Worship that is better than the angel’s worship

J. Todd Murray, Beyond Amazing Grace: The disparity between the angels’ worship and our own is especially ironic in the light of the fact that we have so much more to be grateful for than the angels do. When angels sinned just once, they were immediately judged by God and given no opportunity of redemption […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: David Murray has “20 Helps to Sermon Listening.” Number 1? “Read and mediate on God’s Word every day: Daily Bible reading whets our appetite for the main course on the Lord’s Day. We can’t expect to be ready to digest spiritual food if we’ve not been eating through […]

Benefits of daily time in Scripture

From Jon Bloom: Private devotions aren’t magic. We know that (for the most part). But still, we can be tempted to think that if we just figure out the secret formula — the right mixture of Bible meditation and prayer — we will experience euphoric moments of rapturous communion with the Lord. And if that […]

The Lord has planned…

“For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?” (Is. 14:27; NASB) A few years ago, the United States Department of Transportation set aside $200 million for research and development of an automated highway system that would alleviate traffic congestion in […]

A proposed name change for NANC

This weekend, Heath Lambert, the executive director elect of NANC announced that next month the board of directors for NANC will be proposing a name change for its organization. The newly proposed name will be the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC). Lambert outlined three reasons for the name change: Earlier this year, NANC’s board […]

Sunday Leftovers: Christ as the infinite God-Man

Jesus Christ is the infinite God-Man. And that simply stated truth has been under attack since the advent of Christ. In the early church in Asia Minor, some heretics suggested Christ was deity but not man, but were that a case, Christ could not identify with us and could not bear our sin on the […]

Some benefits of believing in Christ

In expounding the provision of assurance for believers, the apostle John also reminds his readers in his first epistle of some of the benefits that come from believing in Christ: fellowship with God (1:3, 6, 7) Jesus Christ as his advocate (2:1) the command (and an ability) to love others (2:7; 4:21) the anointing of […]

The work of the Spirit

Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness: “The same Spirit who was present at creation and caused you to be born again is at work to empower your inner person (that is, your will or heart) so that you might resist sins you couldn’t resist before and do the good things which would otherwise be […]

9/11 Tribute

A friend recounts his involvement at the Pentagon on September 11 — Thank you, Dr. Carlton, and many others who honored the Lord in the service of their country on that day.

The greatest privilege

William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying: If the greatest privileges that can be bestowed on an individual in this world are the forgiveness of sins, justification and reconciliation with God, adoption into his family and the assurance of eternal glory — then there is no more highly privileged duty, no more dignified position in the […]

How do you explain the Trinity?

This cartoon demonstrates just how hard it is to illustrate the truth of the Trinity without running into heresy. (And as Kevin DeYoung notes, the last line about the Chicago River is intended as a joke.) HT: Kevin DeYoung.

Why are there apostates?

The apostle John makes it clear that there are some in the church who claim faith in Christ who are not really believers in Christ. And when they leave the church they also leave the faith — they are apostate (1 Jn. 2:18-19). How does that happen? How do people become apostate? Why do people […]

Think often of your death

Thomas Watson: Oh, meditate on the transience and brittleness of life! Think often of your tombstone. Question: What advantage will accrue to us by often thinking of our short time here? Answer 1. Meditation on the shortness of time would cool the heat of our affections for the world. [“Time’s Shortness”]

What’s wrong with this preaching tactic?

Recently a preacher (I refuse to call him a pastor) from Oklahoma received over 600,000 hits on YouTube for a portion of one of his recent sermons — for all the wrong reasons. The title of the video declares that this preacher “throws a hissy fit.” It’s worse than that. He degraded his people and […]

Sunday Leftovers: When people leave the church

The apostle Paul spoke for all pastors when he reminded the Corinthians of the difficulty and burden of his ministry — imprisonments, beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, long journeys, robbers, and hard work. Yet the greatest source of his concern was “the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my […]