My Dear Wormwood,

I have counseled you in the past to teach your patient and his family to hop from church to church like gluttons at the stations of a buffet, or even better, like spiritual connoisseurs with an impossibly refined idea of “how church ought to be done.” The aim was to have them go to church with the mind of a critic or a spectator — anything but a pupil, which, alas, is precisely what you have allowed to happen.

As your people have become thoroughly settled into a church, I see no point in your continuing your feckless attempts to start them church-shopping again. Humility and earnestness of the sort we see in your people calls for different measures. …

Read the full entry

…would there be enough evidence to convict you?

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? (James 2:18-20)

To say that you can have faith without works is like saying that you can have water that’s not wet. But let’s keep the order straight: it’s not being wet that makes it water, nor is it good works that create faith. It’s the other way around. Just as

…

Read the full entry

Nothing focuses the mind like knowing you’re going to be shot in the morning.

– Winston Churchill

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had

…

Read the full entry

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13-15, ESV)

Yesterday, Dan taught from James 1, which talks about temptation in terms of being lured. One big takeaway for me was that if you could just see the truth of the matter, the thing tempting us wouldn’t be so enticing. If we could only see that the thing

…

Read the full entry

If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen — nothing else matters.

– Jaroslav Pelikan, on his deathbed

Read the full entry

What’s Best Next belongs in your Google Reader or your browser bookmarks.

It’s written by Matt Perman, the senior director of strategy at Desiring God. He writes, “this blog is about tying the big picture to everyday decisions so that we can be more effective in our personal lives, our jobs, our organizations, and society.”

What’s remarkable is what a winsome ambassador for Christ he is in the way he writes. It’s not a “God-blog” by any stretch… and yet it is unmistakably concerned with the same things Christ was concerned with when he spoke on the importance of bearing fruit in our lives. If you’re looking for conversation starters with your coworkers, you can easily point them to

…

Read the full entry

James 1:2 talks about meeting “trials of various kinds.”

Did you ever think of prosperity as a trial? In an age that regards prosperity as a claim we have on God, it is probably unusual to think of abundance as a test of our faith. But I’ve heard enough wise old saints talk about prosperity this way to make me think they’re on to something.

I think the heart of the matter is this: whether it’s a trial of prosperity or a trial of adversity, the important thing is not the content of the trial. The important thing is the objective God has in mind for the trial. To the extent we focus on our circumstances, we fail the test.

…

Read the full entry

Donald S. Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life is the christianaudio.com free download of the month. This is a first-rate book covering Bible reading, meditating on the Bible, prayer, worship, evangelism, journaling, and more.

Get it here with coupon code MAR2009.

Bonus: listen to Mark Dever interview Don Whitney about Christian discipleship and growth.

Read the full entry

Like Dan said yesterday, making disciples is a relationship-oriented process. So how do you cultivate relationships that are fertile ground for disciple-making?If not knowing what to say is holding you back from starting conversations with folks that might lead to making disciples of Christ, take heart. Listening is far more important, as Jonathan Dodson writes at TheResurgence:

One of the most effective ways to know our “target audience” was to ask them questions…something that we really aren’t good at in the West. Instead, Christians assume a defensive posture, making conversations doctrinal battles or apologetic arguments. [A better way is] the path of learning from those we hope “to reach.”By asking questions from concern

…

Read the full entry

We’d like to get an e-mail loop started that will have all the men of Grace subscribed to it. To that end, we have created a Google Group called “gfmen” that will be a valuable communication vehicle for the men of Grace Fellowship. You can sign up right now using the form below.

Subscribe to gfmenEmail: Visit this group

Read the full entry