What Is Hell?

J. I. Packer answers this basic question: HT: Justin Taylor.

Sunday Leftovers: What God Desires in His People

God desires that His people submit to Him and obey Him. So Peter reminds his readers, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Pet 5:6). Because God is the sovereign King, His people are to submit to His authority and follow His dictates […]

Sermon: New Life in Christ: Faith, Love, and Obedience

New Life in Christ: Faith, Love, and Obedience 1 John 5:1-3 June 22, 2014 In late April/early May, 1989 I remember very distinctly walking out of a seminary classroom building, crossing the street that separated the campus from our apartment building and thinking, “I’ve taken my last exam; I’ve been taking tests in school for […]

Keep loving God

Question. How may we keep our love from going out? Answer. Watch your hearts every day. Take notice of the first declinings in grace. Observe yourselves when you begin to grow dull and listless, and use all means for quickening. Be much in prayer, meditation, and holy conference. When the fire is going out you […]

What kind of Father do you have?

Today is Father’s Day. What kind of father do you have? Did he mentor you? Did he offer good advice? Did he take an interest in you and give you direction and wise counsel as you considered major life decisions? Did he provide financially and physically for you? Did he protect you from harm? Did […]

Sermon: Love One Another, Part 3

Love One Another, Pt. 3 1 John 4:15-21 June 15, 2014 Some things that should be self-evident aren’t as obvious as we might suppose. When he was a football coach, Buddy Ryan was known as being a no-nonsense, tough-nosed coach. He learned well from his father, as an article from 1994 recounts: Leaving Korea as […]

Repentance and regret

There is an eternal difference between regret and repentance. Regret feels bad about past sins. Repentance turns away from past sins. Regret looks to our own circumstances. Repentance looks to God. Most of us are content with regret. We just want to feel bad for a while, have a good cry, enjoy the cathartic experience, […]

The danger of not repenting

When the heart is grown hard and stiff in wickedness, it is hard to tune the penitential string. A tender plant is easily removed, but it is hard to pluck up an old tree that is rooted. An old sinner who has been a long time rooting in sin is hardly plucked out of his […]

The new issue of JBMW is available

The newest issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is available. This is a resource I regularly read and always find helpful articles in it (and now it’s also free!). Denny Burk kicks off the journal by analyzing the troubling fact that it is now okay in our culture to change a child’s […]

Sermon: Love One Another, Part 2

Love One Another, Pt. 2 1 John 4:11-14 June 8, 2014 It is perhaps the worst case of amnesia in the world. Deborah Wearing tells the story of her husband, Clive: Clive had no idea that Tuesday, March 26, 1985 would be his last day of conscious thought. We weren’t ready. Did he feel his […]

The Old Testament in five minutes

James Street, from The Master’s College and Seminary, made this five-minute summary of the Old Testament’s plot: HT: the Cripplegate.

Sermon: Love One Another, Part 1

Love One Another, Pt. 1 1 John 4:7-10 June 1, 2014 While it is true that you never stop being a parent, there are definitely particular transitions in the process of parenting, and this weekend Raye Jeanne and I are crossing one of the big transitions: for the first time, neither of our girls will […]

New book from John Piper

Crossway has just released John Piper’s latest biography, Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully: The Power of Poetic Effort in the Work of George Herbert, George Whitefield, and C. S. Lewis. Here is what Desiring God has to say about the release of this book: Herbert. Whitefield. Lewis. In the sixth volume of The Swans Are […]

Sermon: Discerning the Spirits, Part 2

Discerning the Spirits, Pt. 2 1 John 4:1-6 May 18, 2014 I’ve always been pretty curious, and I like to collect questions and somewhere I picked up these: What color is a chameleon on a mirror? Where does weight go when you lose it? Why are Chinese fortune cookies written in English? Why is abbreviated […]

Words for graduates

What follows is a brief address I gave to my daughter’s graduating class this evening. You’ve made it. Finals are finished. Projects are done. The only thing left is to get that piece of paper from your parents, shift your tassel. And shout. It’s all over but the shouting. Or so they say. You have […]