I am now reading Octavius Winslow’s 18th century work, The Precious Things of God. Yesterday I came across this statement, which is a fitting reminder for the Christmas season: Other objects often lose their attraction, their desire to interest, or their power to charm us, by the lapse of years; but Jesus is that glorious […]
Read More The preciousness of ChristFor the past three months, we’ve been growing in our comprehension of the will of God and how we are to make decisions in relation to it during our Sunday School hour. A couple of days ago, I came across this statement from Jonathan Edwards (“The Reality of Conversion”) that reaffirms what Lee was teaching […]
Read More Don’t perplex your mindWhen I was in seminary, I had a professor who regularly would abbreviate or even forgo the Greek lesson for the day and offer some form of pastoral advice. One day, the advice went this way: “When you get in a church, spend your time with men. Be a man’s man and work to build […]
Read More A father’s roleA few things spotted on the web that have caught my interest of late: I’ve been thinking more about the relationship between social justice and evangelism lately. Here is a brief video interview with John Piper on the topic. The Gospel Coalition has several brief articles on the same topic of social justice and evangelism […]
Read More Grab bagHow vast is God’s grace and how shall we describe it? Two pictures from my Bible reading this morning demonstrate the amazing grace of God, the first from Isaiah: “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money […]
Read More Two pictures of God’s graceAfter preaching on the story of the angel’s appearance to Zecharias (Luke 1:5-25), I came across two resources about that story. The first is Jon Bloom’s contemplation of what the first conversation between Zecharias and Elizabeth might have been when his tongue was finally loosed to speak again. Jon also notes the theme of grace […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (12/12/10)One church has redeemed what is (in my estimation) the worst Christmas song ever written: HT: Tim Challies.
Read More The redemption of the worst Christmas song everR. C. Sproul has written what I have said many times in answering the objection that using the short-hand “X-mas” is not actually an attempt to remove Christ from the word “Christmas,” but is in fact part of an ancient tradition of Christians. First of all, you have to understand that it is not the […]
Read More Do we need to put Christ back into Christmas?Two excellent, free, biblical ebooks are available today on Amazon: Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges is a book I recommend regularly. Can I Know God’s Will?, part of the Crucial Questions Series by R. C. Sproul is also available. Typically books made available by Reformation Trust are only there for about […]
Read More More free Kindle booksOne final thought about music and worship comes courtesy of John Piper: We must make it our aim that the joy awakened by music be joy in God. Not all pleasures of music are pleasures in God. Then the effort to delight in God through music will involve a prior shaping of the mind by […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (12/5/10)Recently, Desiring God adapted the unabridged text of Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections into an electronic book. Download the EPUB file for free. And if you need the Kindle format, you can convert it with Calibre (both Mac and Windows versions are available), free conversion software which I’ve used successfully several times.
Read More Free Jonathan Edwards eBookIn his article “Counseling Discontented People,” Lou Priolo has made eight statements that define and reveal what contentment is: Contentment is realizing that God has already provided everything I need to glorify and enjoy Him. Contentment is realizing that true satisfaction can only come from building one’s life around those things that cannot be taken […]
Read More What is contentment?A favored lament of children is, “that’s not fair!” While spoken in more sophisticated tones and with a slight measure of less whining, adults have their own versions — “I just want what I’m due. I’ve worked hard.” Or, “Why are things always so hard for me? Why can’t it be easy just once?” Or, […]
Read More An encouragement to contentmentThis month, Christian audio is making available for free the audio book, Handel’s Messiah. No codes to insert. No promises to make. Just a free book with an easy download process.
Read More Free audio book – Handel’s MessiahThe following report was in this morning’s newspaper: LOS ANGELES — Here’s a finding that may make some stargazers do a double take through their telescopes: There may be three times as many stars in the universe as we thought. Fixing this astronomical miscalculation may force some researchers to reconsider what far-off galaxies really look […]
Read More Another evidence that man is not God
Words of Grace 