Books and libraries

It’s no secret that I enjoy books. A really good day is a day off that is rainy and cold that forces me inside with no inside tasks to do so that I can sit in front of our fireplace and read all day. And another good day is having money in my pocket and […]

The judgment of God

The judgment of God. It is a doctrine that many use to denounce and reject God. “How could God be both loving and vengeful and a judge?” they ask. In fact, they often will assert that if God is judge and if God carries out wrath, then they are more god-like than God. Yet Godis […]

When you are sinned against

You cannot keep people from sinning against you. You will be treated unjustly. You will be lied to and gossiped about. Ungodly accusations will be spoken against you — and said directly to you. Others will be angry with you — sometimes because they have misunderstood you and sometimes because they understood you. Sometimes people […]

Keep on

The pain of parenting is not greatest the first time a child commits a significant and serious violation of trust. It is when that child persists in his sin for years and decades. The greatest trouble for a cancer patient is not the first chemo treatment. It is the ongoing chemo treatments, followed by radiation, […]

Free Kindle book — A Place of Healing

Joni Eareckson Tada’s book, A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty is currently free in the Kindle format from Amazon. I’ve not yet read this book, but have heard the first chapter in audio format and was greatly encouraged by her approach to this topic. This should be […]

Sunday Leftovers — what’s a young man to do?

If there is one thing a young man should do, he should be sensible. That is, he should be self-controlled, clear-headed, and sober-minded (Titus 2:6). Paul tells Titus six things an older man should be (2:2), four things an older woman is to be and do (2:3), and seven things that a young woman is […]

Praying for others

Ask any believer about his prayer life, and he will invariable acknowledge something like, “It’s not what it should be.” And as a pastor, I am not only called on to pray often, but prayer is actually part of my calling. You won’t find “prayer” in most pastoral job descriptions, but the apostles believed that […]

Despairing and troubled?

When you awakened this morning, did the day seem heavy? Did you awaken expecting the problems of yesterday to seem lighter and a resolution more likely only to feel as though the problem grew in dimension during the night, obscuring any possibility of hope? Despair and discouragement are not unusual. The psalmists felt those pains […]

Thinking about…death

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been slowly making my way through Nancy Guthrie’s O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: Facing Death with Courageous Confidence in God. I’ve been encouraged by the biblical thinking of godly men about death. This morning I read this from John Eaves, a believer who was diagnosed […]

Biblical Counseling and Discipleship Conference

This fall, our church is again hosting the Biblical Counseling and Discipleship Conference. This conference fulfills the requirements for the basic training track for those interested in being certified as biblical counselors through NANC (currently, we are still the only church in the state of Texas certified by NANC to provide this training). And for […]

MP3 sermon audio

Someone recently asked me for some sources of sermons that I liked to listen to on my iPod. Here is the answer I gave him: You are right, I listen to many sermons on my iPod. I would probably start with one of the following pastors (I often like to mix them up, just for […]

Evangelistic attitudes

Yesterday, Ken Currie wrote this over at Desiring God: Evangelism is counter-cultural. It’s true everywhere on the planet, but perhaps it’s especially so in our increasingly post-Christian Western society. We live in a polite culture, for the most part. Talk about religion? You just don’t go there. Talk about how many tornadoes have come through, […]

What makes you thankful?

What makes you thankful? Our lists usually include things like family, a trouble-free day, an extra (unexpected) blessing or two, and our salvation. Since we are to be thankful for all things, those obviously are fine objects for our gratitude. But I have often been impressed by the things that stimulated Paul’s gratitude. And I […]

Phil Johnson exits the blogosphere

Phil Johnson — the right-hand man of John MacArthur, the executive director of Grace to You, and a voice of sanity and reason and theological stability in the Christian blogosphere — retired from blogging yesterday. A sad day for the blogosphere, but a wise choice for him: So: (gladly, with no reluctance whatsoever) I’m officially […]

Do good Christians make bad citizens?

When greeting people in the foyer after a sermon, it’s not unusual for a preacher to wonder, “Just what did they hear today?” when someone says, “I liked it when you said…” and they proceed to tell the preacher something he said that he is quite sure he did not say. That curious wondering might […]