Because of all I’ve written about pornography over the past few years, I was interested to see a recent prayer that Scotty Smith posted at his blog. He titled it “A Prayer for Friends Struggling with Pornography.” Here it is: Jesus, my heart goes out today for friends and their spouses whose lives are being…
This poems comes from John Bunyan’s “A Book for Boys and Girls: or, Temporal Things Spiritualized.” Children become, while little, our delights!When they grow bigger, they begin to fright’s.Their sinful nature prompts them to rebel,And to delight in paths that lead to hell.Their parents’ love and care they overlook,As if relation had them quite forsook.They…
Do you ever find that you just don’t know how to pray? You know that you need to pray for someone, but you don’t know how? That is a great time to turn to the Bible and to pray to God the words of God. Mary Kassian once wrote a brief overview of praying Scripture…
Here’s another good prayer from Scotty Smith. This is one for a day we’ve all experienced; it’s a prayer for days when you don’t feel like praying. Scotty and I aren’t the only one who have these days, are we?–those days when you’re just so glad that God’s delight in you isn’t contingent on your…
Here is a great little quote from James Spiegel and his book Gum, Geckos and God. In this part of the book he is discussing the correlation between knowledge and trust–we trust those who have knowledge. Read what he says about this… The other day I was sitting in a faculty meeting, trying not to…
Happy new year! Here is a prayer I found in Heart Cries to Heaven by David Campbell. It seemed very appropriate for the start of a new year. Our great and Gracious God, As we come to the close of another year, we would indeed make it the prayer of our hearts that you would…
You know that I like to go looking for prayers to post on Sunday (or even better, to pray on my own on Sundays). Here is one I came across a few days ago, one that shares the grief and bewilderment of a father’s heart as he ponders the imminent death of his son. It…
This is an interesting prayer I came across this week–a prayer obviously timed for the Christmas season. It was prayed in a service at All Souls Church, Langham Place (which is in London, England). We come together humbly to the Lord of Glory and the Prince of Peace.Lord Jesus Christ, Creator, Author, and Redeemer, we…
A few days ago I received an email from a reader of this site, a woman who was responding to some of the articles I’ve written on the subject of pornography. She shared a poem, a bit of free verse she had written in the midst of her husband’s addiction. I wish I could say…
Once again I am going to post a prayer today and once more it is drawn from Scotty Smith’s blog. But this prayer was just what I needed to pray today. “It’s always been easier for me to do ‘productive’ things for you, rather than spend undistracted, unrushed time with you. I confess this as…
With a friend I’ve been reading through R. Kent Hughes’ book Disciplines of a Godly Man. This week we read the section titled “Relationships.” This section is comprised of 4 chapters and offered all kinds of good food for thought. I wanted to point out just one brief excerpt that kicked me in the gut.…
One of the joys of my work with Ligonier Ministries has been in reading through most of R.C. Sproul’s books, trying to get a sense of what he has written about over the years. Along the way I’ve found that Dr. Sproul is quite a storyteller. There are several times in his books that he…
Yesterday a friend sent me this prayer from The Valley of Vision, one called “Peril.” I’m grateful that he did not send it to me because I am going through such great distress at the moment. But what a great prayer it is when harassed by doubts, fears, unbelief and darkness, when the heart is…
Today the majority of those who read this site will be heading to church to hear a pastor preach the Word of God. A while back I jotted down several quotes about the Bible and thought I’d share them today. Hopefully many of you can read them before hearing the Word preached today. Each of…
Here’s another of Scotty Smith’s prayers that I particularly enjoyed. As I’ve said before, what I like about these prayers is how real they are; they’re not full of fancy words and Christianese. They’re not too polished or perfect–they’re just heartfelt prayers. If you didn’t read it a couple of days ago, be sure to…
As you know, I often post a prayer on Sunday morning–a prayer drawn from any number of sources. This week I’m turning again to Scotty Smith, pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN. This week he wrote one and posted it to his blog. He titled it “A Prayer About God’s Delight and Our…
A few days ago Randy Alcorn posted a quote from a book I’ve often recommended–William Farley’s Gospel-Powered Parenting. In this brief excerpt Farley says that your marriage preaches, that it exists to declare something. And here is what he says: “This mystery [marriage] is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and…
I very much appreciated this prayer written by Pastor Scotty Smith. It’s a prayer that teaches theology in an area where there is great confusion–the will of God. I won’t introduce it any further than that. In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9 Sovereign Father, this…
Rummaging through old files this week I came across a strange one. Back in April of 2007 I submitted the final manuscript for The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment and my friend/pastor Paul Martin decided to commemorate the occasion with a song (which he came to my home to perform). And quite a ridiculous song at…
I recently happened across an interesting quote from John MacArthur’s book Hard to Believe. The premise of the book, which flies in the face of the church growth movement, is that it is not at all easy to be saved–it is actually very difficult. A few weeks ago I mentioned how important Ashamed of the…