Trusting the God who knows everything and knows him, the psalm writer submits himself to be examined, corrected, and guided.
Category Archive: Pastoral Passages
The time when we praise God in song is a time to force cold and indifferent hearts into duty, to nurse godly affections into greater strength that have been smothered by our inclination to self, and to shove aside distracting thoughts of life’s affairs.
Sin is more terrible than we understand or acknowledge, but not more deep than the mercy of the God we dismiss and disobey.
It can be hard to really appreciate how challenging it is for some people to continue as Christians, and just how easy and attractive it is to simply tap out. Are we equipping people to process and understand these struggles well? Are we providing the support for them to hang in there while they do?
It is awkward when you are represented in such a way that you neither wholeheartedly endorse nor wish to outright deny.
As Christians the gospel should shape our values and perspectives on all issues, and here I would like to offer the example of one man whose perspective on one of these was indeed formed by his commitment to Jesus. His name was Paulus Orosius.
We recommit Whitefield’s mistake by participating in the normalized sins of our age. Take care not to take part in them. They might be normal, but they are not right.
Truth isn’t affected by popularity, or a lack of it.
Experience will teach us that although Christian hope should give us gladness, it does not remove but only blunts the varied griefs we suffer and does not fill the hole left in the lives of those left behind.
. . . the miner and the grocer were not people who had a ‘ministry’ like a professional pastor or Christian worker, yet they had a huge impact for the kingdom of God.