Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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Nothing in this world is haphazard. There is nothing random or unplanned about the circumstances you are in right now, even if those circumstances seem very hard. Rather, God is leading you by the way he deems most appropriate, the way he has determined is most fitting for your spiritual growth. Just as one tree grows best in a sheltered valley and one by the edge of a gentle stream, another grows best on a bleak mountaintop where it is …
There are lots of odd beings in the Bible, aren’t there? There are the Nephilim of Genesis 6 who some believe were the offspring of fallen angels that bred with human women (though others believe they are nothing more than depraved human beings). There are angels and archangels, giants and demons, and even a talking donkey. But of all the mysterious creatures, none have more captured my imagination than the cherubim. The cherubim make their first appearance in the first …
Just a couple of blocks from my home is the concrete shell of an unfinished mosque. Several years ago they broke ground and quickly after poured the concrete for the foundation and the four great minarets. And then the project went dormant. For almost three years it has sat ugly and unfinished, a grey concrete husk on the edge of the city. A GoFundMe page shows they have completed phase one of the project, but have collected less than one …
As a Christian, how should you think well about sports and hobbies? Can Christians watch sports or enjoy hobbies? Should they? Those are the questions behind this brief Q&A. Transcript Do you have any hobbies or sports? I’m not into sports so much. I like watching sports occasionally, but not very often. Baseball’s my sport because I can have it running in the background and don’t really have to pay too much attention to it. Hobbies, a little bit. Not …
It has never been easy to be a Christian. It has never been easy to be a young Christian. How are young Christians to live differently in their speech and conduct? How can they strive to live godly lives? Here’s my attempt to answer those questions. Transcript The young adult years can be spent chasing after many different things, what does the Bible say to young people about this? Yes, you know the Bible doesn’t let you get away …
The Christian life is one of obedience. It is what one author has brilliantly described as “a long obedience in the same direction.” Those who have turned to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith prove the authenticity of their conversion by their obedience. No sooner have they made their profession than they begin to willingly and joyfully search out God’s will and to live in conformity to it. Like David, they learn to plead, “Lead me in the path of …
Growth in Christlikeness is a lifelong, active progression. We are holier on the day we die than we were on the day we came to Christ. We are holier on the day we die than we are on the day before we die. Yet this long progression is peppered with seasonal lulls, drudgery, and complacency. We know we are never as Christlike as we ought to be or even as we want to be. Yet while our lack of holiness …
We can never be ambivalent. We who are Christians have no right to allow any sin to persist. We must go hard after every sin and to pursue each one until it has been completely crushed, for even one sin left alone is enough to do terrible damage to our souls. A recent study of one of my favorite old authors showed me the damning devastation of a single coddled sin. Here are nine things to consider in times you …
One of the pleasures of diverse reading is finding unexpected connections between unrelated books. I found one of these recently as I was reading Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (a book about the founding and growth of Nike) and Devoted to God by Sinclair Ferguson (a book about the Christian’s growth in holiness)—two books I thoroughly enjoyed. The books and authors could hardly be more different, yet in this one way they agreed. While most of Shoe Dog is focused …
Christians are called to the most difficult of all tasks. Over the course of our lives we are to be sanctified, to grow in holiness, to begin to act like and look like Jesus. We are to stop being what we once were, to put aside old dreams, desires, and habits, and to start being something new, to put on new dreams, new desires, and new habits. This work begins the moment of conversion and ends only with death. Between …