Whom have I in Heaven?

When offering the gospel, John Piper asks the question, “If you can have all the good things and blessings of Heaven, and God is not there, do you still want Heaven?” The point of the question is to elicit what the desire of the individual is — does he want God, or merely the good […]

Reading Leviticus

This week we began reading the book of Leviticus in our Bible-reading plan. It is for most people a somewhat confusing book to read — and certainly disconnected from what NT believers understand about faith in Christ. After all, the system of sacrifices is long-departed. So how are we to understand these things? In short, […]

Sunday Leftovers (2/21/10)

A short Q & A about spiritual gifts — 1. What do we mean with the term “spiritual gifts?” Spiritual gifts can be defined this way: “Spiritual gifts are received from God and His unmerited grace — and they are diversely and sovereignly given to believers at the moment of salvation by the Holy Spirit […]

Did Jesus descend to Hell?

Interpreters of Ephesians 4:9 have long wrestled with the meaning of the phrase “the lower parts of the earth.” Many have conjectured that phrase means that after the crucifixion Christ went to Hell to proclaim the truth of His death and resurrection to those who resided there. Interpreters base this understanding not only on Ephesians […]

Think on these things

It has been said of this generation of Christian believers (in America and the West particularly) that our weakness is that we do not think often enough or deeply enough about God. It’s not that we hate God or are angry with God or confused about God — our problem is that we are too […]

A really good word about killing sin

This may be the best sermon I’ve heard in weeks or even months. In his final message at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, Sam Storms proposes that the best way to fight sin is to have a different affection. Instead of telling people seek God instead of pleasure, Storms says that we must seek our […]

God is a delicious good

While thinking about yesterday’s comment from M’Cheyne about trials and the preciousness of Christ, I came across this extended statement by Thomas Watson in his classic work, A Body of Divinity. It comes near the end of his answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “what is the chief end of man?” […]

Bestselling books and what they reveal about our souls

If the words that emanate from an individual’s lips reveals the content of that person’s heart, then it is also true that what a person writes is indicative of what is in his heart. It is with that understanding that Tim Challies has embarked on an interesting adventure for this year — he is endeavoring […]

The gracious tests of storms

I’ve recently begun reading the biography of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. And this weekend I came across this statement from him that I’d come across in another source: You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of desolation, […]

Book Review: In-Laws

Title: In-Laws: Married with Parents Author: Wayne Mack Publisher: P & R Publishing, 2009; 48 pp. $4.99 (available in the GBC bookstore for $3) Recommendation (4-star scale): I have dozens of books on marriage and many more on men’s and women’s issues — how a man can be a godly husband and lead his wife […]

Have enough grace?

How well do you appropriate the grace given to you by Christ. If you are like Samuel Rutherford, probably not sufficiently well — Every man thinketh he is rich enough in grace, till he take out his purse, and… then he findeth it but poor and light in the day of a heavy trial. I […]

The day after Valentine’s Day – now what?

Yesterday was the day for candy, card, and flower shops. Today is the day for lovers. Yesterday the retailers made their money. Today marriage partners make their marriages. Call me fussy. Call me a curmudgeon. Call me a spoil sport. I just don’t like being told by business and industry when is the best time […]

Sunday Leftovers (2/14/10)

A number of years ago, Lillie Baltrip was a bus driver for the Houston ISD. She was a good bus driver. In fact, she was one of the best — nominated for a safe-driving award. Along with a number of other safe driver she was going to be given an award at a ceremony. And […]

Valentine’s Day and the love of God

Today, on the day when the rest of the world celebrates the human love, what better time is there to remember the divine love of God for man. What follow are some reflections of men who have “said it better than me” about God’s love: When Karl Barth, the famed German theologian, visited the Untied […]

Determined to give

In 1874 Francis Ridley Havergal wrote the hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be” and sent it to a friend and essentially forgot about — until she saw it in a magazine four years later. She read it again for the first time in four years and was caught by the stanza, “take my […]