Tell Me The Story One More Time

From Tim Challies’ blog this morning — Reading Michael Wittmer’s excellent new book The Last Enemy, I came across a powerful little story that I wanted to share with you. I trust you will enjoy it as I did. My friend Jeff stopped by the hospital to visit one of his dearest senior saints. Charlotte […]

The Cross Quoter – a new blog

For several months I have appreciated the blog site, “The Old Guys” — a daily posting of quotes from deceased theologians who are still worth reading. Now a new, related site has been created, “The Cross Quoter.” The goal of this new site is “to put others in touch with helpful quotes, books, and resources […]

Justification defined

But this is the amazing message, and this is what is meant by justification – that God tells us that, as the result of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of his life, his death and his resurrection, if we believe on him and trust ourselves solely and entirely to him, God pardons […]

God is…

John tells us that Jesus Christ came to explain the Father (Jn. 1:18). That is, Jesus came to expose or exegete God; He came to give an accounting and revelation of the Father (and at the same time also revealed His own nature and character, Jn. 10:30). Only the Son, who has the very nature […]

Shepherds’ Conference leftovers

The Shepherds’ Conference ended about 10 days ago, but the benefit still lingers. Over the weekend I read through my notes again, and have excerpted a few sentences that I found particularly helpful. [Because of the nature of my note-taking, these are likely not exact quotes, so I have refrained from putting quotation marks around […]

Is death reason to doubt God?

This morning I read this sentence from J. I. Packer: “It has become conventional to think as if we are all going to live in this world forever and to view every case of bereavement as a reason for doubting the goodness of God.” And then I read this sentence from Jesus (John 11:14-15): “Lazarus […]

Sin speaks

We are familiar with the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:7 — “…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” But reading that verse, we might wonder, “Christ is so […]

Pictures of Jesus

M’Cheyne wrote, “Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief.” Reading Scripture is always because of its value to transform us and sanctify us (2 Tim. 3:16-17). […]

Shepherds’ Conference video

The videos from last week’s Shepherds’ Conference are now posted. Steve Lawson wasn’t first, but his message is a good place to start: See the other videos on Grace Church’s Vimeo site.

Learn much of Jesus

For two and a half months, we’ve been reading each weekday in the Gospels. What shall we do with all this talk of Jesus? Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all […]

Jesus and money

Entertainer Sophie Tucker reputedly said, “From birth to age 18, a girl needs good parents, from 18 to 35 she needs good looks, from 35 to 55 she needs a good personality, and from 55 on she needs cash.” And on another occasion she suggested, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.” But […]

Shepherds’ Conference audio is posted

Many of the sessions from last week’s Shepherds’ Conference are now posted. All but one of the general sessions have been posted and many of the seminar sessions are also posted. Have a listen (for free!) at Shepherds’ Conference Media.

A complaint against Jesus

We may not admit it, but we like to complain. We are not unlike the Israelites, who escaped from the unjust wrath of Pharaoh and then complained that they didn’t have leeks, garlic, and cucumbers to eat (Num. 11:5). We complain about colds and cold weather — grumbling against God’s sovereignty in various sufferings and […]

Counting the cost and finishing well

In my childhood and early teen years, I was an active baseball card collector. (I still have something around 30,000 cards inhabiting my closet.) One of the things that I would like to do with fellow card-collecting buddies was trade cards. I always tried to be strategic in my trading, and since one of the […]

Stories of grace in unusual places

Tell someone you have a story about grace and they will immediately think you received an unexpected financial gift, a couple struggling to get pregnant finally is with child, or estranged friends were finally reconciled. Jesus also told many stories of grace. But some of those stories didn’t immediately sound so gracious, like the two […]