Jerry Bridges recently preached four messages on “The Beatitudes: Humility in Action.” They are available here for free download. Consider Jerry Bridge’s latest work “Holiness Day by Day: Transformational Thoughts for Your Spiritual Journey”
Note: Consider supporting this blog by going to Westminster Bookstore or Monergism Books when looking for great deals on Christian books. — [...]

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Dr. Timothy Keller calls Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory “The greatest manual on biblical counseling ever produced.”
Published by Reformation Heritage Books, Baxter’s Christian Directory is a comprehensive survey of practical theology. In it, Richard Baxter instructs Christians on a host of issues that they face in life. He gives directions for ordering one’s personal life before [...]

Posted in Book, Church Life, Puritan, Richard Baxter No Comments »

Christians Seeking God’s Will (Original Source)
By Mark Dever
This will be brief. The way many Christians practice seeking God’s will before they make a decision amounts to spiritual and emotional bondage. Christ has died to give us liberty and freedom (Rom. 6; Gal. 5; I Peter 2). We can only know the truth [...]

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With over 1 Million copies sold, John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart is no doubt a force in the phyci of many men today. First released in 2003, Wild at Heart has regrettably made a considerable impact on the Men’s Ministry of many churches. This is yet another indication of how anemic many of our [...]

Posted in Church Life, John Piper, Men No Comments »

A Biblical Understanding of Membership (PDF)
An excerpt from Mark Dever’s book What is a Healthy Church? Courtesy of Crossway Books.

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In this two part interview, C. J. Mahaney interviews Mark Dever.

Life and Ministry with Mark Dever
Building Healthy Churches

Related Links and Resources:

C. J. Mahaney:

Humility: True Greatness
Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing
Living the Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing

Mark Dever:

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church
Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on [...]

Posted in 9Marks, C. J. Mahaney, Church Life, Mark Dever, Sovereign Grace Ministries No Comments »

I received the 9Marks 2007 Report Card in an email today. My attention was immediately drawn to a quote from Mark Dever.

Consider how spot-on Mark is with his words in this quote.
I want you to try a thought exercise. Suppose a business school class on non-profit organizations assigns its students the task of building [...]

Posted in 9Marks, Church, Church Life, Mark Dever 1 Comment »

America has become the most permissive of all democratic societies in the modern world when it comes to abortion!
John Piper, in his book, Hunger for God, has a chapter entitled, Fasting for the Little Ones, that’s so timely given the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
An excerpt:
But I wonder if many of the young [...]

Posted in Abortion, Book, Book Review, Books, Church Life, Crossway, Desiring God, John Piper No Comments »

Where in today’s church do you hear the doctrine of ‘The Fear of God‘ preached or lived out by its members. To be sure, there are pastors who still preach this doctrine and there are no doubt, church members who understand and live in ‘The Fear of God’.
It is no streach however to suggest that [...]

Posted in Book, Book Review, Books, Church History, Church Life, Doctrine, Dr. Arnold L. Frank, Fear of God No Comments »

The goal of reformation in a local church should not be to make all the members Calvinists. Obviously (or at least it ought to be obvious to anyone who knows me!), I would not think that a bad thing if it happened, but I would never recommend that as the goal of restoring health to [...]

Posted in Church, Church Life, MP3, Reformation, Tom Ascol No Comments »

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Rick Phillips pens an insightful, must-read look at the recent revelations about Mother Theresa’s life of doubt and darkness before God.
(HT: JT)

Posted in Catholicism, Church History, Church Life, Church News, Mother Teresa, News, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholic Apostasy, Roman Catholicism No Comments »

Bob Kauflin at Worship Matters shares his thoughts to the following question.
I recently came across a message board where folks were discussing secular songs that could be done to make “seekers” feel more comfortable at church. Some folks mentioned that they had been to church’s where song such as: “She Will be Loved” by Maroon [...]

Posted in Church Life, Worship 1 Comment »

STEVEN FURTICK: DISCERNMENT GUILT TRIP? NO BEREANS ALLOWED
Pastor Ken Silva gives some very potent advice to a young preacher man.
Read the post here.
Note: Consider supporting this blog by going to Monergism Books or Westminster Bookstore when looking for great deals on Christian books. — Shane Trammel

Posted in Church Life, Modern Gospel, Steven Furtick No Comments »

From Symphony of Scripture:
Transubstantiation is derived from the Latin term tansubsubstaniato, meaning ”change of substance”. This term was incorporated into the creed of the Forth Latern Council in A.D. 1215
Transubstantiation is defined by the Roman Catholic Church’s Council of Trent as follows: “By the consecration of the bread and wine, a conversion (or change) is [...]

Posted in Apologetics, Bible, Catholicism, Church Fathers, Church History, Church Life, Controversy, David E Lister, Division, Doctrine, Roman Catholicism, Transubstantiation No Comments »

Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church
By Harold O.J. Brown / Hendrickson Publishers
The history of Christian Theology is in large part a history of heresies, because Jesus and the claims he made…seemed incredible, writes the author. Heresies presents the story of how succeeding generations of Christians through almost twenty centuries have [...]

Posted in Albert Mohler, Books, Christianity, Church History, Church Life, Harold O.J. Brown, Heresy, Orthodoxy No Comments »

In 2003, Desiring God held their first National Conference. Here are the audio files from that conference.
Audio File 01: A Divine and Supernatural Light Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God
Audio File 02: A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: Why We Need Jonathan Edwards 300 Years Later
Audio File 03: Sarah Edwards: Jonathan’s [...]

Posted in Church History, Church Life, Doctrine, John Piper No Comments »

If your interested in the growing evangelical facination with Rome you will want to listen to this radio broadcast from Crosstalk.

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/14753743/view]
Download MP3.

Archive of radio program can be found here.
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Mike Gendron
Mike Gendron is the Director of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries. He is the author of books such [...]

Posted in Apostacy, Catholicism, Church History, Church Life, Cobelligerence No Comments »

As you read this story keep in mind I teach my kids theology directly from the Word of God and they love it. They don’t even know what the word relevant means or who the Simpsons are. The Church is in a sad state of affairs when the leader of a major denomination actually likes [...]

Posted in Church Life, Church of England, Doctrine, False Doctrine, Modern Church, Modern Gospel, New Evangelicalism, News, Simpsons, TV 2 Comments »

From Watcher’s Lamp:
Families across the country will celebrate their children’s graduations from high school and college. As a father of a graduating senior, I look back and am amazed at where the time has gone, and how fast it goes.
My daughter has attended school under the threat of the Beltway Sniper, suffered through the loss [...]

Posted in Church Life, Doctrine, Modern Church, New Evangelicalism 1 Comment »