A few resources I’ve found recently that have been helpful: “Devotions Aren’t Magic” — among other things, regular time with Christ cultivates delight in Him. Biblical Training recently updated its web page — and all the same very helpful resources are still there at no cost — including seminary level training. A great resource. Some […]
Read More Grab BagMark Dever and Paul Alexander identify one of the things that makes a believer impoverished and weak in his spiritual life — and their assertion is in contradiction to the call of our day and culture: While our individual walks are crucial, we are impoverished in our pursuit of God if we do not avail […]
Read More Impoverished believersTitle: Heaven Taken by Storm Author: Thomas Watson Publisher: Soli Deo Gloria Books, 1992; 129 pp. $17.00 Recommendation (4-star scale): One of my favorite Peanuts cartoons shows a series of panels in which Charlie Brown is seen alternately writing something and then crumpling it up and tossing it into a pile. In the last panel, […]
Read More Book Review: Heaven Taken by StormTitle: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Author: Donald S. Whitney Publisher: NavPress, 1991; 254 pp. $15.99 Recommendation (4-star scale): “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting,” wrote G. K. Chesterton. Rather, “It has been found difficult and left untried.” This could not only be said of the Christian life in […]
Read More Book Review: Spiritual DisciplinesDo you ever feel unmotivated to open your Bible and read? At times do you feel apathetic about your life of prayer? The problem is not so much a lack of obedience as it is a waning set of motives for carrying out your spiritual disciplines. In his diary, Robert Murray M’Cheyne offers a succinct […]
Read More A motivation for devotionsB. B. Warfield, “The Religious Life of Theological Students:” Other men, oppressed by the hard conditions of life, sunk in the daily struggle for bread perhaps, distracted at any rate by the dreadful drag of the world upon them and the awful rush of the world’s work, find it hard to get time and opportunity […]
Read More Today’s Quote – Weariness (Warfield)Several months ago a friend asked me what book I liked on the spiritual disciplines. I recommended a book I have suggested numerous times, Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. After looking over my copy for a few days, he went ahead and ordered his own. It took him a few weeks to […]
Read More Spiritual Disciplines – a free audio book!Good stuff I’ve seen while meandering around the internet this week: Justin Taylor offers an overview of a number of recent articles in World on abortion The lead article on abortion in World by Marvin Olasky. CCEF (Christian Counseling & Education Foundation) has a new website, with additional resources, including articles, a blog, and audio […]
Read More Grab BagHenry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man: The love which a pious man bear to God and goodness, is not so much by virtue of a command enjoining him so to do, as by a new nature instructing and prompting him to it; nor doth he pay his devotions as an […]
Read More Today’s Quote – Spiritual Disciplines (Scougal)Donald Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life, It’s not so much what we read in the Bible that changes us, but what we remember. Doubtless there are many believers who should increase their daily intake of Scripture, but many others are devoting all the time they can. If you cannot possibly add meditation to the time […]
Read More Today’s Quote – Bible reading (Whitney)R. C. Trench — Lord, what a change within us one short hourSpent in Thy presence will prevail to make!What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, What parched ground refresh as with a shower!We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;We rise, and all, the distant and the near,Stands forth in sunny outline brave […]
Read More The transforming power of ScripturePractical Tips for Reading Your Bible and Submitting to the Spirit — Read with the intent of knowing God and His mind, not “solving problems.” Establish a time and place that you will meet God every day — e.g., in the blue chair at 6:30 a.m. Keep a Bible, pad & pen (and maybe a […]
Read More Questions to ask when reading your BibleThe spiritual life is simple, though it is not easy. It is simple in that the means to growing in Christ is not complicated; it is not easy in that the discipline required to apply God’s grace is difficult (discipline requires self-control, which is not natural for the natural man). So how does one grow […]
Read More A new year of Bible readingDo you have trouble arising early in the morning to pray? This word of encouragement and exhortation from John Calvin is a good encouragement to continuance in the discipline of prayer: “Although we ought always to raise our minds upwards towards God, and pray without ceasing, yet such is our weakness, which requires to be […]
Read More Trouble Arising Early to Pray?On the priority of a personal walk with God — If you are unhappy and discontent or even angry with God, it is the fruit of a heart that has fed too lightly and too little at the table of God — you have learned to be happy with things that cannot satisfy. Modern Christians […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (4/22/07)
Words of Grace 