Thursday through Saturday serve as “days of reflection” on our church Bible reading plan. These may be days to catch up on missed readings; or, they may be an opportunity to think more deeply and broadly about some of the Scripture you have read in the past month. To help stimulate you in the process […]
Read More Questions for Bible reflectionOn February 1, Grace Community Church will celebrate the 40th anniversary of John MacArthur’s pastorate there. In what he called a “pre-emptive strike,” he offered three sermons that provided the reasons for the success of this church: “Foundations of Grace, Part 1: The Glory of God” “Foundations of Grace, Part 2: The Lordship of Christ” […]
Read More Reasons for John MacArthur’s enduring ministryHerman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God: …the names which we use in mentioning and addressing God are not arbitrary: they are not the mere inventions of our mind. Rather, it is God himself who in nature and in grace reveals himself consciously and freely, who gives us the right to name him on the ground […]
Read More Today’s Quote – God’s Names (Bavinck)Title: This Momentary Marriage Author: John Piper Publisher: Crossway Books, 2009; 180 pp. Recommendation (4-star scale): I suppose I own dozens of books on marriage, parenting, Biblical manhood, and the like. Not counting my counseling books, this topic accounts for something like 20 board feet of shelving in my library. I have preached lots of […]
Read More Book Review: This Momentary MarriageThirty-six years ago this month, the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion in our country. Since then, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million babies have been aborted. What most Americans fail to realize, however, is that nearly that many are aborted every year worldwide. As great a problem as […]
Read More Sanctity of human lifeThabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?: …[in] the preaching of God’s Word and in Bible study, Christians should remain lowly and gentle before the Scripture, acknowleding it as the source of salvation and are to do so as people knowing our sinful nature, our spiritual poverty before God, and our need for the […]
Read More Today’s Quote – Teachability (Anyabwile)John Stott, Authentic Christianity: We need to repent of the haughty way in which we sometimes stand in judgment upon Scripture and must learn to sit humbly under its judgment instead. If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts and never […]
Read More Today’s Quote – Conviction (Stott)One of the values of Scripture is that it teaches us — for we do not know and understand. Given that we are taught by Scripture a fair question to ask, then, is “what kind of learner are you?’ It is possible to be a Bible learner that learns without a Biblical purpose. We might […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (1/25/09)R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe: Irreverence toward God is only a symptom of an idolatrous image of God that is man-made. Dry ritualism indicates that our God is far away and dead. Joyless performance reveals an arid Deity. But on the other hand, reverence for God indicates our belief that he is […]
Read More Today’s Quote – Worship (Hughes)Having conducted a wedding this afternoon, I’m still thinking about some of the things I wanted to communicate about God and marriage to the couple and to those in attendance. Taking my thoughts primarily from Ephesians 5, I addressed the couple (particularly the husband) and exhorted them to follow the example of Christ in His […]
Read More After the weddingIn an interview posted yesterday at Christianity Today, Charles Colson commented on the recent death of Richard John Neuhaus, and the effect that his death might have on the movement Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT). In the interview, Colson makes this remarkable statement: Pope Benedict on November 19 in what was otherwise a routine audience […]
Read More Catholics and Evangelicals, the Pope and JustificationJohn Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: …what is the beginning of true doctrine but a prompt eagerness to hearken to God’s voice? [1.7.5]
Read More Today’s Quote – Obedience (Calvin)Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage: One thing that is very important to know in marriage is that there is always a way out. And the way out is not divorce! No, the way out in marriage (no matter how bad things may get) is simply to put everything back on the line, our whole […]
Read More Today’s Quote – Marriage (Mason)C. S. Lewis, quoted in Christian History: There are three images in my mind which I must continually forsake and replace by better ones: the false image of God, the false image of my neighbors, and the false image of myself.
Read More Today’s Quote – Idols (Lewis)In two days I am performing a marriage ceremony and I am currently in the process of doing premarital counseling with another couple and I just finished reading John Piper’s new book, This Momentary Marriage (which is excellent — a review will be coming next week). So I’ve been thinking a lot about weddings and […]
Read More Thinking about weddings and marriage
Words of Grace 