I love to receive challenges and lessons from unexpected places. Lately God has been teaching me so much through the book of Jonah. Yes, Jonah. Jonah is a book that ends in an unorthodox way. Where most books end with a satisfying conclusion, this one ends with a question mark. Where most books end with…
Basic Christianity – This month’s free audiobook from ChristianAudio is a classic: Basic Christianity by John Stott. 3 Distinctive Aspects of Biblical Faith – I remember reading this in an R.C. Sproul book years ago and being helped by it. “I think the whole concept of faith is one of the most misunderstood ideas that…
I am convinced that some day we will all have a really good laugh at ourselves for ever using a form of communication as ridiculous as email. We will laugh that we ever tried to make it do the things we make it do. It is my hope that we will soon move to more…
Pray For Your Wife – Listen up, husbands! Mike Leake wants you to join his 31-day challenge of praying for your wife every day. Your wife will love you for it. The Pope, the Press, and the Predicament – Al Mohler looks at the breathless headlines about the Pope’s new position on homosexuality and declares…
I am in the unique and enjoyable position of receiving copies of most of the latest and greatest Christian books and I like to provide regular roundups of some of the best and brightest of the bunch. Of all the books I have received recently, here are the ones that appear most noteworthy. The King…
Yesterday I shared the first part of an interview with Paul Washer. I asked him about the people and the books that have most influenced him, about “The Shocking Youth Message,” about his experience as a missionary in Peru, about family worship and about humility. Today, I begin the final part of the interview by…
60 Seconds on the Internet – Here is just some of what happens on the Internet every 60 seconds. Motivations and Hindrances in Communion – Thabiti: “Of late I’ve not been maintaining a regular and fruitful communion with my Lord. I could use more socially acceptable terms like ‘struggling,’ but the truth is my lazy…
You probably know Paul Washer as the man who preached the infamous “Shocking Youth Message,” a sermon that has tallied over one million views on YouTube. But there is far more to the man than that one sermon. For ten years he was a missionary in Peru and in that time he founded the HeartCry…
Is Glory God’s Only Goal? – Here is something worth considering: “Has the glory of God become a cliche among the young, restless, Reformed crowd? The vocabulary of glory is on the rise, but certain misunderstandings and imbalances linger. Will ‘the glory of God’ become a cliche, much like ‘the love of God’ to the…
Today I continue this new Sunday series entitled “The Puritans.” I have a growing fascination with Puritan writing and decided it might be valuable to introduce you (and me!) to some of the most important Puritan writers. I will focus primarily on men whose works I have read in the past. Because I do not…
The Modern Surveillance State – This is a fascinating article in which the author says today’s surveillance state should not be compared to Orwell’s Big Brother but to Tolkien’s Eye of Sauron. He shows how Tolkien unwittingly captured some of the problems and paranoia of a government that tries to watch everyone and everything. Pastors…
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by CCEF. CCEF sees Scripture and faith to apply profoundly to the details of life. Their vision is to understand and teach how the riches of the gospel impact each of our lives and our efforts to help others. It also believes the body of Christ is God’s…
Why Are There Bibles In Hotel Rooms? – You’ve probably heard of the Gideons and you’ve definitely seen their Bibles here and there. This article tells how they came to be and how those Bibles end up in hotel rooms. Planning Your Preaching – H.B. Charles Jr. writes about an important part of planning your…
We Evangelicals are known for our obsession with virginity. Now don’t get me wrong–I affirm that it is good and God-honoring to remain sexually pure before marriage (and within marriage and after marriage). As a pastor I want to teach the people in my care the value of having their first sexual experiences with their…
I don’t have any Kindle deals to tell you about today, but I do have a couple of other book sales I’d like to mention. Westminster Books is offering a great deal on some book packages. Click the link to read about them. Also, Vyrso has a bundle of Cruciform Press books that has been…
A short time ago I wrote about how I had learned to embrace my dependence upon my wife and to celebrate my need of her. The Lord provided me with a helper for an obvious reason: I need help. There is still part of me that hates to admit this. I value independence and self-reliance…
Principles to Guide Your Giving – Jesse Johnson says that according to the Bible, “giving is a basic discipline of godliness and the New Testament teaches fundamental principles that should guide how we give.” In this article he lays out ten of those principles. A Family Culture – This looks like a promising series from…
It does us good to read missionary biographies. This is especially true when those missionaries served during the great age of missions in the 1700’s and 1800’s. This was a period when missionaries traveled overseas into uncharted and unfamiliar lands. As they left familiar shores they knew they might never return to their homelands, that…
Cigar Smoking and Grace – I really appreciate the big point of this article from Jared Wilson. “When we think of accountability relationships (or accountability “partners”), we often think of all the ways someone might keep a weaker brother responsible for his actions. We rarely talk about how the one being held accountable might live…
A good laugh is one of life’s good gifts. Happiness is an emotion we like to participate in as a group, and especially so when that happiness overflows into laughter. We will gladly pay good money to sit in a theatre and allow Jim Gaffigan or Brian Regan make us laugh for a couple hours.…