Speedos or Shorts? Bikinis or Bathing Suits? I appreciate the big point in Carl Trueman’s article, but it’s equally worth reading for the one-liners like this: “quackery has never been a bar to influence.” (And he’s not even writing about the presidential primaries.) You Won’t Be So Passionate When You’re 40 Erik Raymond describes an…
The best things in life are rarely the easy things, are they? The best things in life tend to require the most commitment, the most effort, and the most sacrifice. By that measure, marriage is one of the best things we can experience. Marriage brings such joy, but the joy comes only through the dedication…
Please Keep This Between Us “Please don’t tell anyone else this, but I wanted to process something with you. If you could just keep it between you and me? I assume you know I wouldn’t want it to get around, I want to make sure people really understand my side of things and that can…
This sponsored post was prepared by David Apple on behalf of CLC Publications. Relationships are the basis of merciful conversations In 1968, The Kerner Commission published a report on racial conditions in this country. One of its conclusions was that there were two unequal Americas: one white, one black. Most people who grew up in…
It can be a dangerous thing to walk into a Christian bookstore. It can be a dangerous thing to listen to Christian radio or watch Christian television or attend that big conference. It can be dangerous because the Christian world is polluted by so much bad teaching. There are so many leaders who claim to…
Four Things to Help Overcome Gridlock in Your Marriage “Have you ever found yourself in a place in your marriage where you and your spouse disagree and it seems like there is no way forward?” We have all been there at one time or another, haven’t we? We Will Never Let Our Daughters Die for…
Why did God keep back just one thing from the people he made? Why would he make people in his image, then give them one prohibition? What was the purpose in that tricky Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Sinclair Ferguson addresses this in The Whole Christ. I am giving you everything in…
This has been a bit of a slow week for Kindle deals. That is, in part, because so many of the deals cycle on a regular basis and I try not to link to them if they’ve come up recently. There should be some new ones on Monday. Until then, here’s some reading for you:…
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Zondervan Academic Online Courses, who was also the blog’s sponsor for the week. They have just one prize to offer this year, but it’s a really good one. In the past, going to school usually required a major life change—quitting your job, moving across the country, uprooting…
There have been times in the life of Grace Fellowship Church when we have endured some bad sermons. You could even say that in these seasons we purposely endured bad sermons. We heard men preach texts that were clearly beyond their ability to understand and explain. We heard men preach with all the fire of…
From Slum to Shining Sea “Growing up in a solid, Christian, God-fearing home, at some indefinable point between child-like faith and adolescent angst, my two-dimensional version of God had become synonymous with rules, broken rules, and never-ending failure. So I left.” Calvin’s 4 Rules of Prayer Joel Beeke explains what Calvin believed about prayer. (Also,…
Today we continue our series on the character of the Christian. We are exploring how the various character qualifications of elders are actually God’s calling on all Christians. While elders are meant to exemplify these traits, all Christians are to exhibit them. I want us to consider whether we are displaying these traits and to…
True Reformation You’ll enjoy Burk Parson’s short but powerful meditation on true reformation. Counseling Wives of Addicts The most recent episode of Mortification of Spin begins with a discussion of counseling women whose husbands are addicted to pornography, then goes on to discuss a host of other important areas. This is a very helpful discussion.…
Thinking back, I wonder if people thought I was a bit of a mama’s boy. I grew up in a stable home and loved and respected both of my parents. I regularly spent time with each of them. But I was always closer to my mother. If this was true when I was young, it…
Your 7 Job Responsibilities as a Church Member Just imagine what a church can be when all the members are functioning like this. 5 Reasons You Should (Probably) Leave Your Attractional Church Jared Wilson is a big believer in the local church, so he isn’t being flippant when he tells you to consider leaving your…
If you keep up with Christian publishing for any length of time, you will eventually spot a curious phenomenon. Every now and again a scholarly book will show up and a lot of people will get really excited about it. It will be a book that, under normal circumstances, would be known among only the…
The 2016 Reading Challenge is well underway and it has been fun to see people doing their own roundups. Here are a few: Nate Claiborne, Eric Dodson, Julie Thompson. There are way more at Goodreads. Facing a Task Unfinished This is a great idea: “Getty Music is inviting thousands of churches around the globe to…
This sponsored post was prepared by Professors J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays on behalf of Zondervan Academic Online Courses. It’s common for Christians to say they’ve read the Bible their whole lives. But many don’t completely understand what large portions of the Scriptures mean. 3 Bible reading mistakes Without help, it can be…
Maybe you’ve seen that hilarious news footage of a man unexpectedly coming face to face with a bear. He is on his own property, distracted by his phone, when he looks up right into the face of a marauding bear. The man’s reaction is exactly what we would expect—he turns tail and runs away as…
Patient Parenting Sometimes parenting is really, really hard. We’ve been experiencing some of those times lately, so this article was a joy to read. You Can Trust God with Your Kids Speaking of parenting, here is encouragement that you can trust God with your kids. Ten Biblical Truths on the Obedience of Children Sticking with…