I often think about the things about myself that need changing. I am not talking about my imperfections in appearance, weight, or really any external matters. I am really thinking about the transformation that I need to undergo due to Jesus at work in me. These changes are rooted in the change of my heart [...]
We have been going through Faith Under Fire in small groups and recently the topic of the validity of the Bible came up. It produced great discussion and made me think about a 6 volume work by Carl Henry that is in my library. I thought it would be a great topic to blog on [...]
In the book, 10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, Donald Whitney includes a chapter about the importance of spiritual disciplines. He concludes, and rightly so, that the disciplines are not intended to be marks of maturity, instead they are to be the means to maturity. Too often we are in such a fast-paced, microwave, [...]
God's universal presence surrounds us as the air surrounds the soaring eagle or the Pacific engulfs the dolphin as it dives, "for in him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28). Whitney Experiencing the presence of God is something that we ought to grow more familiar with each day as mature in [...]
1 John 4:19 we learn that we love because God first loved us. Whitney says, "Then the more satisfaction and delight we find in His love, the more we delight in loving others." The reason he can say this confidently is that the more we love others, the more enjoyment we find in God at [...]
The concern for believers is that we make progress in the right kind of love. Whitney rightly concludes that we too often find our investment in love to be in the natural affections. In Romans 1:31 and 2 Timothy 3:3 (The ESV translates this heartless, the KJV without natural affections) we find this natural love [...]
One of the most significant marks that Jesus identified about His disciples was that of love. In John 13:34-35, He gives a new command, "Love one another . . ." There are a number of verses in the New Testament that emphasize this priority. See these listed here. John 15:12; John 15:17; Romans 12:10; Romans [...]