Jeremiah Burrough’s The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is one of the most important and personally-impactful Puritan works I’ve ever read. Let me give you just a taste of what Burroughs has to say about contentment. Here he shares eight things that will be opposed by a true, biblical contentment. Now Christian quietness is opposed…
Discrimination Against Women – Mary Kassian provides an interesting perspective on the he-turned-she beauty pageant contestant who recently competed to be Miss Canada. If you expand the logic, it means that men turned women should also be able to compete against women in athletics. Evangelize, Not Indoctrinate – “We get this idea we have authority…
A few days ago I shared John Bunyan’s wisdom on why some who profess faith in Christ eventually backslide. Today I want to follow him a little bit farther. Having covered the why, I’ve now drawn from Pilgrim’s Progress instruction on the how. In each case I’ve given my short summary followed by Bunyan’s own…
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Peacemaker Ministries. They will be giving away five sets of the following five books from the “peacemaking line” at Baker Books: The last book on the list—Redeeming Church Conflicts—has just been released and is a great new resource for both church leaders and church members. Some books…
5 Ways to Improve Your Preaching – Here are five ways to immediately improve your preaching. Best Books on Reading and Writing – Someone recently sent me this, a list of nine recommended books on reading and writing. The writer says it is “a collection of timeless texts bound to radically improve your relationship with…
This is the fourth installment in a series on theological terms. You can see the previous posts on the terms theology, Trinity, and creation. Today the series moves to man. Surprisingly, attempting to define man in simple terms is not an easy task. There are many things that could be included in the definition and…
John Piper once said, “God brings books at their appointed times. The Hidden Life of Prayer arrived late but well-timed. This little jewel-strewn tapestry has done for me at 64 what Bounds’ Power Through Prayer did at 34. I could be ashamed that I need inspiration for the highest privilege. But I choose to be…
Satan’s Desire for Mothers – I think Julian draws out some important points in this article, and especially so under his second heading, “Satan says mothering is too good for you. Gone are the days (seemingly) when mothering is bad and career is good. Now we have entered the days of ‘Super-Moms’, where mothering is…
It was exactly two years ago that I was ordained to the ministry. Yesterday I went back and looked at the ordination vow I made. Even better, I went back and looked at the notes my son jotted down during the sermon that day. The text was Titus 2:15: “Declare these things; exhort and rebuke…
In wisdom and love God does not leave his people to live this life alone, but rather calls us into community. One of the sad inevitabilities of living in community is that we will sin against one another. The invitation to Christian community is an invitation to be tested by other people’s sin and weakness.…
Google in Africa – One of Google’s growing successes is bringing Africa online. “This burgeoning connectivity is making Africa faster, cleverer and more transparent in almost everything that it does.” The implications of this are almost difficult to overstate. Share the Gospel with Muslims – This article outlines some ways you can share the gospel…
One of the more interesting sections of dialog in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress has Christian and Hopeful discussing the danger of backsliding, of falling away from what had the appearance of spiritual life and growth. That dialog, drawn from the tenth stage of Christian’s journey, is important and instructive. Bunyan presupposes that such people…
Some of the best writing, the writing that is most heartfelt and true, finds it source in life’s deepest valleys. This is exactly the case with Michael Kelley’s Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal. Wednesdays were normal days for the Kelley family until they received the shocking news that their son Joshua, just two years old, had…
Are You For Your Husband? – Rick Thomas lets women into a secret: “Men are needy. Your husband is not as independent and self-reliant as he may want you or others to think. If he can get over himself and this macho image thing he is wrapped up in, he will tell you how much…
I love writing book reviews and I love reading them. Since I cannot possibly read and review all of the interesting books out there, I publish occasional round-ups of reviews written by other writers. Here are a few notable links I’ve collected over the past few weeks. (Note: I’ve formerly titled this feature “Reviews I…
Many a father has held an infant son in his arms, looked at that child and declared his delight. Yet, sadly, many years later the delight has turned to disgust, the joy to mourning. The son has done something, he has become something, that has driven away his father’s delight. I thought of my own…
Pray With, Pray For – Why should a mother pray for her children with her children? Brian Croft gives an answer. How Much Water? – How much water is there is, on and above the earth? Here’s an interesting and surprising visualization. The German Sniper – Here’s a short video that details just a short…
We are not God. That seems obvious when we consider it and yet so often we act as if we actually are God, or gods, at least. John Piper talks about this and many of its implications in one of his meditations from Pierced by the Word. Here is what he says: We are not…
The Hunger Games – Mark Meynell introduces an interesting two-part review of The Hunger Games. “What got me really fired up about the books was the surprise of how political they are. There are cultural and mythological references aplenty, and Suzanne Collins clearly draws on a wealth of dystopia writing. But it was thinking about…
The Apostle Paul had a lot to say about preaching, but I think the majority of it can be grouped under six main headings or ideas. You could, of course, extract specific teaching points from each one, but I think there’s value in looking at them in a broad sense. Here is what Paul says…