Lessons from Tiger Woods

C.J. Mahaney has some thoughts about what we can all learn from Tiger Woods and his troubles this last week.  Excellent stuff. Go read it all. Hunted by Sin But Tiger is being hunted by something more menacing than journalists. Tiger’s real enemy is his sin, and that’s an enemy much more difficult to discern [...]

Grace

Austin Christian Fellowship is having a series on the Most Beautiful Word. If you want to hear a demonstration of what Grace is and why it is indeed the most beautiful word, then listen to the interview with Bob and Audrey Meisner. Wow! wow.

II Timothy 3:12

II Timothy 3:12 says “12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”. Do you believe that? Do you believe that all means all and that persecution really means persecution? Really? here is a John Piper quote from Vitamin Z: “Obedience in missions and social justice has always [...]

God Provides

Continuing with Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we get to this on page 72: God must feed us. We cannot and dare not demand this food as our right, for we, poor sinners, have not merited it. Thus the sustenance that God provides becomes a consolation of the afflicted; for it is the token of [...]

reality of marriage

Challies put up an article on Monday just after his eleventh wedding anniversary that was a very real look at marriage through the device of wanting to give his younger newly married self some counseling. the whole thing is good, but I thought this part was especially helpful because so many people have unrealistic ideas [...]

learning vicarious suffering

courtesy of vitamin z, I saw this quote from Tim Keller: “You need to get used to this reality. Once you become a parent, for the rest of your life, you’ll never be happier than your unhappiest child, because your heart is tied to your kids. That is a way of learning the gospel because [...]

truth in love

Paul reminded the Ephesian church that only with truth would there be mature Christian unity and only if truth was spoken in love. Truth cannot be ducked or minimized in any way, but it must be softened with compassion. It is not compassionate to downplay or minimize or disregard truth. Dr. Mohler wrote about this [...]

the object of the Christian life

Todd Burus has had a couple of interesting posts on depression and biblical counseling this week. The book he is reading is Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book Spiritual Depression: It’s Causes and Cure. Yesterday, Todd talked about the spirit of bondage and had some extended quotes from Lloyd-Jones that were quite good. one little piece of the [...]

John 10

I have been spending some time in the Gospel of John lately. It is amazing how reading familiar words can have a new impact on you when you are reading them again. Just look for a minute at some phrases from John 10. here are verses 3-5: 3. To him [the shepherd] the gatekeeper opens. [...]

friends ride in

Timmy Brister has posted a round up of reactions to the Baptist Press article on Mark Driscoll. I found three of them to be particularly interesting. First, Ed Stetzer writes that Friday is for Friends and he says, in part: So, some don’t like Mark, and they point to his past as justification. But we [...]

God saves bad people (hallelujah!)

here is a word from Dr. Art Azurdia III courtesy of the Ramblin’ Pastor Man. Romans 5:1-11: 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we [...]

Santa Claus v. Grace

the best Christmas news you could ever receive. hat tip to Vitamin Z

Godly living

this quote from Joel Beeke on ligonier’s blog is a great way to explain the christian walk: The way to godly living is surprisingly simple: we are to walk with God in His appointed way (Micah 6:8), diligently using the means of grace and the spiritual disciplines, and waiting upon the Holy Spirit for blessing. [...]

Tim Keller

Tim Keller has a new book out called The Prodigal God. he explains what it is and why he wrote it here. a sample: What’s the book about? It’s about being ‘prodigal.’ The word ‘prodigal’ is an English word that means recklessly extravagant, spending to the point of poverty. The dictionaries tell us that the [...]

speaking of worldview

here is a clip of a talk by a young lady who survived an attempt on her life and lived to tell the tale (albeit with scars). Makes for an interesting point of view on life. she gets the God centered view better than most of us. hat tip to Adrian Warnock.

persuasion

Paul said that since we know what it means to fear God, we seek to persuade men. Then he said, “we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” In his earlier letter to the same group he said that he was willing to become whatever he needed to become so that by [...]

discipline and bitterness

Here are some thoughts about dealing with hard discipline and avoiding bitterness. It is wise counsel for all of us. You must approach tough experiences with maturity and demonstrate a humble and teachable attitude. The season of suffering is meant to produce fruit. It will do that only for those ‘who have been trained by [...]

Jon Bloom on Hebrews 12

Is God punishing me? that is the question we sometimes ask when things aren’t going well. Jon Bloom takes a look at Hebrews 12 and concludes: These saints were not to interpret their painful experiences as God’s angry punishment for their sins. That angry punishment was completely spent on Jesus—once for all—on the cross. Rather, [...]

acceptable words

I have long tried to use Ephesians 4:29 to guide my speech, written and verbal. Sometimes with more success than others. I have tried to explain to my kids why we use certain words and not others in our communication based on this verse. So I can identify with the family discussion described by Paul [...]