Enduring with Christ When Others Sin Against You

At the recent Desiring God Conference, “Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints,” Jerry Bridges addressed the topic of how to endure, even when others sin against you: “Life is frequently difficult, and it’s sometimes painful. And if you live long enough, you will experience both difficulties and pain. And if you want […]

Sunday Leftovers (9/30/07)

The truth that not all who claim to believe Christ are genuinely believers in Christ is not a popular message. The common assumption is that all who profess Christ possess Christ. Yet it wasn’t that way in the day of Christ, and it isn’t that way now. The people of Galilee were interested in Christ […]

Sunday Leftovers (9/23/07)

See the deplorable condition of all ungodly people! In the other world, they shall have a life that always dies and a death that always lives. [Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture.] Most people — whether they trust in Christ or not — think too little of hell. Believers think too little of hell, not […]

Sunday Leftovers (9/16/07)

The heart of pride is not only the exaltation of self, but even more tragically, it is the diminishing of God. As Thomas Watson has noted, “pride is the greatest sacrilege; it robs God of his glory.” Every prideful act is a defiant gesture of the inadequacy of God, and the self-exaltation of self. This […]

Why I blog in spurts

I am aware of bloggers who blog with more consistency than me. Just this morning, I read another blogger who asserted, “I blog every day…” I don’t. A couple months ago, I went on vacation. While not “secluded,” it was far enough away from “civilization” that my cell phone had no signal (Oh happy day!). […]

Sunday Leftovers (9/9/07)

The story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53 – 8:11) is fundamentally not about the woman, not about her sin, and not about the scribes or Pharisees. It’s not even really about judgmentalism. It is about Jesus Christ. And specifically, it is about how Christ is the bridge between the Law […]

Why do you want to go to Heaven?

This is the question asked by John Piper: “if you could have everything about Heaven — forgiveness, fellowship, absence of sin and pain and death, etc. — but God is not there, would you still want it?” The question is addressing the heart of the gospel. Do we want the gospel for our own self-exalting […]

Sunday Leftovers (8/26/07)

“If we understood Hell even the slightest bit, none of us would ever say, ‘Go to Hell.’ It’s far too easy to go to Hell. It requires no change of course, no navigational adjustments. We were born with our autopilot set toward Hell. It is nothing to take lightly — Hell is the single greatest […]

30-3

When you are a baseball fan and the greatest claim to fame your team can make is a 1-9 post-season record, two no-hitters by a 40-something hall-of-famer who did most of his outstanding work prior to arriving on your team, and the worst contract in the history of baseball (cost to team approximately 3 years, […]

Books and transformation

In a recent post, Bob Kauflin wrote, “I once heard someone say that books don’t change people — sentences do. If I glean two or three sentences from a book that affect the way I think and the way I live, that’s time well invested. So I read.” I find it virtually impossible to read […]

God, sin and sovereignty

One of the repeated questions people (both those who believe in Christ and those who do not) have about God is the relationship between sin and suffering, and God who is sovereign over all things. How can those seemingly contradictory statements co-exist and God still be God? In his most recent sermon, John Piper addresses […]

Better (Teenage) Saints

How shall we parent and shepherd our teens so that they will walk faithfully with God? In his most recent “Taste and See” column, John Piper interacts with two recent books and draws the conclusion that “Good Doctrine Makes Better (Teenage) Saints.” A sample statement: “…even though growing a church by serious teaching of biblical […]

Sunday Leftovers (8/19/07)

In the last few years, I have heard an increasing number of times, “I love _____, but I don’t like him/her…” Such a notion is a completely foreign concept in Scripture. To love someone is, by definition, to be both a friend and friendly to that person. No where should that be more evident than […]

Be steadfast…abounding in God’s work

The other day I found myself having a little whine to my wife — “I’m weary…” was the general tone of the conversation. Ever had thoughts like that? Sure you have. It is easy to forget two complementary truths from Scripture: that as believers, are lives are given to Christ to be used (up) by […]

The high cost of sexual sin

In preparation for Sunday’s sermon, I came across this statement by Derek Kidner about the Biblical reality of what sexual sin is. [All the references are from Proverbs.] …sexual sin is presented in the darkest colours. It is a squandering of powers that were designed for the founding of a true family that should be […]