Blog - Eric's thoughts

One of the best resources I can recommend to people after Na to supplement what they learned is Mike Bullmore’s message “Feeding on God: Cultivating a Fruitful Life in the Word.” In the message Bullmore goes through four convictions we need to have about scripture, what our appropriate posture toward scripture should be, and gives some simple recommendations for spending time in God’s Word.

Here’s the Read More...

I wanted to let you all know about a great opportunity to participate in worldwide mission in the UK by going over for 11 months and serving a church there.

To learn more check out the below info about GAP (Grow and Proclaim) from the GAP website or skip all that text and watch this video where Pete Greaseley, the Sr. Pastor at Christchurch, explains the program. 

idea #4: talk to somebody new

Maybe set a goal of starting a conversation with one person you don’t know each day. It may be awkward for the first couple minutes, but hey, its awkward for all of us. Ask some questions, comment on something you just saw or heard, but here’s the secret: Don’t be self focused. If you are genuinely trying to be others focused and…

Don’t know if you caught my last post about measurable goals, but here is another exercise I hope would be helpful for you. Donald Whitney, who wrote Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, has written out some great questions to consider as you plan goals for your year.

You can get them at biblicalspirituality.org/newyear.html

One of the things that concerns me about our generation’s…

So I have to tell you something really cool that has been happening lately with me and a couple guys.  Every 2nd Friday night of the month I get together with 4 other guys over dinner.  Usually we hang out for a couple hours talking about doctrine, current events, and stuff going on in our lives.  Lately though God has given us a specific direction that I want to share…

Over the next few weeks the Na site is going to publish some articles on biblical worldview.  We are going to hit topics like homosexuality, politics, war, abortion, money and more.

If you are new to the term “biblical worldview,” in a nutshell a “worldview” is the lens with which you interpret and perceive the world around you. Our worldview is formed by our education, our upbringing, the…

Bob Kauflin just put up a free song from the upcoming CD “Looked Upon” or ("Lu" for short). If you all remember from last years conference Devon Kauflin re-did the song “What a Savior.” Well, this year he and the rest of the band went into the studio and worked on What a Savior and a few other songs for the CD. If you want a download of the song…

“We glorify God when we give God the glory for all that we do. We glorify God when we sacrifice the praise and glory of all to God...So when we have done anything praiseworthy we must hide ourselves under the veil of humility and transfer the glory of all we have done to God.”

If you haven’t already you should check out our friend Nathan Sasser’s article on Gospel and Worldview. He’s one of our favorite guys because of his sharp mind and humble heart. Our editor Ricky caught him for a couple questions.

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Ricky: Why are you passionate about teaching others about a biblical worldview?

Nathan: Viewing everything in relation…

Okay, so Thomas Watson loves lists. Here’s another list our friend wrote down about what a humble person is (and a list I think we need in our Christian world right now).

Watson made a great point in his Book Godly Mans Picture when he says, “Many make a show of humility to achieve their own ends."I think this is a brilliant insight into the heart of man.…

A few weeks ago I was at a conference on preaching.  It was a blast. 

(Though I’ll tell you--being in a classroom all week gave me much sympathy for college students. How do you pay attention like that for 6 hours? Man!)

Anyway, Mike Bullmore, a pastor from Crossway Church in Wisconsin, was teaching on I Corinthians 1 and he used an illustration that’s stuck in…

Last week I got to hang out with Bob Kauflin and C.J. Mahaney and Justin Buzzard at the Resurgence Conference in Seattle. 

First of all, Seattle is the coolest city in the country. Hands down.  Done. Game over. During a break at the conference I had a conversation with Justin over a cup of fine Seattle coffee (not Starbucks, much better) about Holiness and Legalism…

Have you ever had that really uncomfortable and convicting sense after watching a movie?  You think, “Uh, that one might’ve been a mistake” or “I’m not so sure I should’ve watched that...”

I’ve been there many times in my life.

Over the years I hope by God’s grace these moments happen less and less frequently. I’ve heard many questions from people on how to discern what…

More ways we glorify God by Thomas Watson.

11.  “We glorify god by contending for the truth.”

This is a great thought to consider in our pluralistic culture. It is an even greater challenge because of our call to love those we disagree with and to communicate with humility. If you have not listened to Mark Dever’s message from last year check it out.

…

Learn from my mistake this week.

I was talking to a friend this week about the presidential election and pro’s and con’s of each candidate (I love politics) and who I was going to vote for. At one point in the conversation I made the comment that one of the candidates was a jerk.

I left the conversation, went on to something else. But the Holy…

Scripture is so great.

I was studying the passage in Luke where Jesus is talking to the disciples about picking up their cross daily and following him (Luke 9:18-27.) But it is so easy to gloss over statements like this. It’s so easy for a passage like this to lose its meaning.

When I have read this passage in the past I’ve take Jesus statement, “If…

Some book recommendations if you want them:

_Genesis: A Commentary by Bruce Waltke is brilliant. I have never seen Genesis as such a brilliant piece of writing until now. Waltke does an amazing job of brining out Moses’ original intent in this amazing book and has some very interesting things to say about Creation itself.

_A…

Make sure you ask questions. They are really important in all types of relationships.

In other words, assume nothing in communication.  Here’s a story about why asking questions is important:

My family and I were sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner.  I asked my kids the question, “So who do you want to marry and why?”

This is a question I regularly ask…

So my friend CJ Mahaney has his own blog on over on the Sovereign Grace site.

There is nobody in the world that I could recommend more as a guide for teaching you to walk with Christ.  Check it out if you’ve got a few minutes.

So today I want to give you four more thoughts from Watson.

The question is this:  How do we glorify God?
7.  “We Glorify God by being CONTENTED in that state in which providence has placed us.” Here’s a great quote from that section: “We give God the glory for his wisdom, when we rest satisfied with what he carves out for us.”

8.…

I have a concern. I was having lunch with Mark Dever (pastor at Capital Hill Baptist) recently and he said something that made me start thinking:

“Often, the first generation of Christians grab hold of the gospel, the second generation of Christians tend to assume the gospel, and the third generation of Christian abandons the gospel.”

I see many people in the second category—people…

Here are some more thoughts for today from a dead guy named Watson.

If you have not seen the past 2 posts here they are: part 1, part 2

Here are 2 more points on how to aim at glorifying God with your life.

5. “We glorify God by believing him.”

Here is a great quote…

Okay, here are a couple more truths from an old dead theologian. Thomas Watson Continues the list I started yesterday.

3. “We aim at God’s glory with our life when we are CONTENT to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem so that his glory may be increased”.

(Ouch.)

4. “We aim at God’s glory by an honest and sincere confession of sin.”…

So I think we need to give a bonus to moms everywhere!

I have been taking care of the fam for the past 2 weeks so that my wife could recover from the birth of our new little girl emerie elle simmmons.

There is no doubt in my mind that being a mom is the hardest job in the world.  But there is also no doubt…

Every Christian needs dead people in their life.  We all need them--wise counselors from the past who knew God deeply and wrote about it. 

Do you have any dead guys in your life? Here are mine:

_Thomas Watson
_Charles Bridges
_Martyn Lloyd Jones
_Jonathan Edwards
_Francis Schaeffer

Now and then I want to give you a…

So we got a new site.

Tell us what you think.  Got any feedback or encouragement? Let us know. Your feedback helps us make changes to the site.

UPDATE: New websites look nice but they are always a few kinks to work out. Right now we’re working on enabling comments for the blog so hang in there...

Ryan James (our web guru) has been…