They said it better than me: Death

Yesterday, I wrote about thinking about death. Today I offer some quotations from others who have spoken biblically and wisely about death: “The question is not whether we will die, but whether we will die in a way that bears much fruit.” (John Piper, Filling up the Afflictions of Christ) “Death is a threat to […]

“Whatever happens to us…”

“Whatever happens to us, let us always assure ourselves that we have good cause to praise our God, and that even if we are poor and miserable in this world, the happiness of heaven is enough to appease us, to sweeten all our afflictions and sorrows, and to give us such content that we may […]

The Gospel in a few words

“…to believe the gospel is not only to accept the awesome truths that 1) God is holy, 2) we are hopeless sinners, 3) Christ died and rose again for sinners, and 4) this great salvation is enjoyed by faith in Christ-but believing the gospel is also to treasure Jesus Christ as your unsearchable riches. What […]

Why it is worth following Christ

“Are not we, the doers, weak and infirm, bent to backslide, unskillful in the word of righteousness, not only backward to but awkward in everything that is good? And have we not then great need of an example, one to go before us to show us how and which way? Our heavenly Father, who knows […]

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 […]