Sunday Leftovers (5/22/11)

Somewhere around the end of my junior year in college, a buddy and I decided to take a camping trip. Living in the Southeast at the time, we decided to spend about a week in the Great Smokey Mountains — a decision that proved to be an excellent choice. What proved not to be such […]

Sunday Leftovers (5/15/11)

Toxicologists Frank LoVecchio and Jeffrey Suchard at the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Phoenix did some research on rattlesnakes a few years ago and came up with this conclusion: Dead rattlesnakes can bite. They discovered that 15% of Arizona rattlesnake attacks occurred after the snakes “had been mortally shot, bludgeoned, or even beheaded.” A […]

Preparing for Sunday

This afternoon, going over my notes for tomorrow’s sermon, I was reading a number of things about sin, Satan, and temptation. As is often the case, Thomas Watson had a good word about the subject: What can one do to offer violence to himself in mortifying the flesh? Withdraw the fuel that may make lust […]

In preparation for this Sunday

How do you fight the battle against sin? How do you wage war against the temptations that are prone to lead you away from Christ and towards the world? How do you keep from engaging in any sinful and evil impulses? For too many, suggests Bryan Chapell, we are in bondage to spiritually destructive behaviors: […]

Grab bag

A few things I’ve spotted around the internet lately: Can six seconds a day protect your marriage? Jani Ortlund says it can — if it’s a six-second kiss. Unbelieving pastors? Say it ain’t so. And yet there are some. Perhaps (probably?) the report by new-atheist proponent Daniel Dennett is biased, but if he could find […]

Temptation and gratitude

Paul says that after putting off sexual sin (Eph. 5:3-4a), the believer is also put on the contrasting righteous action of gratitude. When tempted to sin as an expression of his discontentment with God, the believer is to consciously cultivate gratitude in his heart. How might we express gratitude in our hearts and with our […]

Fighting against lust

Many years ago, John Piper gave this brief exhortation to help in the battle against lust — look at something greater than the puny desires of sinful, sexual indulgence: “The sky is a great power against lust. Pure, lovely, wholesome, beautiful, powerful, large-hearted things cannot abide the soul of a sexual fantasy at the same […]

Battling temptation

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen more than one reference to articles or books like this one by Jon Bloom: It’s very important that we count the cost of sexual immorality before temptation hits. That’s the time for clear thinking. Temptation clouds our judgment. That’s why we pray “keep us from temptation.” Avoiding […]

Take heed

The chair was moved away from the table. A mother’s head peeked around the corner and saw that it had been pushed against the counter and used as a stepping stool for a pair of three-year-old legs. The quest was the cookie jar. And at just the most inopportune moment, with his teeth crunching excitedly […]

Packer and Owen on mortification

Having written several blogs on the topic of mortification, and one specific review of John Owen’s masterpiece, On the Mortification of Sin, I was intrigued to read a short piece today by J. I. Packer on the influence of Owen on his own life. Packer has written several introductions to various Puritan works, along with […]

The Mortification of Sin (John Owen)

John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin is considered a classic, and 350 years after it was published, is still probably one of the best books on hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) and specifically, how to mortify sin. It has taken me far too long to read it; I purchased it three years ago, and it […]

They said it better than me: temptation

In a recent men’s study on Proverbs 6, we dealt with the issue of temptation. In preparation, I came across a number of statements about temptation that were particularly helpful: “When a man is confronted with the alluring temptation, he sees only the attractiveness of the desired object; only when his will has sanctioned the […]