On vacation

A couple more thoughts about Christ’s atonement

The truth about Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement is the key component to understanding the gospel. And the Scriptures abound with images, references, and teaching about that atonement. The Old Testament sacrificial system anticipated the atoning work of Christ — it anticipated the punishment being administered by the wrath of God, it looked forward to Christ […]

Sunday Leftovers (8/29/10)

Count these among famous first words: “What hath God wrought?” Samuel F. B. Morse sent this message over the world’s first commercial telegraph line on May 24, 1844. “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.” This message of Aug. 16, 1858, was the first official communication sent over a […]

The anniversary of Augustine’s death

Today marks the 1680th anniversary of Augustine’s death. He died on this day on 430 A.D. Augustine was influential in articulating the gospel of justification by faith and was the godly inspiration of many who would follow more than a millennium later in the reformation. Thinking of Augustine’s death reminded me of one of my […]

Seeking happiness through sorrow

John Piper frequently quotes the French philosopher Pascal, who wrote in Pensees, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. the cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attending with different views. The will […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: God’s Glory

This is the eleventh and final of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. I hope you knew I would have to conclude my reflections with the truth of God’s glory. I don’t think I came to GBC with the priority of God’s glory as preeminently clear in my […]

Bring the Book!

This morning we read Nehemiah 8, which is the passage that was the basis for Steve Lawson’s sermon “Bring the Book!” at the Shepherds’ Conference a few years ago. It is a really outstanding sermon. You may download it here. (It really is worth the hour or so it will take you to listen to […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: the Adequate Word

This is the tenth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. To say that the Scriptures are adequate is something like saying that a bazooka is adequate to kill a mosquito or that a Lamborghini is adequate to defeat a bicycle in a ten-mile race. When we say […]

Identifying idols

Kenny Stokes (who is filling in as the preaching pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church while John Piper is taking his leave of absence) preached on 1 Jn. 5:20-21 last Sunday and asked these “13 Questions to Diagnose Your Idolatries:” What do you most highly value? What do you think about by default? What is your […]

Reading Nehemiah

Nehemiah is closely related to the book of Ezra. In fact, the Hebrew Bible has them as one single book. Nehemiah follows the story of Ezra by nearly 100 years. When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the third wave of the return from exile in 445 B.C., the initial returnees had been in the land […]

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). […]