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 […]

Help for your spiritual disciplines

Too often I have experienced the phenomena of reading my Bible in the morning, closing it, and not remembering anything particular that I have read. I don’t think my experience is unique. As Don Whitney has explained, it is often due to lack of meditation. [His rule of one minute of meditation and reflection for […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: Jon Bloom explains why “God is Merciful Not to Tell Us Everything: “Can you imagine how the disciples might have felt if the Lord had explained to them that he would not assume his earthly reign for another 2,000-plus years, during which the Church would gradually and with […]

A benefit of sickness

There are benefits to sickness, according to the puritan, Jeremy Taylor [Holy Dying]. Consider: Truth is, there are but two great periods in which faith demonstrates itself to be a powerful and mighty grace; and they are persecution and the approaches of death…By the faith of the promises we learn to despise the world, choosing […]

Four reasons for the unmarried to consider singleness

There are more people than ever in America who are living as singles. Yet even in the American church, while there are more opportunities for singles to serve in minister, there still seems to be a stigma that is attached to being single. So what’s a single person to do? Biblically, singles are free both […]

Think much on heaven’s hope

John Owen, “The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded:” Suppose sundry persons engaged in a voyage unto a most remote country, wherein all of them have an apprehension that there is a place of rest and an inheritance provided for them. Under this apprehension they all put themselves upon their voyage, to possess what […]

A better friend

Philip Melanchthon had evidently been complaining to his friend Martin Luther about some problems he was facing. Martin Luther wrote him back some direct counsel (June 27, 1530). I need friends like this and I need to be unafraid to be this kind of friend: Those great cares by which you say you are consumed […]

What has changed?

Transformation isn’t always readily or immediately apparent. Go to a new car lot and it may be hard to tell the difference between the 2012 and 2011 models. But underneath the hood, there are likely to be significant improvements. Or when looking on a store shelf and seeing the label “new and improved” affixed to […]

Excuses for prayer

Instinctively and automatically [the carnal mind] will mobilize all the reasons it can conceive of for not praying now: You are too busy; your mind is too preoccupied; your heart is not inclined toward prayer; later on you will have more time, your mind will be more calm and collected, and you will be able […]

This is a flash mob I can appreciate…

HT: Challies.

Dangers of unconfronted sin

We are prone to make many justifications for not confronting evident sin in a fellow-Christian. He won’t listen to me anyway. It’s too hard and too embarrassing for me to do something like that. Wouldn’t it be more gracious not to say anything? Isn’t that only the kinds of things radical churches do? It’s not […]

July 4th and freedom

“…knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7) While on vacation a number of years ago, we turned on the […]

Cautions about the sinner’s prayer

Many times I have shared the gospel with someone, only to have them tell me, “Oh, I’ve already done that…I prayed the prayer when I was seven-years-old…” (or “I walked the aisle…”). It’s as if Christianity is a one-time inoculation against all things bad and the dosage never needs to be repeated (or enjoyed). In […]

On the topic of work…

This past Sunday, we considered what Paul said to Titus about those who are slaves and how they are to work and specifically, with what kind of motive they are to work — as a testimony to and adornment of the truth of God (i.e., the gospel). Scripture has much to say about the topic […]

Imitate me

It is a simple, eight-word statement by the apostle Paul, but it sounds bold, brash, and arrogant to our ears: “Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.” (1 Cor 4:16) Yet there is a sound biblical reason Paul offers this command: he was given to them by God as their earthly spiritual father to […]