They are “one flesh”

Mark Dever on unity in the covenant of marriage: The context of this unity of husband and wife is the covenant of marriage; we can tell by what we read here [Mark 10] that this is a hugely important covenant. In fact it’s so important…that it takes priority over other family relationships — with either […]

Bearing fruit

Several years ago, a friend gave my wife a plum tree for her birthday. I think I was as excited about the gift as my wife, as I had memories of my grandmother’s plum jam and anticipated spreading that succulent delight on fresh-baked bread. With eagerness I anticipated the first year’s crop. And there was […]

Free ebook on disability from DG

In recent months, Desiring God has published a number of smaller works in ebook formats (PDF, ePub, and Mobi). The latest of these is Disability and the Sovereign Goodness of God by John Piper and Tony Reinke. The book is about 70 pages long and looks to be very helpful. Download the free book, Disability […]

Good news

There’s good news. And then there is the best news. This is the best news about the good news (from Romans 6). How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (v. 2) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead […]

Jesus loves me

When the German theologian Karl Barth visited the Untied States many years ago, a student at a seminary supposedly asked him, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “The most important thing I have learned is this: ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the […]

A blessed life

Having suffered a knee injury while dancing a few years ago, Connie Munro of Juneau, Alaska underwent surgery. But the problem persisted. In her words, “it just wouldn’t loosen up….I thought I was permanently disabled.” And then she arrived for work at the state Education Department in downtown one morning, got out of her car […]

The Lord Himself is God

Why should a man worship God? Because God — He Himself, and He alone — is God. Consider Spurgeon’s contemplation of Psalm 100:3 on this topic: As Matthew Henry has very properly said, ignorance is not the mother of devotion, though it be the mother of superstition. True knowledge is the mother and the nurse […]

How sinful is sin?

How sinful is sin? We read phrases like, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and nod in assent — “sure, we’ve sinned.” But we generally fail to recognize and affirm the horrid and disastrous nature of those words. That oft quoted verse refers to our acts of sin. […]

The righteousness of God

Martin Luther had a problem. Listen to his words: I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in my way but that one expression, ‘the justice (righteousness) of God,’ because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation […]

Why God is patient

Scripture speaks often about the importance and wisdom of being patient. (Consider Prov. 14:29; 15:18; 16:32; 19:11; 20:22; Col. 3:12; Js. 5:10; 1 Pt. 2:20ff as just a few examples). Scripture also speaks of the patience of God. God waits. One of the common New Testament words for patience is to be long-suffering (see Rom. […]

Overwhelmed by sin?

Are you overwhelmed by sin? Do you struggle repeatedly with the same sin, unable to see any significant progress against it? Has this sin entangled you for years? Is you conscience hounded by guilt? Grace to You has some biblical encouragement for you: First of all, consider that how you deal with the promptings of […]

Need a little encouragement?

In an essay on the life of Dwight Eisenhower, historian Stephen Ambrose recounts the following story: In 1963, when he was filming with Walter Cronkite a television special entitled “D-Day Plus 20 Years,” Cronkite asked [Eisenhower] what he thought about when he returned to Normandy. In reply, Eisenhower spoke not of the tanks, the guns, […]

An appropriate prayer

On the sixth day of NASA’s moon mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts aboard the badly damaged space vehicle needed to make a critical course correction in order to position themselves to reenter the earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, the ship’s onboard computer had been shut down to conserve power, so the craft had to be steered […]

Are you content?

Are you content? Pause before you answer that question. Long-time actress and comedienne Gracie Allen once received a small, live alligator as a gag gift. Not knowing what to do with it (just what do you do with an alligator?), Gracie placed it in the bathtub with some water and left for an engagement. When […]

The Lord reigns

Meditating on Psalm 99:1 — “The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble…,” Charles Spurgeon wrote: The fact that “the Lord reigneth” is indisputable, and it is this fact that arises the utmost opposition in the unrenewed human heart. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and […]