A few resources I’ve found recently that have been helpful: “Devotions Aren’t Magic” — among other things, regular time with Christ cultivates delight in Him. Biblical Training recently updated its web page — and all the same very helpful resources are still there at no cost — including seminary level training. A great resource. Some […]
Read More Grab BagIt is an unfortunate reality that it is possible to be regular in reading the Scriptures and being exposed to Biblical teaching and preaching and yet remain unchanged. The hymn writer said that we are “prone to wander…prone to leave the God I love?” Why is that so? A number of possibilities exist: We substitute […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (6/13/10)The life of the believer will be different from the life of the unbeliever. There will be transformation into the image of Christ in the life of the believer (he will not be perfect, and there will be differing levels of maturity, but his trajectory will be towards Christ). John Calvin said it this way:” […]
Read More A different kind of lifeThis video has been on the internet for a couple of years, but it is worth watching again. Penn Jillette is no believer, but he is right about what he says about evangelism — “how much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?” Watch the video:
Read More An exhortation to evangelize from an unlikely sourceThe daily Scripture reading for this morning includes the beginning of the breakup of the unified kingdom of Israel. Instead of one king over the entire nation, as had been the practice under Saul, David, and Solomon, the nation (because of Solomon’s evil sin) was divided into the northern ten tribes and the southern two […]
Read More Help for remembering Israel’s kingsThe “fish story” is the poster-child for exaggeration. The longer the fish is dead, the bigger it grows. But fishermen are not the only ones who are prone to stretching the boundaries of a story. A 25-pound weight loss creeps up to 30, then 35 or more. Salaries often “grow” even when there haven’t been […]
Read More God, please don’t give me too muchThinking about the putting off of sin and the world and the putting on of Christ and grace, I’ve been thinking on the following statement from J. C. Ryle: Would you be holy? Would you become a new creature? Then you must begin with Christ. You will do just nothing at all and make no […]
Read More Would you be holy?Title: What is the Gospel? Author: Greg Gilbert Publisher: Crossway, 2010; 128 pp. $12.95 Recommendation (4-star scale): Not all commendable books are long. Not all worthwhile books are complex. Not all valuable books are ground-breaking. Such is the case with Greg Gilbert’s first published work. It is not long (only 128 pages; it can be […]
Read More Book Review: What is the Gospel?Sometimes it is difficult to discern worldliness (either because of the complexity of the issues involved, or because of the deceitfulness of our own hearts). Are we expressing appropriate freedom and liberty that God has granted us to enjoy — or are we engaging in activity that is in fact worldly? Or perhaps the better […]
Read More Wordly or godly?This morning, we begin reading the book of 1 Kings in our Bible reading. This book was actually written with 2 Kings as one book by the Biblical author (we don’t know with certainty who that was, but Jeremiah is one possibility). Together, these two books are a sad documentary of the sins of the […]
Read More Reading KingsThe past few Sundays we’ve been considering what the life of the unbeliever is like. In many ways, this has been an incomplete consideration, for it has only contemplated what the life of the unbeliever is like now; we have not dwelt on what the life of the unbeliever will be like, because of what […]
Read More The future punishment of the unbelievingAll written from during his first Roman imprisonment, Paul’s four letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon all carry similar themes and messages. Each of them stresses in some manner the work of Christ and the unity of the church. Yet perhaps no two letters are more similar than Ephesians and Colossians; so reading Colossians […]
Read More Reading ColossiansWorldliness is not a battle that is unique only to the contemporary church. Every church in every age has faced the temptation to accommodate the world. As one example, take a letter written by John Newton to another pastor — …the progress of wickedness amongst the unconverted here is awful. Convictions repeatedly stifled in many, […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (6/6/10)A believer in Christ is to be pure. In one sense, he already is. The blood of Christ has been applied to his life, and all the impurity of his life — past, present, and future — has been removed. He stands guiltless before God. (That’s an amazing sentence!) But in another sense, he is […]
Read More Are you pure in heart?Among several other titles, I am currently reading Paul Tripp’s new book What Did You Expect? The subtitle is helpful to understanding what God is doing in our lives to conform us to the image of His beloved Son through both our own sins and inadequacies, as well as those of our mates — Redeeming […]
Read More We live in one of two kingdoms
