Sleep Beneath His Promises: Learning Rest from the Psalms

Sleep Beneath His Promises: Learning Rest from the Psalms – “If the Lord really is our shepherd, then our wants do not require a worried and wakeful heart. He can do far more in our sleeping than we can do in our waking. And whatever needs tomorrow holds, his provision will prove equal to the task.”

Strengthen Your Marriage by Rehearsing the Covenant

Strengthen Your Marriage by Rehearsing the Covenant – “No matter how good you think your marriage is, you and your spouse are still sinners. You need the words of law and gospel inherent in the covenant commitment you made.”

The Light and You

The Light and You – “Will you let the light of Jesus expose every dark corner of your heart? Will you let the light of Jesus shine through you? You are his light! Shine!”

What Does ‘Salvation” Mean?

What Does ‘Salvation” Mean? – “Almost no word so well captures the heart of the message of Scripture as does the word salvation. It appears more than 170 times in our English translations of the Old and New Testament. But what is salvation? What does it mean for someone to be saved?”

Will My Marriage Ever Be More? Counsel for Disappointed Wives

Will My Marriage Ever Be More? Counsel for Disappointed Wives – “You might feel as though you have tried everything and nothing helps. Yet this remains true: one person can make a difference in a relationship.”

Thankful God Is Not a Stranger

Thankful God Is Not a Stranger – “‘I was so thankful, when this happened, that God was not a stranger to me.’ I don’t remember when or where or from whom I heard this. I don’t recall the context or what the ‘this’ was that happened. But this statement has stayed with me for decades.”

What Comes to Mind When You Think of Heaven?

What Comes to Mind When You Think of Heaven? –“ “How can we remind ourselves that eternal life is real, and we are heading for it? How do we increase our desires to be in the new creation? Here are four ways to help ourselves and others along the journey home.”

Learning From Those Who Pray All Night

Learning From Those Who Pray All Night – “To be a Christian in Tanzania is to attend all-night prayer vigils. Some churches hold them every weekend. For others, it’s once a quarter. It’s such a part of church culture that the church leaders at our Bible school expressed shock when they heard that American evangelical churches generally don’t practice this.”

What Is Gluttony?

What Is Gluttony? – “Gluttony, biblically speaking, can be summed up as laboring ‘for the food that perishes’ (John 6:27). It is not only found in over-consumption, but an idolatrous expectation that looks to eating and drinking to provide sating and fullness for the soul (the inner person).”

Valiant Faith Conquers Fear: The Courage of Moses’s Mother

Valiant Faith Conquers Fear: The Courage of Moses’s Mother – “What does the Bible teach us about courage in this portrait of valiant faith?”

Four Common (and Unhelpful) Responses to the Exclusivity of Christ

Four Common (and Unhelpful) Responses to the Exclusivity of Christ – “The most offensive part of the gospel, and the most common objection to Christianity proper, is the idea that there is only one way to God: Jesus. It’s offensive because it seems arrogant, bigoted, and narrow-minded. The claim is often met with one of four common and unhelpful responses.”

Why Did Jesus Use Spit and Mud to Heal?

Why Did Jesus Use Spit and Mud to Heal? – “Jesus could have healed the man born blind with a simple command; instead, he used spit and mud. Why?”

Why God Made You for Membership

Why God Made You for Membership – “In an age that suspects and even despises authority, church membership is a loud, arresting statement of our devotion to Christ.”

3 Words That Can Change Your Life

3 Words That Can Change Your Life – “Just take a bite. Just savor it. Come and see.”

Hell Is Our Default Destination

Hell Is Our Default Destination – “God created us for heaven, but the rebellion of the human race, in which we are all participating, has destined us for hell. Hell, not heaven, is our default destination.”

Every Sunday is Easter

Every Sunday is Easter – “Celebrate Easter this Sunday. Then do it again every seven days after that.”

Stop calling faithfulness a sacrifice

Stop calling faithfulness a sacrifice – “We need to stop calling obedience and faithfulness to the commands of Christ ‘sacrifice’. There, I said it. It is not sacrifice to do what Jesus asks us to do. Full stop.”

Heaven Celebrates Every Repentant Sinner

Heaven Celebrates Every Repentant Sinner - “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

The Bible is Literature. It’s Also Your Boss.

The Bible is Literature. It’s Also Your Boss. – Let us make sure that we understand the writing of the Bible, but let us make doubly sure we are obedient to it.

Lessons About God from Job

Lessons About God from Job – This is a helpful summary of the big message at the heart of the book of Job.

True Servanthood in the Footsteps of Jesus

True Servanthood in the Footsteps of Jesus – “Jesus did not allow his unique identity and authority to exempt him from the kingdom principle of sacrificial servanthood.”

Why We Need to Talk About Obedience

Why We Need to Talk About Obedience – “Our efforts to avoid legalism and our tendency to give in to laziness can lead us to downplay the importance of obedience. But with the Lord’s help, we can cultivate a high view of obedience that more closely mirrors God’s perspective. Here are two reasons it’s worth bringing obedience back to the forefront.”

The Awkward Duty of Encouragement: How Men Strengthen Other Men

The Awkward Duty of Encouragement: How Men Strengthen Other Men – “I have lived decades as a Christian. I’ve learned it’s hard to be encouraging and nearly impossible to be too encouraging. So be encouraged, in Christ, to encourage one another.”

What the Garden of Eden Has to Do With Your Calendar

What the Garden of Eden Has to Do With Your Calendar – “The first people did not trust the Lord and His Word and chose their own way, and with that choice everything that was good and right and harmonious was corrupted.”

 

What Is Education For? 3 Perspectives to Teach Kids

What Is Education For? 3 Perspectives to Teach Kids – “If we want our kids to develop a true appreciation for learning, we can’t only tell them what education can do; we must give them a vision of what education is for. Here are three perspectives.”

Anxious for Nothing

Anxious for Nothing – “Here are three things I’m reminding myself in this new season of being anxious for nothing.”

Mercy In The No

Mercy In The No – “The One who holds all is sovereign over all. The first time God introduced Himself in Exodus 34, He says He is the God Who is abundant in mercy. He never runs low, and He never runs out of mercy, no matter what His answer is.”

 

The World is Still Spinning

The World is Still Spinning – “Although life is full of disappointments, we may choose to allow life’s difficulties to consume and derail us, or we can pause, remembering Who is holding both the nations and our days.”

The Art of One-Anothering

The Art of One-Anothering – “How the Church Loves Like Christ.”

The Whale and the Cow: Surprising Mercy in Jonah’s Story

The Whale and the Cow: Surprising Mercy in Jonah’s Story – “Jesus’s logic is clear. Our Father feeds and cares for the birds of the air; they have what they need when they need it, though they do not sow, reap, or gather. The Father himself feeds them. And we are of more value than birds.”

Please Bear with Mewor

Please Bear with Me – “This closeness is a benefit for the people of God in every way, yet anyone who has lived in close community with another person knows that things can get messy. Offenses are bound to come.”

The Story of the Greatest Coronation

The Story of the Greatest Coronation – “If the angels worship Jesus, how much more might we!”

Bright Monday: Living in the Light of Easter

Bright Monday: Living in the Light of Easter – “Bright Monday gives me hope for holiness that lasts, for persistent piety.”

 

How to make the most of the Parental Settings on your Child’s Phone

How to make the most of the Parental Settings on your Child’s Phone – Here are some helpful suggestions for parents.

The Syntax of Sacrifice: Introduction to Leviticus

The Syntax of Sacrifice: Introduction to Leviticus – This may help you to not only understand the book of Leviticus but to appreciate it.

When We Fear the Worst

When We Fear the Worst – “Can you even imagine being able to say that you’re not afraid of bad news? Even if you can consider all the worst-case scenarios, none of it scares you?” 

Being the Church: Church Attendance Isn’t the Goal

Being the Church: Church Attendance Isn’t the Goal – “Attendance is good, but it isn’t the standard we should examine Christian health by. We should examine health by how deeply involved people are with the rest of the body of Christ.”

What do you do when you are spiritually dry?

What do you do when you are spiritually dry? – “It’s a miserable thing to know how you ought to feel and realize that you’re not there. So what do you do? What do you do when you are spiritually dry?”

 

Christ’s Resurrection Means Our Old Bodies Will Be Made New

Christ’s Resurrection Means Our Old Bodies Will Be Made New – “This, then, is the most basic truth about our resurrected bodies: They are the same bodies God created for us, but they will be raised to greater perfection than we’ve ever known. We don’t know everything about them, of course, but we do know a great deal.”

A Sexular Society

A Sexular Society – “We used to live in a religious world, where your religious belief defined who you were—it was where you got your identity from…But things have changed, now we live in a secular world—one, in a sense, stripped of religious input.”

Were Later Versions of Christianity Radically Different than Earlier Ones?

Were Later Versions of Christianity Radically Different than Earlier Ones? – False claims, not backed up by evidence, continue to surface.

 

The Easter Yet to Come

The Easter Yet to Come – “After a lifetime of Easters, it can be hard to put ourselves in the stunned and miserable sandals of those who actually watched him die.”

3 Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection

3 Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection – “Reasonable people like you can believe in the resurrection. How? By considering the heavens, history, and him.”

Did the Resurrection of Jesus Really Happen?

Did the Resurrection of Jesus Really Happen? – “Brilliant scholars, believers and skeptics alike, have grappled with questions about the fundamentals of our faith for centuries. Yet you don’t have to be a theologian to take comfort in the basic facts of Jesus’ story. Or even rely on the Bible for all the evidence.”

The Great Commission Requires so Much More Than Simply Inviting a Friend to Church

The Great Commission Requires so Much More Than Simply Inviting a Friend to Church – “Caring for the faith of others was never meant to be reduced to an assembly line. As efficient as this is to mass produce cars it’s a terrible way to interact with people wrestling with their faith.”

“Where is Your Faith?”

“Where is Your Faith?” – “How did you survive the death of a child? It is a question my husband and I often get when people hear our story. It transports me back to that moment over 20 years ago when our sweet daughter left this world and entered eternity.”

 

Choosing the Right College: A Guide for Christian Parents

Choosing the Right College: A Guide for Christian Parents – “Here I just want to offer eight guidelines based on what we’ve learned over the years, and what I know about the world of higher education.”

Good Friday from 5 Angles

Good Friday from 5 Angles – “The Bible gives many wonderfully rich answers to such questions. Here are a few, from five distinct angles—God’s perspective, Christ’s perspective, Satan’s perspective, sin’s perspective, and our perspective.”

Tree of Shame: The Horror and Honor of Good Friday

Tree of Shame: The Horror and Honor of Good Friday – “Today, with crosses on our steeples, and around our necks, we scarcely perceive the original scandal of such a claim. But to any new hearer in the first century, Jew or Greek, Paul’s words were almost unimaginable. Crucified?”

What Does It Really Mean to Be Like Jesus?

What Does It Really Mean to Be Like Jesus? – “Christians know that being like Jesus is a good idea. We’ve probably all heard someone express a desire, or encourage others, to ‘be Christ-like.’ But what do we mean by that?”

Jesus Accomplished the Healing from Sin We Need, Even More Than Healing from Cancer

Jesus Accomplished the Healing from Sin We Need, Even More Than Healing from Cancer – “I have been so focused on God annihilating my cancer that my focus has not been on the blessed truth that He has annihilated my sin!”

51 Easter Quotes Every Christian Should Read

51 Easter Quotes Every Christian Should Read – Take time to read through.

How the Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement Led Me to Faith

How the Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement Led Me to Faith – “Why did God command the Israelites to put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts? This made no sense to me until I met the greater Lamb, the One this story is really about.”

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? Three Historical Facts (+ Four Explanations That Don’t Work)

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? Three Historical Facts (+ Four Explanations That Don’t Work) – Everything rises and falls on the resurrection.

 

Four Reasons to Be Early to the Sunday Gathering

Four Reasons to Be Early to the Sunday Gathering – “What if you showed up to the Sunday gathering just 10-minutes early? Here are some reasons that I think it would be a good idea to give it a try.”

The Most High on His Knees: Learning Humility from the Last Supper

The Most High on His Knees: Learning Humility from the Last Supper – “The King of kings played the part of slave of slaves. Had their eyes seen anything like it since he took on human flesh? Armies of angels watched their Captain — the eternal God from the Father’s right hand — bend before his creatures to wash their feet, hours before those feet fled in fear.”

The Gospel Never Does Nothing

The Gospel Never Does Nothing – “Under the preaching of the gospel, no one remains the same. We are either moving closer to God or further from him. No one remains neutral. No one remains unchanged. We soften, or we harden.”

What Does the Bible Say About Discipleship: 4 Fundamentals

What Does the Bible Say About Discipleship: 4 Fundamentals – “If we look at how Jesus led the 12 on their discipleship journey, we can see at least four characteristics of biblical discipleship.”

Why Did Jesus Institute the Lord’s Supper on the Passover?

Why Did Jesus Institute the Lord’s Supper on the Passover? – “Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on this night to signify that this new exodus was about to begin. This act indicated that the time of redemption had come.”

Saving Faith as Treasuring Christ

Saving Faith as Treasuring Christ – “Saving faith embraces Christ both as useful for his saving gifts and as precious for his satisfying glory.”

Watch and Pray

Watch and Pray – The command was wisdom in the Garden of Gethsemane and for every day.

Feast of Unleavened Bread: How a Hasty Escape Prepares Us to Wait for Christ

Feast of Unleavened Bread: How a Hasty Escape Prepares Us to Wait for Christ – “The Feast of Unleavened Bread looks back and remembers anxiety, readiness, and waiting for an imminent journey.”

The Key To Understanding The Bible

The Key To Understanding The Bible – “Reading it, hearing sermons about it, and studying it are all great things to do, but if you really want to understand the Bible, it’s not enough to listen to it. You have to respond to it. You have to obey it.”

 

Americans Believe in Easter Resurrection But Aren’t Sure Why It Matters

Americans Believe in Easter Resurrection But Aren’t Sure Why It Matters – “Despite accepting the biblical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, many Americans see little connection with their daily lives.”

Maundy Thursday Devotion

Maundy Thursday Devotion – 5 Gems From the Last Supper.

Every Sunday Is Easter

Every Sunday Is Easter – “Easter Sunday has always been a big deal, from my earliest unconverted memories to my recent pastor labors. I cherish those memories and my current family traditions. But I now know that all that expectancy was misplaced—like a young engaged couple that spends countless hours preparing for a wedding and not marriage.”

Christ’s Plan for the Globe — and You

Christ’s Plan for the Globe — and You – “Jesus has other sheep besides us. And he must bring them.”

You Know What’s Crazy?

You Know What’s Crazy? – “It’s crazy when people don’t accept the help they really need. It’s crazy when people insist they’re fine when they’re clearly not. But we’ve still got to try.  The love of Christ compels us.”

One Temple Cleansing or Two?

One Temple Cleansing or Two? – “So how many temple cleansings were there in Jesus’s ministry? One or two? Was John 2 the same temple cleansing as the one in Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19?”

The Old Testament Is Christian Scripture

The Old Testament Is Christian Scripture – “Don’t think of the Old Testament as thirty-nine Jewish books and the New Testament as twenty-seven Christian books. The whole Bible is Christian literature.”

Passover: How the Meal of Remembrance Makes Sense of Communion

Passover: How the Meal of Remembrance Makes Sense of Communion – “If we want to understand communion, the new covenant ceremony Jesus instituted, it’s important to first understand the Passover festival that lies behind it.”

Reading Resurrection in the Book of Nature

Reading Resurrection in the Book of Nature – “Could it be that in the daily cycle of sleeping and waking, God is reminding his children that resurrection is not a tall tale but something woven through the fabric of his creation?”

How Did the King of Kings Die?

How Did the King of Kings Die? – “In the ancient world there was a man declared to be ‘the King of kings’. His reign was very short but he was widely influential, had thousands of admiring followers, and his presence brought peace and hope to many. Yet his life was cut short through a premature death.” (This may not be the person you’re thinking of.)

Don’t Waste the Days When You Feel Little Need for God

Don’t Waste the Days When You Feel Little Need for God – “Ideally, trials are not the time to construct a relationship but the time to lean upon an existing one.”

3 Occasions to Take Every Thought Captive

3 Occasions to Take Every Thought Captive – “We often can’t control what thoughts come into our minds. We can, however, control what happens next.”

The Layered Path to God: Finding God in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty

The Layered Path to God: Finding God in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty – “There’s only one path to God, to be sure, but never forget: the path is layered with Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.”

Did Palm Trees Grow in Jerusalem at the Time of Jesus?

Did Palm Trees Grow in Jerusalem at the Time of Jesus? – Attacks on the biblical accounts are common. This is a response to one of them.

 

Break the Hardness in Me: A Holy Week Prayer for the Heart

Break the Hardness in Me: A Holy Week Prayer for the Heart – “Turn me from a stone back into a sheep. Let me hear your voice that I may with fresh tears love you in your passion.”

Yesterday Happened, But This is Still True

Yesterday Happened, But This is Still True – Whatever the faults and failings of yesterday, lay hold of God’s truth today.

Why We Follow Some Old Testament Laws but Not Others

Why We Follow Some Old Testament Laws but Not Others – “Critics accuse Christians of conveniently picking and choosing from Old Testament laws. We’re quick to ‘clobber’ gay people with verses from Leviticus, they say, yet we don’t keep kosher ourselves. The complaint, though, is based on a misunderstanding about the Mosaic Covenant that even Christians fall prey to.”

 

One Key Principle for Spiritual Growth… or Spiritual Destruction

One Key Principle for Spiritual Growth… or Spiritual Destruction – “There is one principle that actually applies to both – to spiritual growth and spiritual death: You are always, always, always growing an appetite.”

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? Three Historical Facts (+ Four Explanations That Don’t Work)

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? Three Historical Facts (+ Four Explanations That Don’t Work) – Everything rises or falls on the story of the resurrection.

How Can We Remain Humble While Pursuing Humility?

How Can We Remain Humble While Pursuing Humility? – “Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself…I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself.”

 

5 Easter Lessons from the Trials of Jesus

5 Easter Lessons from the Trials of Jesus – “What might we notice as we move towards another Easter?”

Help! I’m Struggling with Porn.

Help! I’m Struggling with Porn. – “You can find multiple resources to help with this fight, but as a place to start, here are five practical ways to respond.”

 

10 Most Popular Bible Verses During Holy Week

10 Most Popular Bible Verses During Holy Week – “The 10 most popular verses during Holy Week over the past five years are…”

Is Work a Blessing or a Curse?

Is Work a Blessing or a Curse? – “The futility and burdensomeness of work is part of the curse of creation, and it won’t always be this way.”

 

Hope Rode into Jerusalem in Weakness on Smallness

Hope Rode into Jerusalem in Weakness on Smallness – Here’s a good Palm Sunday prayer.

Redeeming Discipline: How Grace Reforms Our Effort

Redeeming Discipline: How Grace Reforms Our Effort – “Paul’s own discipline passed through the fires of grace, it emerged on the other side not consumed but refined — free from the dross of self-righteousness, aglow with the Spirit’s flame.”

From Death to Life

From Death to Life – “So what should be our takeaway from yet another largely discouraging—though less so, if you include children—report on the state of church membership in America? Three things.”

Wisdom’s Trinitarian Shape

Wisdom’s Trinitarian Shape – “We must recognize the unity and the personal distinctions of the divine persons. The Son was crucified, not the Father or Holy Spirit, and yet it’s all three who, with one power and action, reveal divine wisdom to us.”