Othniel attacked a city in God’s strength; the tribe of Judah concluded they could not do likewise in their own. It is halfway discipleship, and Judges will show us that it leads to no discipleship at...
Ordinary moralistic religion operates on this principle: I live a good and moral life; therefore God accepts me. Gospel Christianity operates in the opposite way: God accepts me unconditionally in Jes...
One of the signs that an object is functioning as an idol is that fear becomes one of the chief characteristics of life. When we center our lives on the idol, we become dependent on it. If our counter...
Once you have learned to pray in full awareness of the disorderedness of your heart and where true joys are found, he says, you can be guided in the specifics of how to pray by studying the Lord’s Pra...
Once we have drawn out the instruction—put the teaching of the text in a nutshell—then we ask how this teaching particularly leads us to praise and thank God, how it leads us to repent and confess sin...
No son sus pecados los que crean una barrera entre él y su padre, es el orgullo que tiene en su buena conducta; no son sus malos actos, sino su rectitud la que le impide compartir el banquete con su p...
Moralistic behavior change simply manipulates and leverages radical selfishness without challenging it. It tries to use that selfishness against itself by appealing to fear and pride. But while this m...
Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon with the following outline:342 Our bad things will turn out for good (Rom 8:28), Our good things can never be taken away from us (Ps 4:6–7), and The best things are yet...
Jesús está diciendo que tanto los irreligiosos como los religiosos están perdidos espiritualmente, ambos estilos de vida llevan a callejones sin salida y que todas las ideas que la humanidad ha tenido...
Jesus’s miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.
January 9 READ Psalm 7:1–5. 1 LORD my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me, 2 or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me. 3 L...
Individuals are now spiritual consumers who will go to a church only if (and as long as) its worship and public speaking are immediately riveting and attractive. Therefore, ministers who can create po...
In the end faith always moves beyond mental assent and duty and will involve the whole self—mind, will, and emotions. Why
In the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, we read the story of Naaman, a wealthy and powerful general of the Syrian army.149 He was suffering terribly, dying slowly of leprosy. Hearing of a powerful God i...
Haidt, for example, believes that Buddha and the Greeks took things too far.7 He argues that modern research shows some external circumstances do correlate with increased satisfaction. In particular,...
God’s call to his people (then and now) is to combine spirituality with bravery. True discipleship is radical and risk-taking, because true disciples rely on God to keep his promises to bless them, an...
God does not love us because we are serviceable; He loves us simply because He loves us. This is the only kind of love we can ever be secure in, of course, since it is the only kind of love we cannot...
For example, if we ponder the very beginning of the Lord’s Prayer—Our Father—it could work like this: As instruction, it shows us that we cannot know God only on our own but must do so in community wi...
English minister David Clarkson preached one of the most comprehensive and searching sermons on counterfeit gods ever written.113 About idolatry he said, Though few will own it, nothing is more common...
Elder brothers obey God to get things. They don’t obey God to get God himself—in order to resemble him, love him, know him, and delight him. So