verse4today: "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" (Romans 12:12).
Posted on 2010-07-29 via Twitter
Many people want God but aren't so sure - or are real sure - that they don't want the local church. That's understandable. Carlo Caretto, the great Italian spiritual writer, spoke for many of us when he wrote these words: "How much I must criticize you, my church and yet how much I love you. How you have made me to suffer and yet how much I owe you. I should like to see you destroyed and yet … Read More …
Why pray? I tried to answer that question in my sermon this past Sunday. In that message I offered five reasons to pray, though given time, I would have added one more to the list. So, here are my six reasons to pray, although I am guessing there may be more: Because prayer is natural for human beings created in the image of a Triune God. As St. Augustine said better than anyone: Our hearts are restless until they … Read More …
I came across The Marks of God's Children by a sixteen-century Dutch Calvinist pastor named Jean Taffin, who wrote during a season of persecution upon Protestant Christians in that part of the world now known as the Netherlands. This book, which reads like a pastor's manual, offers encouragement to believers wrestling with the tough questions of the faith: Why suffering? Where is God in all this? Why hasn't God answered my prayers? How can I be assured that … Read More …