Seven times a day I praise You

How much praise of God is “enough?” Will we praise morning, noon, and night? Will we praise in between each of those time slots of worship? The psalmist contemplates the worthiness of God to be praised — His ordinances are righteous — and concludes, “seven times a day I praise you” (119:164). He is not […]

Would you be holy?

Thinking about the putting off of sin and the world and the putting on of Christ and grace, I’ve been thinking on the following statement from J. C. Ryle: Would you be holy? Would you become a new creature? Then you must begin with Christ. You will do just nothing at all and make no […]

God is a delicious good

While thinking about yesterday’s comment from M’Cheyne about trials and the preciousness of Christ, I came across this extended statement by Thomas Watson in his classic work, A Body of Divinity. It comes near the end of his answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “what is the chief end of man?” […]

Worship and missions

In what may be the best paragraph to begin a book on missions, John Piper writes this: Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the […]

Let the congregation sing!

Not only was the book of Psalms the song book for Israel; it also included many admonitions to sing. As a very small sample, consider Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name. (Ps. 30:4) Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of […]

What God will not give you

God can and will do for His own, “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). But there are some things that He will not do for us or give us. He will not lead us into temptation. And He will not share with us His glory. Thomas Watson says it […]

Today’s Quote – Scripture (Galli)

Mark Galli, “Yawning at the Word:” Whenever the Bible is read, a hush should come over us. We should be inching toward the edge of our seats, leaning forward, turning our best ear toward the speaker, fearful we’ll miss a single word—the deeds and words and character of Almighty and Merciful God are being revealed! […]

What do you think about when it rains?

What do you think about when it rains? (And we’ve had much opportunity to form an opinion about rain this month.) When I was a child, I thought “It’s raining it’s pouring…rain, rain, go away, come again another day…” When I was in seminary, working as a pool cleaner, I would wake up to the […]

Consider God’s servant Job

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been making our way through Job in our daily Bible reading. Just reading the first couple of chapters makes one think of people who have suffered or reminds one of his own suffering. I’ve thought of numerous hospital visits and bedside prayers for people dying — children and […]

Today’s Quote – Faith (Piper)

John Piper, “Preaching as Worship:” Jesus described faith this way in John 6:35 — “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” Believing in Jesus means coming to him for the quenching of our soul’s thirst. Faith in Christ is […]

Today’s Quote – Worship (Piper)

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: If the inward essence of worship is satisfaction in God, then worship can’t be a means to anything else. You simply can’t say to God, I want to be satisfied in You so that I can have something else. Because that would mean you are not really satisfied […]

Today’s Quote – Worship (Ferguson)

Sinclair Ferguson, The Grace of Repentance: Worship is increasingly becoming a spectator event of visual and sensory power, rather than a verbal event in which we engage in a deep soul dialogue with the Triune God.… There was a time when four simple words were enough to bring out goose bumps on the neck of […]

Today’s Quote – Worship (Frame)

John Frame, Worship in Spirit and Truth: …worship is honoring someone superior to ourselves. It is therefore not pleasing ourselves, but pleasing someone else. Immediately the question How can worship be made better? has a focus: better not primarily for ourselves, but better for the one we seek to honor. It may be that worship […]

Grab Bag

Good stuff I’ve seen while meandering around the internet this week: Justin Taylor offers an overview of a number of recent articles in World on abortion The lead article on abortion in World by Marvin Olasky. CCEF (Christian Counseling & Education Foundation) has a new website, with additional resources, including articles, a blog, and audio […]

Today’s Quote – Worship (Hughes)

R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe: Irreverence toward God is only a symptom of an idolatrous image of God that is man-made. Dry ritualism indicates that our God is far away and dead. Joyless performance reveals an arid Deity. But on the other hand, reverence for God indicates our belief that he is […]