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 […]

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 […]