Articles - Sanctification & Growth

We often assume that the real issue is what kind of people homosexuals would have to be in order to hear our message and receive its truth. While this is an important consideration, I am convinced that the more urgent challenge for the church is to clarify our own self-identity and our understanding of the gospel. What kind of people must we be, if we are to address the challenge of homosexual marriage with faithfulness and Christian love?

(an excerpt from work by Dr. Al Mohler)

Sacrificial service in a relationship is not just a product of being a ‘nice guy’. It’s not motivated by sentimental chivalry. It’s tied to the very fabric of our faith – Christ’s death for us.

(This article intended specifically for single guys but helpful to all.)

Dating. Courtship. Dateship.

Yes, the gospel applies even to the tough area of relationships. The gospel calls us to recognize our greatest need and calls us to a single pursuit.

(This article intended specifically for single girls, but helpful for all.)

Sometimes becoming a Christian doesn’t make things easier with an unbelieving family, it makes them harder. How should we relate to an unbelieving family in light of the gospel? From his experience with his own unbelieving family Chris Daukas shares three sins to guard against and one hope to hold on to. 

I have a problem. I don’t expect you can relate since no one else does. But that’s the nature of it. See, my problem is this: no one feels sorry for me.

Strange, right? There are times in any given month, week or day when things just don’t work out the way I want. In fact, I find with distressing frequency that I don’t always get what I…

How many conversations do you have per day? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?

What are these different conversations about—what topics do you tend to talk about the most? As you go about your conversations does the gospel ever make an appearance? Or, to put it another way: does the gospel that you cherish during Sunday mornings services, during private Bible reading and prayer, during your small group meeting—does this gospel…

I remember the first time my oldest daughter tasted a lemon.  She must have been around a year old, and she kept begging for the alluring yellow fruit tantalizingly adorning the rim of mom’s iced tea. 

We thought we’d get a little chuckle and teach her not to beg by giving her a taste.  Her eyes brightened as we passed the lemon wedge to her.  She took it…

Our series on the gospel applied to real life begins with this article from Rich Richardson, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Gilbert, AZ.
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Last month while Christmas shopping, a middle-aged woman in our church died unexpectedly of a heart attack, and our church suddenly and painfully had to grapple with how the gospel functions in death. How were we supposed to help a family dealing with the lingering pain of life without their mother-wife-grandmother?

Without a thorough understanding and application of the gospel, our response to death can be reduced to a collection of well-meaning clichés rather than the sturdy, life-giving hope intended for those left behind.

Guest blogger Jon Smith shares what he learned through the loss of his newborn infant about how to care for those in suffering

I will never forget those grief-stricken 4 hours – sorrowful, painful, tragic. My wife and I embraced our infant son Chase, singing to him, praying for him, and could do nothing but helplessly watch his life wither away. Six months earlier we discovered our son Chase had a fatal birth defect. We knew, barring a significant miracle, that he was going to die…

Ah, the Christmas Season. I really enjoy the travel, visiting, eating, spending time with my family, eating, seeing old friends, sharing stories and eating. (And to top it all off, days of leftovers. That is a holiday.)

It’s great to be together with people we love. But the reality is, even when we love people, our relationships and interactions over the holidays don’t always look like a Read More...

I call it “the sanctifier.” Really, it’s just a chair. But to my 2 young sons it is the chair.

My boys are 1 and 3 and we own one kid-size leather easy chair that grandma bought. Can you see the problem here? Two kids, one favorite chair. It is not an uncommon sight to see both boys joyfully taking turns—one sitting happily in the chair while the…

As part of our series on the church we’re publishing an article from C.J. Mahaney on “Cravings & Conflict.” Think of a it as a guide for surviving and thriving with other Christians in your local church.
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It has been ten years now since the first godly young man requested permission to marry one of my daughters. Today, all three girls are married and it…

We’re partnering with our friends at Crossway to offer our favorite chapters from Mark Dever’s recent book What is a Healthy Church?.

Right now, download Chapter One: Your Christianity and Your Church (Right click. Select “save as”)

Or keep reading to get a sample of the great material in the chapter…

It was a danger sign I’d never seen before. And it was really specific.

“Rattlesnakes. Beware, Do Not Go Down These Cliffs.”

I was taking Trail Hiking 101 to fulfill one of the random requirements of my college degree and I found myself with my group, face to face with that sign. Our trail guide said, “Hey everyone look at the sign.” It was right at…

Everything Justin and Isaac said about the need for us to fulfill our call as biblical men sounds great… before you spend 8 hrs in a van with ten yelling, caffeinated, arm-wrestling guys from your church. Wow.

I’m kidding here, but really, it’s easy for me to miss the connection between hearing encouragement to fulfill my call as a biblical man and actually partnering with the men in…

Church is messy. People get angry. Conflicts erupt. Your fake smile starts to wear thin.

But God created us for the church and created us for relationships. So as part of our series on the church we want to point you to some resources on living in the local church. Think of them as “Surviving and Thriving in Your Local Church 101”.

One book that’s been…

I have read about and heard of people who cringe at the idea of ‘studying’ God, as if learning theology is clinical, like some kind of divine autopsy. But Scripture consistently calls us to grow in our study and knowledge of God and says there is an important connection between what we know about God and how we should live.

I recently spoke at a retreat entitled –…

Last week Justin Buzzard started a conversation about the lack of men pursuing godliness in churches today. In the post Justin thanked God for his godly sisters in Christ but expressed a concern that often men are not nearly as committed to or as passionate about godliness as their sisters. This week Isaac Hydoski shares some of what he’s doing to disciple men in his ministry.

Ladies, this…

A few weeks ago there was some discussion about a book we recommended. The book was by an author we love and respect but someone pointed out that he holds a position we don’t think is scriptural. Can we still recommend the book if we don’t believe everything the author believes?

Of course, this is a bigger issue than just one book or one author. How much and…

We asked worship leader and pastor, Bob Kauflin, some question about media, music, and the Bible. Bob will lead worship with his son Devon at Na 2007 and he blogs regularly at WorshipMatters.com.

Na: What Scriptures have informed your understanding of media (movies, music, books, magazines, web content) that you pursue?

Bob Kauflin: Here are a few that come to mind.

Proverbs…

This is the situation: Your friend seems angry.

You wonder if they’re really angry or if you’re misreading them.

Should you say something to them? You have that internal dialogue of “No, it’s not a big deal.” “Maybe I’m just judging them.” “I feel like I should really say something.”

In these moments, what do you do? How do you share something that could…

So we have been talking about correction this week. For those who didn’t catch the last post about correction, this is our functioning definition:

Correction is when someone shares a thought or question related to a statement, action, or attitude that was potentially sinful, unhelpful or unwise.

When was the last time a friend shared a thought with you that was corrective? A week? A month?…

The Bible called me stupid the other day. Seriously.

Proverbs 12:1 says, “He who hates correction is stupid.” That’s pretty straightforward. (That’s what I love about the Bible. It hits us where we live.)

See, I live in this world where I’m perfect. I don’t do anything wrong. I am never in need of any correction. But then some mean person comes across my path, enters…