For years I’ve purchased and read Bible commentaries both for enjoyment and as part of my preparation for teaching and preaching. But for the last year or so I’ve been on a personal mission to purchase the very best commentaries on every book of the Bible. At last count I have about 300 individual volumes [...]
Christian Life
Sexual Immorality & Church Leaders
Recently Leadership Magazine commissioned a poll of a thousand pastors. The pastors indicated that 12 percent of them had committed adultery while in ministry – one out of eight pastors! – and 23 percent had done something they considered sexually inappropriate. Christianity Today surveyed a thousand of its subscribers who were not pastors and found the figure to be nearly double, with 23 [...]
Dealing with Discrepancies in the Bible
Fifty Difficult Passages Explained by Jay Adams Many of us would agree with Peter when he says that parts of Paul’s letters are hard to understand! And there are difficulties and apparent discrepancies in other parts of the Bible too. On this matter of discrepancies, I remember reading something written by an old seventeenth-century Puritan [...]
The Abuse of “Gospel Light” from The Evil of Evils by Jeremiah Burroughs
“I am persuaded that more men drop down to hell in our day under the abuse of gospel light than ever did in the gross darkness of popery…O how heavily does the wrath of God lie upon the professors of our age for the abuse of gospel light and they do not fee it, God’s [...]
5 Things to Remember when Buying Christian Books
Today I placed my January order for new theology books and commentaries. I typically order new books at the beginning of every month. I have lots of books, but I have always tried to purchase only the very best books on any given subject. There are simply “too many books and too little time” to [...]
The flesh hates everything about God
The flesh hates everything about God. Since it resists everything about God, it resists every way we try to taste Him and know Him and love Him. And the more something enables us to find God and feast on Him, the more violently the flesh fights against it. It takes its battle to every quarter [...]
Can I Influence God by Offering the Right Kind of Prayer?
We need to learn how wrong it is to think of prayer as a way of getting something from God. People often think of prayer as a way of talking God into doing what they want Him to do. This is what lies behind “name it and claim it” Christianity, the idea that I can [...]
Self-righteous Calvinism
And I am afraid there are Calvinists, who, while they account it a proof of their humility that they are willing in words to debase the creature, and to give all the glory of salvation to the Lord, yet know not what manner of spirit they are of. Whatever it be that makes us trust [...]
There are Few who Really Pray ~ J.C. Ryle
“And here it is, I say it with sorrow, here it is that men fall short so miserably. Few indeed are to be found who pray: there are many who go down on their knees, and say a form perhaps, but few who pray; few who cry out to God, few who call on the [...]
Seven laws for running the Christian race
Resources on Running the Race Race Set Before Us: Theology of Perseverance & Assurance Hebrews: Running the Race Before Us A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life 1. Run to win: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in [...]
Do Not Simply Skim, but Master the Books You Read
Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them, masticate and digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by [...]
The Presence of God Qualifying Our Notions of Grammatical-Historical Interpretation
Genesis 3:15 as a Test Case* Abstract: Evangelical scholars have championed grammatical-historical interpretation as an objective means of sifting truth from error. This approach has value if we use it as one focus, but limitations if we use it as a total account. The temptation arises to think of objective interpretation as implying total domination [...]
Sexual Sin Never Begins by Accident.
“Sexual sin never begins by accident. People do not suddenly fall into an illicit sexual act simply by having an opportunity confront them. There is always some specific preparation. This preparation we call “pre-sexual” experience. Pre-sexual experiences are those experiences of mind and action which excite, train, or develop our sexual drives.” ~ Jerry White [...]
Bible Study by Arthur W. Pink
Bible Overview by Steve Levy One to One Bible Reading: A Simple Guide for Every Christian by David Helm Bible Study: Following the Ways of the Word by Kathleen Nielson How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart From our correspondence we gather that in these strenuous days, [...]
Teaching Your Children to Pray
Parents, if you love your children, do all that lies within your power to train them to have a habit of prayer. Show them how to begin. Tell them what to say. Encourage them to persevere. Remind them that if they become careless and slack about it…. Believe me, if you never hear your children [...]
The Importance of Grammar in Biblical Exegesis
“An evangelical believes that God humbled himself not only in the incarnation of the Son, but also in the inspiration of the Scriptures. The manger and the cross were not sensational. Neither are grammar and syntax. But that is how God chose to reveal himself. A poor Jewish peasant and a prepositional phrase have this [...]
The ULTIMATE Reading Chair
Here is the ULTIMATE reading chair! And you can’t have the ultimate chair without some excellent books. Here are a few books every Christian should read – about reading Christian books. Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing by Leland Ryken Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature by Gene [...]
Let the Reader Understand: Guide to Interpreting and Applying the Bible
Do you struggle to understand the Bible? Have you tried to read the scripture, but don’t really understand where to start? This is one of the biggest hindrances to faithful Bible reading. After laying the necessary foundation, Let the Reader Understand provides examples of how, and how not, to interpret Scripture. It suggests ways to [...]
R.C. Sproul on Prayer & Spiritual Warfare
All of our warfare and all of our activity must take place in the context of constant, unceasing prayer. Just as a soldier on the battle line has to keep in constant communication with his general headquarters and his commanding officer, so the Christian who is on the battle line must be in constant communication [...]
Four Temptations: How Internet Habits Can Cripple Book Reading
Below are some excellent thoughts from Lit! by Tony Reinke. More on Christian Reading & Literature Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing by Leland Ryken Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. Fragmented Browsing vs. Sustained Comprehension The Internet is designed to encourage us [...]
An Inventory of Spiritual Fruit
Fruit-bearing is not a matter of being strong or weak, good or bad, brave or cowardly, clever or foolish, experienced or inexperienced. Whatever your gifts, accomplishments, or virtues, they cannot produce fruit if you are detached from Jesus Christ. Christians who think they are bearing fruit apart from the Vine are only tying on artificial [...]
Getting to the Heart of Legalism
I was reading today in Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Enjoying God and came across some excellent thoughts on legalism from Sam Storms who wrote, “I’m baffled continually at how easily Christian people treat as moral law those things that God has neither forbidden nor required. Some feel an irresistible urge to speak loudly [...]
Godly Character Requires Spiritual Discipline
People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of [...]
Benefits of Being Filled with the Holy Spirit
Being filled with the Spirit means to be filled with the immediate presence of God to the extent that you are feeling what God Himself feels, desiring what God desires, doing what God wants, speaking by God’s power, praying and ministering in God’s strength, and knowing with the knowledge that God Himself gives. ~ Prof. [...]
Six Steps to Knowing God’s Will
Begin by prayer for wisdom. Do not doubt that God has a wise course of action for you and will make it known. Intentionally seek God’s face even more than His answers. “In Your light we see light” (Psalm 36:9). Seek to be willing to take any course that God would have for you. Be [...]
