Pure Life Conference

After I graduated from college, a friend and I took a few days to go camping and hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains. One night as we were setting up camp, a similarly aged young man walked over to us from a neighboring site. Conversation eventually drifted toward faith and Christ and as we talked […]

The end of the year — a spiritual summary

This year, our church has read through the New Testament and Psalms. (In the coming year, the plan is to read the Old Testament, though we’ve also provided the NT plan coordinated with the 2013 dates.) Part of my desire was not only to read through the plan, but to blog every day about what […]

Are you listening? Part 2

In Revelation 2-3 Jesus Christ sends a series of letters to seven churches in Asia Minor. These churches are intended to awaken them from a variety of states of spiritual slumber, and while most offer some form of commendation, the primary intent is to address sins in the churches that are worth of Christ’s condemnation […]

Are you listening?

When our girls were little and we needed to talk to them about some form of conduct that needed correction, they would often offer some kind of defense, “But Dad, I…” They wouldn’t be far into their apologetic before I would raise my hand in the universal signal of “stop,” and then look directly into […]

An unusual commendation?

We all like to be complimented. We identify with the boy who said to his father, “Dad, let’s play darts. I’ll throw. And you say, ‘great shot!’” We want people to say we’ve done a job well, that we look good for our age, that it looks like we’ve lost a few pounds, that our […]

Finish well

At 7 P.M. on October 20, 1968, a few thousand spectators remained in the Mexico City Olympic Stadium. It was cool and dark. The last of the marathon runners, each exhausted, were being carried off to first-aid stations. More than an hour earlier, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia — looking as fresh as when he started […]

Diligence and the Christian life

Some time ago I was having a problem with my e-mail. Try as I might, I could not send e-mail. My computer just didn’t want to talk to the server. Yet it was retrieving e-mail just fine. Grrrr. This has been a problem that had recurred periodically but would then go away. Not on that […]

Keep a good conscience

From Dwight Wagner: The goal of a Christian is to have a clear conscience before God and man. If we don’t fill our mind with Scripture, we will have a defiled conscience. If we fill our mind with truth but don’t act upon it, we will have a weak conscience. If we simply refuse the […]

What’s your reputation?

When George Whitfield died in 1770, American statesman and deist Benjamin Franklin wrote of him, “I knew him intimately upwards of 30 years. His integrity, disinterestedness and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting every good work, I have never seen equaled and shall never see excelled.” That’s quite a commendation of a preacher of the gospel from […]

You are in a spiritual battle

You are in a spiritual battle — be aware of the wartime realities. Despite all that Christ has done, the battle against Satan’s influences still rages. That’s why Paul says in Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that […]

A worthy life

A few years ago, Dennis needed to some same-day cleaning for some clothes that were necessary for a trip he was taking. Then he remembered a store on the other side of his hometown of Katy, TX — “One-Hour Dry Cleaners.” So he gladly made the out-of-the way trek to the cleaning company and as […]

A summary of Ephesians 1:3

Having given a more detailed explanation of the blessings of God in Ephesians 1:3 already this morning, here is a brief summary of the contents of that verse: Who has given blessing? God the Father. Who has received blessing? Us — believers. When will God bless us? He already has blessed us! With what has […]

The blessings of God

When sharing the gospel, it is tempting to emphasize the “blessings” that come from being a Christian — we want to emphasize things like, “God will make your marriage better,” or “you’ll be a better parent and have better children,” or “God will provide everything you need — you’ll never lack for anything” (which is […]

Two more thoughts about the conscience

Following this morning’s post on clearing our conscience, here are two further considerations: Kris Lundgaard, in his excellent book The Enemy Within (still available for only $2.99 on Kindle) writes: The wisdom of the believer is to learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit’s resistance, no matter how faintly it may echo in […]

Book Review: Counseling the Hard Cases

Title: Counseling the Hard Cases: True Stories Illustrating the Sufficiency of God’s Resources in Scripture Editors: Stuart Scott and Heath Lambert Publisher: B&H, 2012; 318 pp. $32.99 Recommendation (4-star scale): I’ve been pastoring for over two decades. I have a deep appreciation for my seminary training and the churches in which I was raised, both […]