Wonderful Rainy Days

I must confess… my family has a terrible tendency to over schedule. Most of the time, every second of our lives are filled to capacity—with good things, but nevertheless filled. We’re not victims. It’s not that we have trouble saying no. We just really like to say yes—to everything. And when a slot opens up on the calendar, we seem to feel...

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Like God

Luke 6:36How is it possible to be a child of God? By being free from all passions and showing gentleness to those who offend and wrong us. There is nothing that brings us as near to God and makes us so much like Him as doing these good things. Therefore, when Paul says, "Be ye followers of God," he means that they become followers by doing...

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Ex Libris: Charles Darwin's Religious Views

Was Darwin ever a believer? Did he ever experience a death bed conversion?You can read my review of Charles Darwin's Religious Views: from Creationist to Evolutionist, by David Herbert over on Ex Libris....

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A Smelly Distraction

John 11:39There being nothing more inconsistent with life than putrefaction and offensive smell, Martha infers that no remedy can be found. Thus, when our minds are preoccupied by foolish thoughts, we banish God from us, if we may be allowed the expression, so that he cannot accomplish in us his own work. Certainly, it was not owing to Martha...

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God-Appointed Power for Revival

The Bible says the people of Nineveh believed God (Jonah 3:5). The power of God’s preached message changed a city of hundreds of thousands of people. How did that happen? It happened by the power of God. He empowered the preacher and gave him exactly the message to preach. When the people heard the Word of God, the Scripture says they believed...

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False Hopes

Psalm 36:1Some flatter themselves with a secret hope, that there is no such thing as another world. They hear a great deal of preaching, and a great deal of talk about hell, and about the eternal judgment; but those things do not seem to them to be real. They never saw anything of them; they never saw hell, never saw the devils and damned...

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Good Persecution

John 15:2If suffering persecution was always praiseworthy, the Lord could have said, “Blessed are they which are persecuted,” without adding, “for righteousness’ sake.” In addition, if inflicting persecution was always blameworthy, Scripture wouldn’t say, “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I persecute.” Therefore, in some cases,...

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Deep Riches: On the Trinity

Have you ever seen the word "trinity" in the Bible? Probably not, especially considering the fact that it's not there! So where did we come up with it? See the answers over on Deep Rich...

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On the Trinity

While the word “trinity” is not in the Bible, the Bible explicitly and implicitly teaches the concept. The Old Testament explicitly teaches that God is one God – primarily in the shema (Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one! – Deuteronomy 6:4). The New Testament explicitly teaches God exists in three persons – Father, Son, and...

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Martyrs Monday

Isaiah 42:4Pastor Florescu couldn’t bear to watch his son being beaten by the Communist officers. He had already been beaten himself, and he had not slept for two weeks for fear of being attacked by the starving rats the Communists had forced into his prison cell. The Romanian police wanted Florescu to give up other members of his underground...

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False Anticipations

Mark 4:19Our hearts deceive us in promising I know not what contentment and happiness in the fruition of these outward blessings, when yet the event answers not our expectation. O says the deceitful heart, "If I might have this or that which I desire, so much living, such or such an office, or preferment, how comfortable and salacious a life...

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Spurgeon Saturday

Genesis 39:12In contending with certain sins there remains no mode of victory but by flight. The ancient naturalists wrote much of basilisks, whose eyes fascinated their victims and rendered them easy victims; so the mere gaze of wickedness puts us in solemn danger. He who would be safe from acts of evil must haste away from occasions of...

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On the Trinity

Starting Monday over on Deep Riches, look for a new short series on the Trinity. While I won't attempt to explain the Trinity in depth, I will provide you with some food for thought. Look for it starting Mond...

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Perfect Pastor

Over on the Desiring God blog, John Piper quotes John Newton as follows:In my imagination, I sometimes fancy I could [create] a perfect minister. I take the eloquence of ______, the knowledge of ______, the zeal of ______, and the pastoral meekness, tenderness, and piety of ______. Then, putting them all together into one man, I say to myself,...

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Amazing Grace

Happy birthday, John Newton. God's grace is truly amazi...

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Understanding God

Job 11:17No matter what knowledge of God we can gain by observing or reflecting on Him, He is far better than how we perceive Him. Say we wanted to acquaint someone who couldn’t bear a spark of light or the flame of a very small lamp with the brightness and splendor of the sun. Wouldn’t it be necessary to tell him that the sun’s splendor...

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Paper or Plastic?

Let me introduce to you a book lover’s nightmare:Late in the night while you sleep, a shadowy figure enters your house by some unknown method. He disturbs nothing—walks right past your wallet and your wife’s jewelry box. The gun cabinet and electronics remain untouched as he stealthily slips past your bedroom into—of all places—your library....

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Ex Libris: Tortured for Christ

Tertullian once said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. That was not just a historical statement that reported on the early church. It is an observation that still holds true today in lands that are far removed from the prosperous comfort and complacency of the American church.Click over to Ex Libris to read my review...

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Turned by God’s Hand

Proverbs 21:1Whenever God is pleased to make way for his providence, even in external matters he turns and bends the wills of men. Whatever the freedom of their choice may be, it is still subject to the disposal of God. Daily experience teaches that your mind depends more on the agency of God than the freedom of your own choice. Your judgment...

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God-Appointed Period of Time for Revival

The place may be right for a revival, but if it is not the right time—God’s time—revival will not come. Interestingly, Jonah’s was the fourth and final warning to the city of Nineveh. A serious plague had swept through the city of Nineveh in 765 BC. That was followed by a total eclipse of the sun on June 15, 763 BC, and another plague in...

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The Picture of Marriage

Don’t you just love a good mystery? Mysteries are fun because all the clues point to the answer. In today’s passage, Paul reveals the fact that marriage is a mystery. But it’s not just an ordinary mystery. Marriage is a mystery that reveals the true nature of Jesus and the love He has for His bride, the church.This is the second message of...

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The Breath of Life

Genesis 2:7The breath of man is as it were his life, hereby showing what man's life is, even a blast of wind that goes away and comes not again. To this the Scripture seems to have reference in several places, as Job 7:7, "O remember that my life is wind"; Psalm 78:39, "He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and...

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WVCSB Annual Men and Boys Retreat

The 2009 WVCSB annual men and boys retreat will be held September 18-19 at Camp Caesar in Cowan, WV.This will be a great time of food, fun, fellowship and the opportunity to meet with God in the great outdoors.Guest Speaker: Craig Culbreth, Partnership Missions Director, Florida Baptist Convention.Cost: $5.00Deadline: Sept. 3, 2009Click here...

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Teach Us to Number Our Days

I came across this blog post and was intrigued by the title. I had read about the death of the world's oldest man this past weekend, but Gregg Metcalf really put things into perspective.Psalm 90...

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Three Temptations

1 John 2:15-16Human desires are tempted only by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. The devil tempted the Lord by these three. He was tempted by the lust of the flesh when, while hungry from fasting, He was told, “If thou be the Son of God, speak to these stones that they become bread.” Listen to His response:...

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The Great Gospel Mystery

Everybody loves a mystery. When I was growing up, Hardy Boys Mysteries were some of my favorite books. It seemed like every time I went to the library, I came home with more of them. I remember looking on the back cover at the list of all the titles and checking off which ones I had already read. When I got a little bit older, I graduated...

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Deep Riches: The Character and Nature of God

Who God is, in and of Himself, is one of the greatest arguments for the inerrancy and infallability of Scripture. Check out this argument over on Deep Rich...

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The Character and Nature of God

The character and nature of God insures the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible. Some would consider this a circular argument, but it is one that is completely logical. If the God of the Bible exists, He is perfect, righteous, holy and omnibenevolent. As such He loved man enough to reveal Himself to him. He revealed Himself...

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Martyrs Monday

Philippians 1:3“Collect some wood!” the soldiers snarled. Young James Jeda assumed that the soldiers were about to cook their dinner. Earlier that day, he had watched, horrified, as the radical Muslim soldiers killed his parents and four siblings in Southern Sudan. They spared James only to use him as a worker.When the fire was well lit,...

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Always Near

Psalm 119:151Though God stands far off, yet He is near, though not sensibly, yet really and truly; the essence of the nearness remains still, though the sense and influence is somewhat cut off. Even as it is with the sun, when it is covered with a cloud, the body of the sun is as near as when the cloud was not before it, though the heat and...

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Spurgeon Saturday

Numbers 2:31The camp of Dan brought up the rear when the armies of Israel were on the march. The Danites occupied the hindmost place, but what mattered the position, since they were as truly part of the host as were the foremost tribes; they followed the same fiery cloudy pillar, they ate of the same manna, drank of the same spiritual rock,...

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More Great News!

Today must be "International Good News about Great Southern Baptist Preachers of the Past Day"! And to think--no one told me about it ahead of time.Within hours of discovering the forthcoming release of Adrian Rogers' sermons on the web, I've now received the news that the W.A. Criswell Sermon Library will soon be released as well. According...

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The Ultimate Adrianism

There is exciting news on the horizon for those of us who love the preaching and teaching of Dr. Adrian Rogers:The family of Adrian Rogers, along with the Adrian Rogers Pastor Training Institute, announces the formation of the Adrian Rogers Legacy Library. The goal of the Adrian Rogers Legacy Library is to capture the entire lifetime sermon...

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