The problem of trivializing sin

How often have you begun sharing the gospel with someone and when talking about sin had the person interrupt you and say something like, “I’m not a bad person…I mean, I’m not a murderer or anything…” By inference, the person is suggesting that he has an ability to stand before God self-justified because of his […]

Life principles

Last fall, I preached a series of messages entitled, “Necessities of Life” — six truths every follower of Christ needs to believe and six activities ever Christian needs to do in order to thrive as a Christian. In James 1, the apostle has something of a similar list of principles that will transform and change […]

Peter was sleeping…

Christians are prone to talking much about prayer and praying too little. We have attend conferences on praying, we preach sermons about praying, and we read books about praying. We develop methods for keeping track of prayer requests (I now have an app on my phone to do that task) and we frequently tell our […]

Little Christs

Several years ago, Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, offered WGN Chicago Radio sports-talk host David Kaplan $50,000 to change his name legally to “Dallas Maverick.” When Kaplan politely declined, Cuban sweetened the offer. Cuban would pay Kaplan $100,000 and donate $100,000 to Kaplan’s favorite charity if he took the name for one […]

Desiring God

Do you desire God? The question is not, “is there some part of you that is somewhat inclined to God?” And it is not, “Were you passionate to know God at one time?” And it is not, “Do you read much about God and spend much time in church and have many friends who are […]

From father to son on a wedding day

From a pious aged father to his son a minister newly married* Dear Pair, whom God hath now of two made One Suffer a Father’s exhortation. In the first Place see that with joynt indeavour – You set yourselves to serve the Lord together, You are yoakt to work but for work Wages write, His […]

Witnesses of the gospel

Jesus’ last command to the disciples also was a commission — “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The disciples would go to […]

Do you believe the gospel?

Do you believe the gospel? Specifically, do you believe the power of the gospel to change and transform the lives of those who believe the gospel? I don’t ask the question rhetorically; I ask it actually. Do you believe the gospel has the ability to save anyone and transform his life? Do you believe that […]

25 years ago today

Twenty-five years ago today, we said, “I do.” Twenty-five years ago, we were “just married.” Today we are “living happily every after.” That doesn’t means there have been no bumps along the way. There have been. We have had conflict — and experienced the joy of reconciliation through repentance, confession, and forgiveness. We have had […]

Two words of grace

Grace has been defined as “undeserved blessing freely bestowed on man by God…” If that’s true (and I believe it is), the opening verses of Acts 8 do not appear to be very gracious. “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church […]

Why are we surprised?

Why are we surprised when unbelievers reject the gospel? Why are we surprised when unbelievers reject the gospel emphatically? Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 serves as a demonstration of the history of the rejection of God by the nation of Israel. “And he [Moses] supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance […]

Some good Kindle deals

There are generally good deals to be found on Christian books for the Kindle every day, but here are a few current deals that I’ve seen that are particularly good (remember that these prices are subject to change without notice): Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within ($2.99) Joe Thorn, Note to Self ($2.99) Thomas Brooks, Smooth […]

The ministry of the Word

As the early church began to grow exponentially, it quickly became essential to delineate roles and responsibilities in the church. So in Acts 6, deacons were selected to assist the elders so that the elders could carry out their primary responsibilities of “prayer and the ministry of the Word” (v. 4). Now it might seem […]

Meditating on God in everyday events

Biblical meditation is filling our minds with the truth of God and then contemplating and thinking on that truth. Typically we think of meditation as something done in conjunction with reading our Bibles, and that certainly is part of meditation. However, as Thomas Watson demonstrates, meditation can be stimulated as we go through our day, […]

My soul waits in silence for God only

When I was in junior high, an English teacher was fond of using a particular phrase when the volume of interaction in the room passed a certain decibel level. “Cease and desist!” he would pronounce with authority. I’m not sure if he was suggesting that legal action would result if we continued in our errant […]