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 […]
Read More Pursuing happiness…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 […]
Read More Let us prize ChristWednesdays 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 […]
Read More It is a sin not to rejoicePaul’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 […]
Read More Learning to obey the command to rejoice“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, […]
Read More Sermon: Rejoice AlwaysWednesdays 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 […]
Read More That we may at last come to enjoy GodWednesdays 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 […]
Read More Enjoy the chief good of HeavenWednesdays 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 […]
Read More 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 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 […]
Read More Death – an inlet to happinessFearing 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 […]
Read More Sermon: Fearing God – A Life of BlessingThomas 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 […]
Read More Our sins sink as lead in the mighty waters of the Redeemer’s bloodRichard 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 […]
Read More What is your true happiness?How fickle our joy is. If our favorite sports team (or our child’s sports team) wins “the big game,” or even just “a” game, we’re happy. If a T-bone steak shows up on the dinner plate, we’re happy. Brussels sprouts and sauerkraut? Not so happy. If there’s more money than month? Happiness. More month than […]
Read More Real joyWhen someone wants to look for a new job or when he wants to communicate to a group his personal accomplishments, he’ll put together a resume. This document includes a brief summary of his life — birth, education, and family — as well as his professional progress and achievements. It’s a means of saying, “this […]
Read More Christ, greater than…“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood…” (1 Pet. 1:1-2; NASB) Though far from my first act of disobedience, it is my earliest recollection of my […]
Read More Obedience and joy
