The Sufficiency of Christ

Hudson Taylor was invited to preach the opening sermon at the General Missionary Conference in Shanghai in 1890. His theme was “The Heart of Jesus and His Sufficiency”. In it he dealt with Jesus’ feeding of the four thousand in Matthew 15:29-39. He said, “I am so glad it was a great multitude, so great [...]

Read Full Post »

Your Community’s Needs are Growing

(from churchrelevance.com by Kent Shaffer)
A weakened economy and rising food costs has created a scarcity of food among people who never thought they would be lacking. According to the U.S. government, 1 in 9 households (10.9%) did not have enough food for a healthy lifestyle at some point during 2006.
Food banks report a 15% to [...]

Read Full Post »

More Than We Ever Dared Hope « Of First Importance

More Than We Ever Dared Hope « Of First Importance
More Than We Ever Dared Hope
“The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, [...]

Read Full Post »

it is the pierced hand that holds the golden sceptre

“It is only through blood-shedding that conscience is purged; it is only at the cross that the sinner can meet with God; it is the cross that knits heaven and earth together; it is the cross that bears up the collapsing universe; it is the pierced hand that holds the golden sceptre; it is at [...]

Read Full Post »

VIDEO – My Jesus, My Savior on American Idol

Read Full Post »

Is Our Gospel Too Small or Too Big?

There has been an interesting debate concerning the extent to which the announcement of the new creation inaugurated in Jesus and the church is to be considered central to the gospel.  The debate is largely in response to N.T. Wright (see, e.g. his Surprised by Hope) who believes that it is.  Tim Keller gets it [...]

Read Full Post »

Mourning into Dancing

Charles Calder was called to pastor a church in Ferintosh, a village of Scotland north of Inverness. Early in the first year of his ministry his wife died. Her death was on the eve of Calder’s first communion service. The elders urged him to delay the service and to focus on a period of mourning [...]

Read Full Post »

Praying for Those We Love

Elisabeth Elliot, in her book A Lamp For My Feet, makes the following point regarding how to pray for those we love:
“Because I am ‘of the earth, earthy,’ I find that my prayers for the people I love are mostly bound by very earthy concerns–Lord, help P. to find a good wife, show G. which [...]

Read Full Post »

This is what I’m talkin’ Bout

“Because of the gospel’s power, you can be completely free of all condemnation.
Not mostly free; completely free.
Don’t buy the lie that cultivating condemnation and wallowing in your shame is somehow pleasing to God, or that a constant, low-grade guilt will somehow promote holiness and spiritual maturity.
It’s just the opposite! God is glorified when we believe [...]

Read Full Post »

Gimmee Shelter

A sweet new tune from a new Sovereign Grace album can be linked (and downloaded for free!) from this post at  Between Two Worlds. Check it out! The lyrics are there also.

Read Full Post »