Book of the Month — a Rare Jewel

The book of the month in our church bookstore is Jeremiah Burroughs’ work, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I first read this book several years ago over the period of several months in my devotional time. It was a blessing and challenge to be exhorted towards contentment every morning for those 10-12 weeks. As […]

Free Kindle book — Ten Questions

One of my favorite books on the spiritual life is now available for free on the Kindle — Don Whitney’s book Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual. This is an excellent resource to help determine the condition of your heart. I highly recommend it.

Principles of sanctification

There is much that might be said about sanctification, but here are a few key principles to remember about progressing in faith and growing in Christlikeness (derived primarily from 1 Peter 1:13-16): Sanctification is the natural outgrowth of the gospel and being saved by Christ. Sanctification is not a means of receiving grace but an […]

Sunday Leftovers (8/7/11) – Sanctification

When communicating the gospel to unbelievers, it is tempting to make conversion the end of the conversation. That is, it is possible to be so concerned about the salvation of the individual that we ignore what happens to the convert after his salvation decision. But God cares about what happens to us after our salvation. […]

Two encouragements to pray

I know of no one who is completely satisfied with his prayer life. All could pray more and more effectively. Even when fellowship with Christ in prayer is good, the godly man desires more of that fellowship — just as a husband and wife seek more and greater fellowship with each other even when (especially […]

Founded on the gospel

I almost missed it. This morning, my Bible reading began in 2 Chronicles. And there, tucked into the account of the construction of the Temple in Israel was a little gem of grace that I just about skipped past. And then my rememberer worked. Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in […]

Preaching the gospel to good people

This morning, Byron Yawn offered a compelling meditation on the gospel, complementing what I wrote yesterday about the gospel and sanctification. Here he asks, how will the gospel influence “good” people? Obviously, conversion brings a change, but salvation is not about the adjustment of one’s behavior from bad to good. Ultimately, Christianity is not about […]

Creation reveals the wisdom of God

This morning Tim Challies posted this video to attempt to demonstrate the vastness of the universe: I obviously can’t agree with Sagan’s conclusions at the end of that clip. Thomas Watson was right when he wrote in A Body of Divinity (something I read this morning), that the created world reveals the wisdom of God: […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/31/11)

In his book Licensed to Kill (a book about the mortification of sin), author Brian Hedges notes: One of the reasons some people fail to benefit from their study of Scripture is that they interpret it in gospel-ignoring, Christ-neglecting ways. Too many never overcome sin because they never benefit from the Bible because they have […]

Preaching to yourself

I recently picked up and began reading Joe Thorn’s book, Note to Self. The book is about the discipline of meditation and especially the art of meditating on the gospel so that the gospel increasingly guides our thinking and actions. Justin Taylor did an interview with Joe Thorn in which they discussed the purpose and […]

Blog updates

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve made some changes to my blog page in an effort to simplify the information on the front page and provide an updated look. So now only the latest post will be posted in full on the front page, and the remaining posts will have “continue reading” links after […]

Aging and pastoral succession

John Piper, Don Carson and Tim Keller talk about succession in their ministries. But underneath their discussion is also wisdom about how to address issues related to aging. This is a good video for pastors to watch — along with anyone who is getting older.

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: The Telegraph provide a lengthy obituary of John Stott: “He turned his own church, located just a few yards from the headquarters of the BBC, into a showplace for a renewed form of evangelicalism. Strong lay leadership at All Souls set him free to become the trainer of […]

Christ’s sacrifice

A healthy baby was born in the hospital down the street. Ho-hum. God provided for your basic needs again this week. Yawn. You shared the gospel with someone this week and he trusted Christ. Of course. Your spouse/child/parent/friend loves you. Okay. The extraordinary has become ordinary. It happens in life. And it happens in the […]

Preparing for communion

This Sunday we will observe the ordinance of communion in our worship service. As I have been preparing for that (and my sermon) this week, I have been thinking about the gospel and its implications. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians, it is most important — of first importance. John Stott captures some sense of […]