I ought to be continuing my series on bestselling Christian books this morning, but found myself taken with this prayer from John Stott. It was apparently a prayer he would use to begin his day, and it’s a sweet one. Good morning heavenly Father,good morning Lord Jesus,good morning Holy Spirit.Heavenly Father, I worship you as…
It was pretty ornery preaching,” Huckleberry Finn mused when he found himself in church one particular Sunday morning, “and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace of preforeordestination, and I don’t know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays…
Mack Stiles has a new book called simply Evangelism. I haven’t read it all yet, but I sure did enjoy this quote about the power of a church that evangelizes. Don’t you long for this kind of a church? I long for a church that understands that it—the local church—is the chosen and best method…
Praying, and especially praying in public, represents a challenge to most Christians. It represents a challenge to the one praying–a challenge to pray humbly and clearly before others. Too often it represents an even greater challenge to the ones who hear that prayer–a challenge to follow a too-long and too-rambling prayer interspersed with filler words…
Last week John Piper spoke at Westminster Seminary, and delivered the seventh annual Gaffin Lecture on “The New Calvinism and the New Community: The Doctrines of Grace and the Meaning of Race” (audio and video). That may not sound like the most exciting lecture you’ve ever listened to, but I found some time to listen…
Over the past few months I have enjoyed exploring some theological and historical themes and I have been posting the results here every Sunday morning. I hope to begin a new series next week called “The False Teachers.” The series will look at some of church history’s notorious false teachers, stretching from ancient times to…
The new year is fast approaching it. As 2013 wanes and prepares to draw to a close, I find myself pensive, reflecting on the year gone by and a new year ahead. As I’ve considered the year that is almost upon us, I have been helped by this prayer from John MacArthur’s At the Throne…
When I was in Scotland I spent one day on an impromptu and informal church history tour of the highlands. It was one of the best days I have ever had. We made many stops along the way and saw many relics of days gone by. At one point we parked beside an old graveyard…
One of Satan’s favorite devices in deceiving people and leading them astray is to camouflage sins as virtues and to convince us that our sins are actually very small. Thomas Brooks provides a powerful response in Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. Don’t tune it out just because it’s from a Puritan author. Read it and…
Some Christians see God as a kindly but passive observer of our choices. After all, God wouldn’t ever interfere with our free will, would He? Ask Jonah and a wry smile would come over his face.” This is how Colin Smith introduces a fictional anecdote from the life of the prophet Jonah: Would God ever…
Josh Harris slapped me across the face. He did it through his book Humble Orthodoxy and a little story that is adapted from the words of Jesus in Luke 18. He tells the story “to challenge those of us who trust in the rightness of our doctrine and look down on others.” In other words,…
My favorite book on the cross is Frederick Leahy’s The Cross He Bore, a series of powerful meditations on the death of Jesus Christ. Almost any section of the book would make for useful meditation on Good Friday, but this one stood out and merits being shared. Gethsemane means “the oil press.” David could say,…
Earlier this week I found myself reading parts of Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed. It is always interesting to go back through a book I’ve read before to see what I highlighted. As it happens, I highlighted a lot. I wanted to share one section that really stood out to me this week. Sibbes is…
This morning I reviewed Tim Keller’s new book Galatians For You. I also wanted to share this quote from the book–a very helpful way to understand the four different kinds of people in the world. Here is what Keller says: It is helpful to see that there are four kinds of people in the world:…
What should I do if I become convinced that I might have been born again after my baptism? That can be a tricky question (for baptists, at least). There are a lot of people who end up being baptized two, three or four times. The Gospel Coalition recently shared two answers to the question, one…
Some words are written down and are here for a day and then gone. Other words are so pointed, so perfect, that they stand for many years. J.C. Ryle is a man who wrote many books and pamphlets and sermons that are as powerful and relevant today as they were in the 19th century. His…
Al Mohler’s new book The Conviction to Lead is probably the best book on leadership I’ve ever read. (You may want to read my review) I recently went back through the book looking for the quotes that most stood out to me. Here is a small collection: Christians are rightly and necessarily concerned about leadership,…
Last month saw the release of Thabiti Anyabwile’s most recent book The Life of God in the Soul of the Church. I had the privilege of reading the book well before publication and for some time now have been wanting to draw your attention to the closing pages which offer an interesting little glimpse of…
This week I came across a sermon by Charles Spurgeon in which he preaches on the Holy Spirit as the Comforter or Helper. As he comes to his conclusion, he suddenly turns on those who approach him with a word from the Lord. I share this excerpt because it is amusingly stated and because I…
The American presidential election is almost upon us (even those of us who do not live in the United States) and one of the contentious issues in this election, as with most elections today, regards the distribution of wealth and the inequality of possessions. Is it right that the wealthy should have wealth taken from…