Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Godly Suffering and Godly Examples

This is the ninth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. Twenty years ago, I did not have this category for gratitude in my life. I couldn’t conceive it. I hadn’t lived life long enough to experience any significant pain and sorrow. Nor had I been exposed to […]

Entertainment and the homosexual agenda

In case we are still living with the misperception that entertainment is only entertainment and is harmless and innocuous, the lead two paragraphs from an article in USA Today corrects that faulty notion. When it comes to gay marriage and gay families, politicians are still bickering and courts are still deliberating. But in entertainment, it’s […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Repentance

This is the eighth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. If there is nothing that makes a pastor’s heart more glad than people growing in Christ, then there is nothing that makes him more sad than people rejecting Christ. In a cabinet drawer in my office, I […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Remembering Christ

This is the seventh of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. For many years I have been collecting books about the cross of Christ. I am captivated by the cross and find my heart to a love of Christ by these deep reflections on what was accomplished at […]

Reading Ezra

This week we read both Ezra and Nehemiah in our daily Bible reading. The books share a common historical background. The people had been taken into captivity to Babylon in three different segments, the first in’ 605 B.C., then 597 and 586. Jeremiah prophesied in 605 that Judah would face a 70-year captivity (Jer. 25:1). […]

A new counseling method?

This video is an internet classic — if anything on the internet can already be known as classic. I’ve seen references to it numerous times, and showed it to my family for the first time last week. It makes a good point about the necessity of putting off sin. It’s a spoof by Bob Newhart […]

What are the odds?

I received this from our missionary in France. The conclusion might be a little surprising.

Sunday Leftovers (8/22/10)

One of the frequently omitted realities about sanctification is that it is a process. No one is sanctified instantly, like a cheap pudding, or even fast, like an inexpensive hamburger. Sanctification takes time. In fact, it is part of a believer’s life every day until he is finally glorified through his death. In other words, […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Faithful Co-Laborers

This is the sixth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. We are part of a lineage that reaches back to Christ and reaches ahead into eternity. But we also are part of each other’s stories. We share life together. So in our church body there are two […]

Following Christ and entertainment

John Piper asks a helpful question: “Do you glorify God in your movie watching?” I just think we need to test our hearts big time. Big time. Why are we able to enjoy hell bound, God ignoring, Christ dishonoring, false world views because we can give it a little twist at the end that it […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Godly Heritage

This is the fifth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. I am grateful for a godly heritage. I can go back many generations in my genealogy, and all are believers. I grew up in a home where my parents loved each other and loved Christ. I was […]

Principles of giving

A preacher went to visit a farmer and during the course of that visit asked him, “If you had $200 would you give $100 to the Lord?” “I would, preacher.” “If you had two cows, would you give one to the Lord?” “Yes, I believe I would.” “If you had two pigs, would you give […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Hearing People

This is the fourth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. One thing I particularly prayed for when coming to GBC was peace and unity. We have it. The question is, why? Obviously, such a gift is due to the grace and kindness of God. But there is […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Church

This is the third of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. I am thankful for the church. But it wasn’t always that way. When I started seminary, I wanted to teach. Somewhere along the way that changed, though I would be hard-pressed to identify when and where. But […]

Justification and its fruit

John Piper has a brief but helpful discussion of the relationship between justification and sanctification. He emphasizes why it is important to understand justification as imputed — a declaration of our position before God: The only instrument by which I am made a participant in Christ’s righteousness is God’s acting through my faith. I am […]