Those who preach or lead during corporate worship services will probably be familiar with the strange phenomenon of having multiple “tracks” playing in your mind at once. Even as you preach the sermon or lead the songs, your mind may be flitting about from the distraction of a crying baby to the fear that you…
I gently lift the baby from his cradle and hold him gingerly in my arms. He wiggles, he kicks, he grunts, and then, settling for just a moment, he seems to gaze at me inquisitively. I look at his little hands as they grasp my thumb and I wonder: What blessings will come to others…
I once read of a terrible tragedy at sea, a shipwreck in which many were swept into the ocean and lost. As the ship foundered and splintered, as first the lower decks and then the upper succumbed to the winds and the waves, most of the passengers sank into the depths. But still fighting for…
I was once told of a woman who lived in a cold-weather climate. She suffered from poor health and this in a part of the world where she could not easily get the nutrition she needed. Doctors suggested she travel to the tropics where the setting might be more conducive to a recovery. A few…
In former days Christians spoke often of duty. Though they most certainly delighted in God and were eager to foster and increase that delight, they tended to do so by way of duty. They examined their lives to determine what duties God was calling them to and audited their lives to determine if they were…
They are words that can be tremendously encouraging or tremendously discouraging. Said at the wrong time or in the wrong spirit they can compound hurt, but said at the right time and in the right spirit they can be a cool drink on a hot day, a soothing balm on a sore wound. They are…
Every one of us has become familiar with the pattern. Every one of us has seen church members becoming dissatisfied and then disgruntled, missing church occasionally and then consistently. Every one of us has seen the pattern and begun to dread the nearly-inevitable conclusion. This is especially discouraging when the reason for the departure is…
History has bequeathed to us some precious prayers. I’m grateful that many of them have been collected for our use and benefit. Robert Elmer’s Piercing Heaven is among my favorites, and in its pages I found this sweet one from the pen of Robert Hawker. Precious Jesus, you have been a strength to my poor…
A number of weeks ago I shared an article titled 40 Random Pieces of Advice for the Christian Life. This isn’t something I intend to do often but did want to follow up at least once with a sequel of sorts. I hope there is something here you find helpful. Be appropriately skeptical about new…
The man who lives in the Swiss Alps is probably not terribly impressed when he visits North America and strolls through the Adirondacks or the Smokies. The woman who has spent her life snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef is probably not too enthusiastic about snorkeling off the East Coast of Canada. The person who…
Good morning my friends. Grace and peace to you. Today’s Kindle deals include a selection from Crossway. (Yesterday on the blog: On Helping Your Wife Become Like Christ by Identifying Her Every Fault) Who Are the 144,000? Tom Schreiner provides his interpretation of the 144,000 of Revelation 7. When the Story Doesn’t Have a Happy…
May the Lord be with you and bless you today. Westminster Books is offering a deep discount on a book I reviewed last week. Today’s Kindle deals include two books that have been meaningful to me: The Call by Os Guinness and Out of a Far Country by Christopher & Angela Yuan. Queer Nation Is…
With due respect to my Reformed Presbyterian friends, I think it’s difficult to make the argument that singing in the local church must not be accompanied by instrumentation. But with due respect to everyone else, I think it’s equally difficult to make the argument that singing in the local church must be accompanied by instrumentation.…
There are times when it seems like God does not hear us. There are times when it seems like God has become deaf to our prayers and unresponsive to our cries. There are times when we seek but do not find, knock but do not find the door opened. Why is it that God sometimes…
One of the most helpful things I’ve done as a writer is import quotes I collect through my reading into Roam Research where I can then sort them by topic. I was recently going through quotes on marriage and thought I’d pull together a few that are meant to challenge husbands. First, De Witt Talmage…
Somewhere between my generation and the current one, dating became difficult—far more difficult than it had once been. I am sure the so-called “purity movement” bears at least some of the responsibility as does the modern-day hookup culture. So, too, do the ubiquity of pornography and the rise of social media and dating apps. What…
Bounded by a lake on its southern side, the city of Toronto and the suburbs that surround it are being steadily pushed to the east, west, and north. In these regions, developers are buying great stretches of farmland and converting them into dense neighborhoods. With hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Canada each year…
Every book contract—at least, every book contract I’ve ever seen—includes a word count. When the author finally submits a manuscript, it cannot be a discretionary number of words but must be within the range the publisher has set. This is good and helpful for an author because it makes it simple to set goals and…
Sometimes I find myself on a reading kick in which I follow a common theme through a number of books. Over the past few weeks I have been fascinated with businesses that have the appearance of being legitimate while they are actually over-hyped at best and fraudulent at worst. Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos claimed to have…
A technician for an airline neglected to check the logs from previous flights and therefore failed to take action on a control problem that had recurred multiple times over the past days. His carelessness was one of the factors that led to the plane crashing on a subsequent flight. An engineer failed to set the…