Escape pain at all costs?

D. A. Carson deals with the question of why God doesn’t always heal people. Start at 1:27:00 —

The goal of the gospel

Being able to articulate the gospel with accuracy is one thing; having its truth captivate your soul is quite another. The gospel is not just supposed to be our ticket into heaven; it is to be an entirely new basis for how we relate to God, ourselves, and others. It is to be the source […]

The Puritans on love

We live in a culture and time that weighs the emotive value of love as much more important than the volitional value of love. It has not always been this way: “Often the Puritans would decide to get married before they knew who they were going to marry. They would decide it was time to […]

Sunday Leftovers – Relationships According to Proverbs

We are to do everything humanly possible to be at peace with all men (Rom. 12:18). Yet harmony in human relationships cannot always be accomplished. Elizabeth Barrett was an accomplished writer and poet, yet her marriage with Robert Browning caused an irreconcilable rift with her parents. As he did with all his children who married, […]

Can there be meaning in life without God?

HT: Justin Taylor.

Why do you enter relationships?

Preparing for my sermon on Sunday, I came across this statement by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp: We enter relationships for personal pleasure, self-actualization, and fun. We want low personal cost and high self-defined returns. But God wants high personal cost and high God-defined returns. And although we frequently disagree with God, his plan is […]

A study in contrasts

Call this a study in contrasts. Isaiah 9 is a well-known passage for its description of the advent of the Messiah: For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal […]

Grace in suffering

It is rare to think of pain and suffering as a gift of God’s grace. Instead, most of the time, we argue with God about our plight, we complain and become angry about the “unfairness” of our suffering, and we assume that our circumstances are inherently bad. As a contrast, consider the testimony of Joni […]

Pleasing God

Martin Luther: Now, we are sure that Christ pleases God, that he is holy and so on. Inasmuch, then, as Christ pleases God and we are in him, we also please God and are holy. Although sin still remains in us, and although we daily fall and offend, grace is more abundant and stronger than […]

A prayer plan

Sometimes we struggle in prayer because we haven’t thought through a plan. While even plans can become ruts, they also can be tools to stay out of ruts if we use them wisely. So here is one pastor’s prayer plan: First I pray for my family by name. Next I pray for pastors. I also […]

Do friends let friends sin?

There is a cultural sentiment that if you love someone then you will not confront that person’s sinful choices. To do so is profoundly unloving, the thinking goes. Yet if we love one another, we will still abhor sin and cling to everything good (Rom. 12:9). And that is true of our relationships as well. […]

Sunday Leftovers (10/2/11) — Relationships

Fifty years ago, Sam Rayburn was in his 17th year as the Speaker of the House when he discovered that he had terminal pancreatic cancer. He then surprised everyone by announcing that he was leaving Washington D.C. to return to his hometown, Bonham, Texas. Why would someone leave Washington with its fine hospitals for a […]

Free audiobook: Think

This month’s free audiobook download from Christianaudio is John Piper’s book, Think. This is an excellent book that I enjoyed very much (in print format). Download it here.

Grab bag

Some helpful articles recently spotted on the internet: Douglas Groothuis offers wise counsel on listening to sermons in “A short theology of listening.” An excerpt: Listen . . . with all your might; hear the living and active word. The teaching and preaching of God’s imperishable word is truly a sacred event whereby the Truth […]

‘Til death do us part?

A few days ago, Pat Robertson asserted that it was acceptable for one to divorce a spouse with Alzheimer’s since “Alzheimer’s is a form of death.” He continued, “I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial […]