God; he is under an obligation in law to […]

What is your true happiness?

Richard Baxter, The Saint’s 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 […]