Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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The cross of Christ and what happened upon it stands at the very center of the Christian faith. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). This is the great doctrine of the atonement. Charles Spurgeon says, “To deny the great doctrine of atonement by the blood of Jesus Christ is to hamstring the gospel, and to cut …
The digital age has brought with it a proliferation, a full-out explosion, of communication tools. In fact, it’s not difficult to argue that the digital revolution has primarily been a communications revolution. Just consider how many of today’s innovations in both hardware and software are designed to help us communicate better and faster, to take our words or images and broadcast them to others. This is why we carry iPhones and tablets, laptops and smart watches; it is why we …
I mentioned recently that part of the joy of being Reformed is entering into an existing, defined stream of theology. (See Use Your Catechism, Silly.) As Reformed believers, we have a well-defined reference library of creeds, confessions, and catechisms, and it is wise to ground ourselves in this established body of truth. To that end, here are a few resources that may prove helpful as you explore them for your own purposes or teach them to your children. Training Hearts, …
At the heart of the Christian faith is this statement: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christians are those who have been saved. How well do you know know the doctrine of salvation? This quiz is designed to help you find out. If you would like to take this quiz in a paper format or to share it with a group, I have made it and the other …
Much of life is an attempt to bring order from chaos. The pastor who sets out to prepare a sermon fills his mind with information and then needs to arrange it according to a unified theme. The author who sets out to write a book collects information from a hundred sources and then needs to lay it out in a logical manner. Ministries, marketing campaigns, fundraising drives, and even family vacations begin as chaos and eventually come to a state …
As Christians, we are blessed with a long legacy of great hymns. As contemporary Christians, we are blessed with many modern-day hymn writers who are carrying on the art. So how well do you know your hymns and their authors? This little quiz is designed to find out!
Many years ago, old Paul wrote to young Timothy to lay out a difficult, counter-cultural challenge: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Despite his youth, Timothy had a responsibility to set an example to those who were older, to live before them as a model of godly character and behavior. I recently wrote a whole series of articles on this …
It’s the time of year for blogs and other sites to provide their annual round-up of the year’s most popular articles. I don’t know why we do this, but it seems to be a tradition. On that basis, let me tell you who visited and what they read in 2016. The site served up well over 15,000,000 pageviews this year from somewhere around 6,000,000 people. These people visited from 237 different countries with 74% of them representing the United States. The top …
Over the years I’ve found that one of the trickier parts of blogging, or any regular writing for that matter, is maintaining an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a means of organizing current and future writing projects to take them from conception to publication. It organizes the process of progressing from vague ideas to completed, edited, final products. After spinning my wheels for years, I eventually found an excellent solution in a software package called Trello. In what follows …
With a new year approaching, many of us are considering how we can make the most of the opportunities it will bring. Many of us are considering how we can actually generate opportunities that will help us make the most of 2017. I have invested a lot of effort into defining and pursuing productivity through a Christian lens and want to offer a couple of options that may help you. I believe you will find them helpful whether you are …