Grab bag

Some helpful articles spotted recently: The timeline for the transition between John Piper and Jason Meyer as pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church has changed again. Read the plan and rationale from John’s pen. Addressing the same theme that I did in the post, “Satan and sin — two defeated foes,” Mike Riccardi writes about “Freed from […]

Father, How Sweet

This week I’ve been thinking about the gift of our salvation, summed up in such simple words as “He saved us” (Titus 3:5). It was God’s kindness, love, and mercy that produced our salvation. We repeat those kinds of words frequently, but do we meditate on them and allow the weightiness of them to rest […]

Preparing for worship

Writer Don Hustad wrote a number of years ago about a circus parade that was moving through the streets of Milan, Italy. Suddenly one of the elephants veered from the line and marched into a church. [In Milan, church doors are large, and in the summer are often left wide open.] This visitor wandered up […]

Today…

Charles Spurgeon, writing on Psalm 95:7-8 (“TO-DAY! TO-DAY! TO-DAY!,” Sermon no. 1551) — “To-day” is a time of obligation. Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord to-day, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day. “Repent ye therefore, […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: Clint Archer writes about “Celebrating Singleness” over at Cripplegate. His posts coincide nicely with what I wrote a couple of weeks ago on the same topic (“Four reasons for the unmarried to consider singleness”). Does church history confuse and bore you? Nathan Busenitz provides some insight and a […]

A day in God’s courts

Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 84 and the joys of worship with the Lord. This is a fitting meditation to prepare us for worship this morning: This Psalm well deserved to be committed to the noblest of the sons of song. No music could be too sweet for its theme, or too exquisite in sound to […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: “Take Care How You Listen,” a free ebook from John Piper. Good preparation for listening to tomorrow’s sermon. When one man asked his pastor, “What Can I Do to Save My Marriage,” this is how that pastor responded. First of all, 1. Decide if you are going to […]

Around God’s throne

Read Isaiah 6:1-5 or Revelation 4-5. Then read this new hymn by Jeremy Walker, “A Mighty Host of Angels Stands:” A mighty host of angels stands Around Christ’s throne in heaven; Their sinless tongues extol his worth, All praise to him is given; With awe recount his mighty works, His face behold with wonder, Lift […]

Why worship God?

Some days the body awakens without a song in the heart. Some days the body is alive but the soul seems dead. Some days we hear a call to worship and our heart is cold. Perhaps we are in the midst of grief over a child’s death, or we are battling an unexpected and unrelenting […]

Complacent about God?

Can I ask you a question? Have you become complacent about God? If you’re not sure, then consider these marks of complacency: apathy about worship a sense of emptiness when you read God’s Word a sense of emptiness when you communicate with the God of the universe spiritual dryness an overwhelming feeling of worry and […]

Why do you enter relationships?

Preparing for my sermon on Sunday, I came across this statement by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp: We enter relationships for personal pleasure, self-actualization, and fun. We want low personal cost and high self-defined returns. But God wants high personal cost and high God-defined returns. And although we frequently disagree with God, his plan is […]

Preparing for tomorrow’s worship

How do you prepare yourself for worship? Do you prepare to hear the Word of God preached? Do you think about how you will listen to the sermon? Thomas Watson has some godly counsel for us: 2. The second duty of piety wherein we must provoke ourselves, is, in HEARING of the Word. We may […]

Thinking and praying about Sunday

As I was preparing for Sunday morning’s sermon, I came across a number of helpful statements about prayer, including these three: “No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according to His mind and will.” [John Owen] […]

When children suffer

Parents have dreams and desires for their children. And sometimes those desires are cut short by the intrusion of Job-like illness, suffering, and even death. We believe in the sovereignty of God. We know that worship is our calling when God orchestrates trials in our lives. But what does that worship sound like when our […]

Sunday Leftovers (12/5/10)

One final thought about music and worship comes courtesy of John Piper: We must make it our aim that the joy awakened by music be joy in God. Not all pleasures of music are pleasures in God. Then the effort to delight in God through music will involve a prior shaping of the mind by […]