Today’s Quote – Christ’s Death (Morris)

Leon Morris, The Cross in the New Testament: In His death He is not apart from sinful men. He is executed as sinful men are executed. Through all His ministry He had sought out sinful men. At the climax of it all He is clearly one with them.

How hopeless is hopeless?

In Ephesians 2:12, Paul notes that prior to their salvation, the Gentile Ephesians had “no hope.” Which God me to wondering. Just how hopeless is hopeless? Just what will one who has no hope say about his life? Now not all men will recognize their hopelessness, and even if they do, not all will verbalize […]

Today’s Quote – Character (Chambers)

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: The test of a man’s religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on.

Sunday Leftovers (8/23/09)

“The greatest thing in the world is to be saved.” Many, obviously, have believed this. But one man spoke that to his pastor even while he was lying on his death bed. And one of the realities that will stimulate us to believe that salvation is great is understanding just how lost we were prior […]

Today’s Quote – Fellowship with God (Owen)

John Owen, in Contending For Our All: Christ is our best friend, and ere long will be our only friend, I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with Him.

Today’s Quote – Fellowship (Packer)

John Piper, Contending For Our All: Packer says that Puritans differ from evangelicals today because with them “Communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the […]

Today’s Quote – Indwelling Sin (Spurgeon)

Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students: Watch the twists and turns and singularities of your own mind, and the strangeness of your own experience; the depravity of your heart, and the work of divine grace; your tendency to sin, and your capacity for holiness; how akin you are to a devil, and yet how allied […]

Shepherd the flock

For those who serve in leadership in the church, 1 Peter 5:2ff is a familiar section: Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, […]

Today’s Quote – Gospel (Mohler)

Al Mohler, in Preaching the Cross: Most Americans believe that their major problem is something that has happened to them, and that their solution is to be found within. In other words, they believe that they have an alien problem that is to be resolved with an inner solution. What the gospel says, however, is […]

Today’s Quote – Reconciliation (Luther)

Martin Luther, quoted in John Stott’s The Cross of Christ: Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him and say, “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness and I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, […]

The grace of giving

This morning as part of our Bible reading, we read 2 Corinthians 8-9 — the account of the sacrificial and gracious giving of the Philippians and the corresponding exhortations by Paul to the Corinthians to cultivate similar habits of grace giving. One writer has counted at least 16 principles of giving in these chapters. Let […]

The church in community

After writing yesterday’s book review, I remembered a seminar entitled “The Pastor and His Community: How the Gospel Informs Our Mission beyond the Church” that Mark Dever did at a pastor’s conference earlier this year. Both the audio and his notes are available. While he may not have been as definitive about how these principles […]

Today’s Quote – Good Works (Piper)

John Piper, What Jesus Demands from the World: When Jesus calls us to let our light shine that others may see our good deeds and glorify God, he is calling us to join him in the work he came to do. And just as he pursued the glory of his Father through his final act […]

Book Review: Unfashionable

Title: Unfashionable: Making a difference in the world by being different Author: Tullian Tchividjian Publisher: Multnomah Books, 2009; 204 pp. $17.99 Recommendation (4-star scale): This morning I was in a meeting at the church when an unknown man came to my office door, introduced himself and said that he had a financial need — could […]

Today’s Quote – Good Works (Charnock)

Stephen Charnock, A Puritan Golden Treasury: All our works before repentance are dead works (Hebrews 6:1). And these works have no true beauty in them, with whatsoever gloss they may appear to a natural eye. A dead body may have something of the features and beauty of a living, but it is but the beauty […]