Peter’s failures put him in touch with God’s grace, and God’s grace is where a leader’s real strength comes from. In fact, it is a church leader’s most valuable resource to help others in need. You can only pour God’s grace into others when you are filled with it yourself.

And in the age to come, our appropriation of sports will finally be gloriously dialed in to its perfectly Jesus-exalting place, free from our sinful tendencies to either make sports an idol or downplay their goodness as God’s gifts.

What I did say is she needed to know a common way God is at work in the lives of all Christians, regardless our age. God teaches us some amazing lessons when we suffer. We may not see them now, but we will see them clearer when some time has passed. I believe this smart little girl as well as other children can begin to understand this merciful quality about our sovereign God.

What about the fellowship fall-out at Rome, the moral problems in Corinth, the confusion in Galatia, the disagreement among the women of the church in Philippi, the misunderstanding of the Christian life at Colossae, the difficulties in Thessalonica? These were the churches Paul loved, because these were the churches Jesus loved.

If you are called to preach the gospel, all hell will be up in arms against you. Prepare for battle and stand firm in the good ways of God. Indeed you must not expect to gain much of this world’s goods by preaching the gospel. What you get must come through the devil’s teeth, and he will hold it fast as he can.' --Wm Grimshaw

As prayerful reflection on the truths that we find in Psalm 17 brought divine perspective to Isaac Watts, it did so for David and for countless others Soldiers of the Cross. So let it bring optimistic hope to you in Jesus Christ our Lord. For this Psalm is about Him, anticipates Him, and follows the Gospel pattern of seeing that the things that come against us are really the things, like the Cross brought Resurrection, the things that lead us home.

The liturgy is always the starting point for considering a service. Its structure informs not only the real progression from one element of worship to the next, but it produces an atmosphere through its words and its shape. The dramatic layering of elements in the pre-Reformation Mass greatly contrasts with the one-thing-at-a-time approach of Reformed... Continue Reading

I wonder: do good churches go bad because they appoint closet liberals to the ministry? Or do they go bad because they appoint good people to the ministry who do not understand the nature and importance of confessional subscription and who will therefore, wittingly or unwittingly, help to water down the very mechanisms established by the church to preserve the gospel for the next generation?

The great Francis Schaeffer gave us a nice example on this important point. A fearless, tireless, and brilliant defender of biblical inerrancy, he said the faithful hold a "full" or "strong, uncompromising view of Scripture." He never said "literal view" because to say so is literally not true.

I wonder what would happen if America had a culture that simply taught children that doing something big for God and His Kingdom is nothing more and nothing less than loving God and neighbor.