Sin is…

R. C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross: “Sin is cosmic treason.” With those words, I [am] trying to communicate the seriousness of human sin. We rarely take the time to think through the ramifications of our sin. We fail to realize that in even the slightest sins we commit, such as little white lies […]

Perspectives on biblical counseling from two leaders

The National Association of Nouthetic Counseling (NANC) has been the primary agency for equipping biblical counselors for several decades. The leader of that ministry for almost two decades has been Randy Patten. On October 1, his leadership will transition to Heath Lambert. Both men recently were interviewed about biblical counseling and the upcoming NANC National […]

Is Your Heart An Idol Factory?

From Mike Leake’s blog this morning: “From this we may gather that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols…Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives […]

Sunday Leftovers: Worldly desires

“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.” John (1 Jn. 2:15) could not be more clear. The things that are in the world, and all that the world produces from its ungodly system are deadly for the godly man when he lives for them and not for Christ. The believer should […]

Naaman’s dream

Have you ever had a dream? I have… When I was five, I dreamed of being a garbage man. When I was ten, I dreamed of being fifteen. When I was fifteen, I dreamed of being a baseball player. When I was twenty, I day-dreamed. When I was twenty-five, I dreamed of finishing school. When […]

What the flesh hates

Kris Lundgaard, in The Enemy Within: Which is easier: to sit with a bucket of butter-soaked popcorn and watch Tom Cruise on the big screen for two hours, or kneel and pray for five minutes? Tom Cruise wins hands down, because there is literally no competition. What the flesh hates is God, so it resists […]

Benefits of marital problems

Jay Adams, Solving Marriage Problems: The pressures of marriage…have a way of bringing out defects. You can’t place two sinners — even redeemed ones — under the same roof, at close range, day after day without such pressures. And they are often great enough to expose problems not previously apparent. Although a young couple may […]

Expunging the world from your heart

Thomas Chalmers, “The Explusive Power of a New Affection:” The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than itself? The heart cannot be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a […]

Sin became a trifle

Epitaphs take a life and synthesize it into a concise statement. Some are humorous. “I told you I was sick.” Or “She lived with her husband for fifty years and died in the confident hope of a better life.” Some suggest a wasted life. “She loved the phone.” Others are tragic. “One miserable soul; lived […]

Working with the Spirit of God

Jeremy Taylor: While the Spirit of God is doing this work [of regeneration] in man, man must also be ‘a fellowworker with God;’ he must entertain the Spirit, attend his inspirations, receive his whispers, obey all his motions, invite him farther, and truly renounce all confederacy with his enemy, sin; at no hand suffering any […]

Sunday Leftovers: Your strength

A number of years ago, Sports Illustrated profiled arm wrestler Dave Patton. At the time, he hadn’t lost an arm wrestling match in 12 years, even though he only weighed 160 pounds. His secret was his training. He would train up to four hours each day, including 756 bicep curls during each session. Though often […]

Something better than knowing God

J. I. Packer, in Knowing God: “What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it — that I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because […]

God, please don’t give me too much (repost)

This blog was originally posted on June 11, 2010. The “fish story” is the poster-child for exaggeration. The longer the fish is dead, the bigger it grows. But fishermen are not the only ones who are prone to stretching the boundaries of a story. A 25-pound weight loss creeps up to 30, then 35 or […]

Doubting your salvation? Here’s some help.

Assurance of salvation is a doubt that pursues every Christian believer at some point(s) in his life. In God’s grace, there are biblical answers for those questions, and Don Whitney has produced an excellent work on assurance of salvation — How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian? (which also is our book of the […]

Q&A with King Solomon

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon does a Q&A with himself on a variety of life topics. Listen in as Solomon conducts this “interview” with himself. Q: What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun? (1:3) A: All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is […]