To live above with saints we love, ah, that will be glory! But, to live below with saints we know, ah, that’s another story! If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Phil 2:1-2 In the world, relationships are...
Father make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me. Jim Elliot “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me...
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace…. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap jack’s wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices…. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without...
Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” Isa 55:5 This new experiment in doing church is rooted, I am confident, as the desire, even the passion, to see the Church grow. What has not been grasped however, is that in the modern world, the means that are...
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved — and that...
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain,...
On Easter Sunday, John Calvin refused community leaders communion because of mistresses. They responded by rushing the communion table. He responded: “Over my dead body.” They backed off but in the afternoon they exiled him. One year and a half years later they asked him back. When he ascended to the pulpit he began on the very next verse he had ended with when he was kicked out. He loved and trusted God’s Word. We are a...
GOD-GLORIFYING MARRIAGES: A BIBLICAL PLAN TO GLORIFY GOD BY FINDING JOY IN OUR MARRIAGES Ruth Graham was once asked is she had every thought about divorcing Billy. She responded, “Divorce no. Murder, yes.” “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but...
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death [Phil 1:20] “What a fool I have been, to lie like this in a stinking dungeon, when I could have just as well walked free. In my chest pocket I have a key called Promise that will, I am thoroughly persuaded, open any lock in...
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. Matt 13:45-46 The fact is that as dazzling as the modern world has become, it has never outgrown its need for this kind of truth, never invalidates it, and therefore the liberal [and now seeker-sensitive] fear of becoming...