When you need Christ

“They have need of Christ when they are dark, to enlighten them; when they are dead, to quicken them; when they are straightened, to enlarge them; when they are weak, to strengthen them; when they are sad, to comfort them; when they are tempted, to succour them; when they are fallen, to raise them; when […]

Near the cross – and far from it

“The two malefactors were crucified together. They were equally near to Christ. Both of them saw and heard all that transpired during those fateful six hours. Both were notoriously wicked; both were suffering acutely; both were dying, and both urgently needed forgiveness. Yet one of them died in his sins, died as he had lived […]

We need the Bible. Today. Everyday.

“You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know. If you are filled with God’s Word, your life can then be informed and directed by God — your domestic relationships, your child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior […]

“I hated the righteousness of God”

I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the righteousness of God,” because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous.…Night and day I pondered until…I grasped the truth that the righteousness of […]

Influencing others

Every day we influence others in one of two directions: (1) toward faith in Christ and eternal glory, or (2) toward rejection of Christ and eternal judgment. ‘It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with […]

God forsaking God

Echoing the theme expressed by Heath Lambert in yesterday morning’s sermon, John Flavel wrote this several centuries ago: Did God really forsake Jesus Christ upon the cross? Then from the desertion of Christ’s, singular consolation springs up to the people of God… Christ’s desertion is preventive of your final desertion. Because He was forsaken for […]

Look on Christ

Look on [Christ] in what respect or particular you will; cast your eye upon this lovely object, and view Him any way; turn Him in your serious thoughts which way you will; consider His person, His offices, His works, or any other thing belonging to Him; you will find Him altogether lovely. [John Flavel]

The trouble of pride and the blessing of humility

The proud and arrogant person is a trouble to all that converse with him, but most of all unto himself: every thing is enough to vex him; but scarce any thing sufficient to content and please him. He is ready to quarrel with any thing that falls out; as if he himself were such a […]

Is your gospel too small?

A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small. A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small. A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all […]

The glory of the incarnation

“The glory of the incarnation is that it presents to our adoring gaze not a humanized God or a deified man; but a true God-man — one who is all that God is and at the same time all that man is [yet without sin]; one on whose almighty arm we can rest, and to […]

Man-centered or God-centered?

Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Saviour of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little […]

We need strength and it will be given

…the strength to live tomorrow will be given tomorrow, not today. And it will be given. Our task today is not to have the strength needed for tomorrow’s burdens. Our task today is to live by the mercies given for today, and to believe that there will be new mercies for tomorrow. Today’s mercies do […]

Nothing compares with God

Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come […]

What is the cross?

The cross is the burden of the gospel (‘we preach Christ crucified’, 1 Cor. 1:23; cf. 1:18; 2:2). It is the centrepiece of God’s eternal plan of grace (‘you redeemed were redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb…chosen before the creation…revealed in these last times for your sake, 1 Pet. 1:18-20; cf. John. 3:16f; […]

We need the Bible

We need the Bible if we are to be competent Christians. The Bible will build us up so that we can endure suffering. It will give us discernment for difficult choices. It will make us strong enough to be patient with others and patient enough to respond with kindness when others hurt us. The Bible […]