Making short-term missions more effective

In a recent series of articles on Desiring God, the question of how to make short-term mission trips valuable and effective for both church and missionary was addressed. In one article, John Piper affirmed his church’s commitment to short-term trips: I said in a previous question that everybody should want to do short-term missions. One […]

Today’s Quote – Heaven (Baxter)

Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest: He that makes not God his chief good and ultimate end, is in heart a pagan and a vile idolater. Let me ask, then, dost thou truly account it thy chief happiness to enjoy the Lord in glory, or dost thou not? Canst thou say, “The Lord is my […]

Sunday Leftovers (6/7/09)

After a sweet morning of worship in the renovated sanctuary, two ideas continue to roll around in my mind — the cruciality of entrusting the gospel to others (discipleship) and the means of suffering to accomplish discipleship. As was said Sunday, too often we tend to think of discipleship as the responsibility of someone else, […]

Today’s Quote – Christ (Bunyan)

John Bunyan, All Loves Excelling: He that would know the love of Christ in several degrees of it, must begin at his person, for in him dwells all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Nay, more; in him ‘are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ (Col. 2:3). In him, that is, in his […]

Today’s Quote – Christ’s Authority (Elliott)

Elizabeth Elliott: Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His lordship.

Sunday Leftovers (5/31/09)

The mystery revealed by God is the gospel and its effects. The mystery that was not known in the Old Testament and has now been revealed by the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets. Specifically, this mystery is the working of the gospel to include the Gentiles into the plan of salvation, according […]

Today’s Quote – Forgiveness of Self (Challies)

Tim Challies, The Spiritual Discipline of Discernment: It must be noted that while Scripture does not explicitly forbid self-forgiveness, it also does not require or endorse it. It seems, then, that we do not need to forgive ourselves, nor should we make this our practice. If we struggle with guilt or shame, forgiving ourselves may […]

Today’s Quote – Forgiveness (Piper)

John Piper, Battling Unbelief: …one powerful way of overcoming bitterness and revenge is to have faith in the promise that God will settle accounts with our offenders so that we don’t have to.

Today’s Quote – Theology (Challies)

Tim Challies, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment: Richard Phillips writes, “Theology bores today’s Christians, which is another way of saying we are bored with God himself.

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day. It is a day to appropriately remember those who have given their service and their lives for the sake of the freedom of our country. On this Memorial Day Monday, I cannot help but think back to last Monday when our family viewed a number of memorials on the National Mall […]

Today’s Quote – Redemption (Edwards)

Jonathan Edwards (The End for Which God Created the World; in God’s Passion for His Glory): …the glory of God is the ultimate end of the work of redemption, which is the chief work of providence towards the moral world, as is abundantly manifest from Scripture. For the whole universe is put in subjection to […]

Sunday Leftovers (5/24/09)

Preaching from Ephesians 1:7, John Calvin said, God puts our sins out of his remembrance and drowns them in the depths of the sea, and, moreover, receives the payment that was offered him in the person of his only Son. This is the gift of redemption that comes from God through the God-Man Jesus Christ. […]

I’ve been quiet…

Well, maybe I haven’t been quiet, but all has been quiet on my blog for the past week or so. Other responsibilities and distractions have just conjoined to keep me away from my blog, which has been a benefit and a disappointment. A benefit because other items have been more needful (e.g., it was more […]

Does God hate?

What does it mean when the Bible says, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Rom. 9:13)? Can God really hate people? (We know it is righteous to hate sin.) If so, how is that hatred righteous (as it must be for God to be God)? And what specifically did it mean when Paul quoted […]

Sunday Leftovers (5/3/09)

For all the questions that may be raised about the doctrine of divine, unconditional election, what is particularly striking about Ephesians 1:4 is its clarity and simplicity. That God was the one doing the choosing is unmistakable. That man is incapable of offering anything meritorious for his salvation, is also clear. God chose before the […]