Praying for others

Have you ever been unsure about how to pray for others? Perhaps someone’s name comes to mind and you feel compelled to pray, but you are uncertain what to pray. Or maybe someone has asked you to pray and you know you should even pray at that moment, but no words come to mind. Your […]

The sufficiency of God

While working on Sunday’s sermon, I came across this statement by R. C. Sproul on the omnipotence of God, affirming also the sufficiency of God, who does all things His will desires without dependence on any other thing: Aristotle was perplexed by the mysteries of change and motion. As he observed changes taking place around […]

Help in the battle against worldliness

Recently I was asked for my favorite book titles on the topic of worldliness — how can we live in this world without being stained by the world and taking on the characteristics of the world? A few books came immediately to mind, and then I scanned my shelves and found some more helpful […]

The sinners in our lives

Jason Helopoulos writes about a common relational circumstance and then offers a hopeful encouragement: Many of us have friends, sons, daughters, wives, and husbands who we struggle to keep hope alive for. They are resistant to the Gospel. Their lives are not only filled with sin, but dominated and controlled by it. Some of the […]

God’s grace and the ER

When you go to bed at 11 p.m., you don’t expect to see three of your best friends five hours later. When you get up to go to the bathroom at 3:20 a.m., you don’t expect to be welcoming total strangers into your home ten minutes later. When you go to the bathroom in the […]

Doctrine Matters — free ebook by John Piper

From Desiring God: Doctrine Matters is the theological summary of one preacher’s lifetime of investment in a local church. Completing three decades of pastoral ministry at Bethlehem Baptist, John Piper gave a final sermon series on the doctrinal emphases from his years of preaching. These ten emphases, delivered as ten sermons in 2012 and now […]

Understanding Joshua

Yesterday we began reading the book of Joshua. Here is a chart I produced a few years ago that may help you understand the theme and flow of the book:

Greater things, lesser things, and our culture

C. S. Lewis makes some helpful observations about greater and lesser things in an essay in God in the Dock. The first few paragraphs I quote lead one to personal application — if I pursue anything more than I delight in and desire God, I am an idolator and will have neither the thing I […]

Because Hell exists, God’s love is more comprehensible

In a sermon titled “The Dark Garden,” Tim Keller explains how he came to understand that a god without wrath and Hell is not as loving as the God we find in the Bible. Because Hell exists, our comprehension of the magnitude of God’s love is expanded. Because [a cup of poison] was the method […]

A Trinitarian prayer to guide the day

Paul’s benediction in Ephesians 3 has been on my mind much this week. It is an expression of Paul’s overflowing gratitude for and dependence on the Triune God who is producing salvation in Paul. It is an exalted view of what the Father, Son, and Spirit are presently at work doing in the believer and […]

Why baseball is best

Sunday evening was the opening of the 2013 Major League Baseball season. I guess my passion for baseball has been passed on — my 17-year-old daughter has been reminding me daily for several weeks that baseball season is coming. No way she was missing that game! This morning I read an excellent piece by Kevin […]

That’s My King

He is the risen Savior! And He is the ascended King! He’s my King! HT: The Cripplegate.

John Piper’s final weekend as pastor

From David Mathis at Desiring God: This Easter marks the end of an era at Bethlehem Baptist. John Piper served as the church’s primary preacher from July 13, 1980, until December 31, 2012. Since January 1 this year, he has been associate pastor, and his final task on staff is preaching this weekend’s Easter message […]

Christ’s death and God’s will

George Smeaton, The Apostles Doctrine of the Atonement: Peter intimates that God subjected Him to death, and that He was not properly overcome by His enemies, — that it was the will of God, His determinate counsel or plan, that Messiah should be delivered as a malefactor into the hands of men, and be put […]

Who killed Jesus?

The cross of Christ is repugnant to many. Polly Toynbee, one of the most well-known opinion columnists in Great Britain and leader of the British Humanist Association, reviewed the 2005 movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In an article subtly entitled, “Narnia Represents Everything That Is Most Hateful about […]