Be Steadfast in Your Suffering

Be Steadfast in Your SufferingRomans 5:3-5February 18, 2024 Christian university professor Mark Talbot tells his story of suffering in When the Stars Disappear: When I was seventeen, I fell about 50 feet off a Tarzan-like rope swing, breaking my back and becoming partially paralyzed from the waist down. I spent six months in hospitals. Initially, […]

Fighting Sin

Puritan Edmund Calamy insightfully observed: “What is the reason why men go on in their sins without repentance? It is for want of meditation.” Part of being steadfast in fighting sin is knowing the nature and result of sin, and meditating on the personal implications of ongoing, unrepentant sin in our lives. A familiar […]

Be Steadfast in Fighting Sin

Be Steadfast in Fighting SinRomans 6:12-14February 4, 2024 On a very limited number of occasions — once, maybe twice — I have felt like I had reached the limits of my physical ability. My arms and legs trembling with weariness, I was near the end of my body’s strength. On a few of occasions I’ve […]

Grab bag

Some helpful and interesting articles I’ve bookmarked recently (or not so recently): No, you don’t need to unplug from social media, but these two articles might help you think about how to use social media wisely: “Digital Detox, Intentional Ignorance, and the Proximity Principle” and “I Changed My Mind About Social Media: Why I Decided […]

Set free

In 1864, having served as a slave for 32 years, Jourdan Anderson escaped with his wife Amanda from their master, Colonel P.H. Anderson. They went to Ohio where Jourdan found work as a free man, finally able to support his family. A year later, Jourdan received a letter from P. H., asking him to return […]

Books to encourage your sanctification

Romans 12-13 is about some everyday practices in the believer’s life that need sanctification. Both the first verses (12:1-2) and the last verse (13:14) of that section emphasize the basic steps of sanctification: Aggressively put off sin Joyfully put on Christ and righteous replacements of sin Intentionally cultivate a renewed way of thinking To help […]

Prayer and temptation

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon once. I was in my early 20s and was just there for one afternoon while on a cross-country trip. Because I wasn’t sure when or if I would ever return, I took many pictures. But I wanted only the pure beauty of the canyon; I didn’t want man-made objects […]

Help for mortifying the flesh

This morning I finished preaching a brief series on the mortification of the flesh (Rom. 8:12-13 and Col. 3:1-17). Fighting against remaining sin is the greatest difficulty in the believer’s life and the greatest opportunity to experience the sufficient power of Christ and the Spirit. As I have studied and thought about this topic over […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh (Pt 4)

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh (Pt. 4) Colossians 3:10-17 October 21, 2018 How can one become good? Only by God’s transforming work — which is what Colossians 3 has said — 3:1 — “you have been raised up” (i.e., God raised you) 3:3 — “your life is hidden with Christ” 3:4 — […]

Beware of the seasons of temptation

Every believer in Christ has been freed from the domain of Adam and placed in Christ, meaning that sin is no longer his master. Sin no longer controls him; Christ controls him. Jesus is his master. He no longer gives his allegiance to sin. Yet he still has capacity to sin. He still on occasion […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh (Pt 3)

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh (Pt 3) Colossians 3:1-9 October 14, 2018 Several years after inventing the radar, Sir Robert Watson Watt was arrested in Canada for speeding. He’d been caught, ironically enough, by a radar trap. To commemorate this infamous event in his life, he wrote a brief poem about himself: […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh (Pt 2)

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh (Pt 2) Colossians 3:1-17 October 7 2018 “In April, 1983, Robert Vierling of Winchester, Missouri was found in his bed, crushed to death by his sixteen-foot, one hundred pound, pet Burmese python. Vierling’s wife said he had complete trust in the snake and often played with it […]

Sermon: Life Against the Flesh

Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh Romans 8:12-13 September 30, 2018 One of the hardest parts of the spiritual life is dealing with the daily reality that we are in a fight. Spiritual maturity does not come easily. Sin rarely waves the white flag of surrender. The flesh often proposes a truce with […]

Be killing anger

At our recent men’s retreat, we were taught the principle of mortifying sin and the flesh by Stuart Scott. I thought back to that event when I read the following statement this afternoon from John Piper: “In marriage, anger rivals lust as a killer. My guess is that anger is a worse enemy than lust. […]

Grab bag

“A Stunning Scale of Our Solar System, Drawn in the Dessert.” Then read Genesis 1 and Psalm 8. I’ve not seen the movie, “The Risen,” but here is a review that appears to be quite helpful. Samuel James posted “Some Thoughts on Christians, Movies, and Nudity.” And then some more thoughts. These are helpful and […]