Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Christian Focus Publications and they are offering an excellent prize package. There will be five winners and each will win a stack of books. Those books fall into three categories: Discipline in the Church First up we have a book that has created a bit of stir, God Redeeming His Bride: A Handbook of Church Discipline by Robert Cheong. Many of us find church discipline very difficult, our culture detests it, but our …
Your Church and Life Planning – Jonathan Leeman has an interesting and important article on how your church fits into your life. “If you are a Christian, it’s worth asking whether you include your church in your life planning. I mean ‘include the church’ in two ways: do you consider it as a factor in your thinking, and do you actually involve the people in your decision making?” It Is Finished – Matt Papa is giving away a song from …
Here is a great, challenging quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It is drawn from his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount and it does away with that false notion that the heights of Christian experience are reserved for the few and exceptional Christians who take on Christian work as their vocation. Read the Beatitudes, and there you have a description of what every Christian is meant to be. It is not merely the description of some exceptional Christians. I pause with …
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by The Good Book Company they have another great offer for you. The brand new edition of Christianity Explored has been described by Michael Horton as “the best resource for group and personal evangelism available”, and today we are offering 5 free starter packs sets, each worth $99. Each set includes all you need to start a Christianity Explored course at your church, in your neighborhood or home: 1 DVD, 3 Leaders’ Guides, 9 …
I have always enjoyed studying history and, over the years, have read several church history texts. One thing I’ve noticed just about every time is that many of these church histories fail to make real distinctions between true gospel-centered Christianity and a kind of inculturated or tradition-based Christianity. That has always been disappointing to me. I suppose I am looking for a history of the true church, of true Christianity, not just a history of what calls itself the church …
The Ligonier Ministries 2008 National Conference kicks off later today and I’m on my way to Orlando to take it all in. Unfortunately I waited a little too late to book my flight, so I would up with a flight that necessitates leaving my home at 3:15 AM (just imagine when that means I need to wake up!). That has to be a new record for me. But, Lord willing, I should be in Florida for a lunch in the …
I grew up in a Christian culture in which very little evangelism took place. How little? Well, the first adult I ever witnessed getting baptized was my wife (she was my girlfriend at the time) and that was when we were eighteen or nineteen. It was the first time our church had ever baptized an adult. And what’s more, it was the first time most of the people who attended that church had ever seen an adult get baptized. While …
Stephen Nichols is quite the prolific author. A professor at Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School and a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary, Nichols has written several notable books in the past few years and it seems that he always has at least one title on the “Coming Soon” lists at Crossway or P&R Publishing. Nichols has a gift for presenting church history in a way that is interesting and in a way that appeals to those who may not …
My friend Matthew sent me an interesting article today. It is the story of a Christian athiest. Yes, you read that correct: a Christian atheist. Isn’t postmodernism wonderful? The article begins like this: I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe Jesus Christ was the son of a God that I don’t believe in, nor do I believe Jesus rose from the dead to ascend to a heaven that I don’t believe exists. Given these positions, this year I did …
In the past several days I have found myself turning time and again to a particular song, a song that has been in my collection for many years and which I have always enjoyed. Sung by a short-lived band named “Doulos,” the title of the song is simply, “Again.” The song seems to capture something that has been precious to me recently. my mouth is empty shame surrounds me I feel what I say can’t be heard or shouldn’t be …