Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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I have a love-hate relationship with money. I love the good things money can accomplish. I love how it can be used to provide for my needs and the needs of my wife and children. I love how it can be used to support God’s work in the world. I love being the contributor and the recipient of financial generosity—there is much joy in cheerful giving and grateful receiving. Yet I hate the way money can hold me captive, the …
As a young man, I often heard older people talking about their declining bodies and failing health. I grew weary of hearing them tell how their strength had diminished and how their aches and pains had increased. They insisted that they used to be able to eat anything they wanted without ill effect, but now practically every food gave them indigestion. Whereas they once had the ability to sleep soundly under any conditions, now any unusual circumstance would keep them …
This whole series titled “Run to Win“ had its genesis in a number of real-world conversations. In one, a woman told of her struggles with her husband. She considered herself a caring and attentive wife who over many years had done her best to respond to her husband’s frequent requests for sex. Yet even when she responded positively, she found his desire was rarely quenched, and within hours he would be after her again, grumbling and dissatisfied if she declined. …
There is something almost absurd about inheritances in a world of financial abundance and increased lifespans. The Baby Boomer generation has worked hard and saved diligently, stuffing away untold billions in savings and retirement accounts, with the hope of leaving their children in a comfortable financial position. Meanwhile, in the West, lifespans are increasing, and many of those Boomers will live long into their 80s and 90s. By the time they die, their children will be grown and well-established in …
Charles Spurgeon said that the voices of childhood echo through life in such a way that the “first learned is generally the last forgotten.” The lessons we learn in our earliest years tend to remain fixed to the end. This is tremendously beneficial when the lessons have been sound, but terribly detrimental when they have not. One harmful lesson men often learn early in life is that they should be suspicious of relationships with other men. From our youngest days we …
Some facets of life in our modern world are made more difficult than they really need to be. They have been debated and written about to such a degree that they’ve become almost impossibly complicated. I’m convinced that one such area is leadership, and especially leadership in the home and family. What should be clear has become woefully muddied. Meanwhile, our world is crying out for leadership—good leadership, confident leadership, humble leadership, the kind of leadership that uses authority to …
I won’t ever forget the day I married Aileen. I won’t ever forget the moment she appeared at the end of the aisle and began her slow walk toward me. Our eyes met, and in an instant I was overwhelmed with awe, overcome with the joy of being joined together for life. It was a holy, intense, unforgettable moment. My love was fierce and strong, and I was convinced there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her, no trial I …
There are few roles in which we feel deeper inadequacy than our role as fathers. What suits us to the task of raising little people? What assurance can we have that we are doing it well? What will our children someday say of us? These are big and perplexing questions, so it is little wonder that church bulletin boards are covered with posters for parenting seminars and library shelves are groaning under the weight of parenting books. One study found …
I always read the biblical books of Kings and Chronicles with a sense of trepidation. I know these historical books fairly well, but every time I read of a new king taking the throne, I dread the inevitable assessment of his reign: Was he faithful or disobedient? Did he follow God or turn aside to false gods? Asa was one of the good kings. He ruled Judah for 41 years and “did what was right in the eyes of the …