Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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Boys thrive under the love and leadership of an attentive father. Boys need their dads to model godliness and masculinity, to display patterns of love and respect within marriage, to teach skills necessary to grow into mature manhood. Much has been written to encourage fathers to embrace these responsibilities, to be the example their sons need. Well and good. But with all the attention given to a father and his son, I fear that too little has been given to …
You may have heard the phrase before: Behind every great man there’s a great woman. Like most maxims, it is generally true, even if not universally true. But here’s the surprise: Sometimes that great woman is not behind the man, but before him. Sometimes that great woman is not his wife but his mother. In this new series, “Christian Men and Their Godly Moms,” we are looking at noteworthy Christian leaders whose most formative spiritual influence was a godly mother. …
For the past several months, I have been searching through the long and storied history of the church to find examples of Christian men who had godly moms. More specifically, I have been searching for notable Christian men whose most important spiritual influence was their mother. I have discovered many of them and have been deeply encouraged by their stories. In the first article, we examined the life of John Newton, whose mother proved that spiritual strength can exist even …
The great desire of Christian parents is that our children will grow into godliness. While they are under our care, we pray that they will come to confess Jesus as Lord, treasure his Word, and be ever-more conformed to the image of that great Savior. And as we pray, we work hard to train them in sound doctrine, to deepen their roots into Scripture, and to discipline them for their good. Yet every Christian parent also knows that there comes …
A single sentence can change a life. Angela Yuan learned this the hard way, her heart shattered when her cherished son spoke just three short words. The proud, atheist mother simply wasn’t ready to hear “I am gay.” She fumbled for a response, but the pain was too sharp, the shame too intense. Finally, she made up her mind. “You must choose. You must choose the family or choose homosexuality.” He made his decision. He packed his bags, he walked …
Every mother knows that at some point, in some way, she will have to surrender her children. While they are young, she is responsible for protecting and teaching and training them. But all the while, she will be preparing them for independence, preparing herself to release them to the world. Ultimately, she will be preparing herself to surrender them to the will of a sovereign God. In this entry in the series, “Christian Men and Their Godly Moms,” we encounter …
Tragic circumstances often bring out the best and worst of our character. They stretch our endurance, build our discipline, and strengthen our resolve. They expose the godliness we have cultivated in our hearts. But tragic circumstances can also expose the sin that remains within us. They bring us to situations beyond our strength and control, and at such times we may react by being callous or overbearing toward others. They magnify our weaknesses and leave us humbled with our insufficiency. …
As we look to the history of the church to observe “Christian Men and Their Godly Moms,” we encounter a number of mothers who were remarkably accomplished. Some have forceful personalities, some are skilled theologians, some are worthy of full-length biographies in their own right. Yet many more are perfectly ordinary, serving their families in quiet obscurity, wondering if they are making any significant impact in the world. In this entry in our series, we look to how God used …
His name was known around the world. Crowds flocked to his church to hear him preach, and everywhere else people devoured the printed editions of his sermons. When he died, 60,000 admirers filed past his casket and 100,000 lined his funeral route. Even today, people visit his grave to pay tribute. Even more read his books and are inspired by his sermons. Yet before Charles Spurgeon was The Prince of Preachers, he was a young boy in the arms of a …
In each generation, there are countless men who rise to fame because of their widespread impact. But there are only a select few who are remembered far beyond their day, who leave such a mark on the course of the world that their names are forever written in history. We know one such man as Saint Augustine of Hippo. Born Aurelius Augustinus, he was first a professor but, following a dramatic conversion, became a pastor and theologian. He is arguably …