Weep, weep for those who do the work of the Lord with a high look and a proud heart. Their voice is lifted up in the streets, and their cry is heard. The bruised reed they break by their great strength, and the smoking flax they trample.

Weep not for the quenched (for their God will hear their cry an...

This past week Jani and I had the privilege of serving the pastors and wives of the Acts 29 Network, Southeast Region, in Vail, Colorado. Here is the message I brought, which I believe is critical to our authenticity and power in these momentous days: A29SE2018.

Richard Ellsworth Day, on pages 223-224 of The Shadow of the Broad Brim (1934), writes of “a prayer service in Metropolitan Tabernacle that dragged wretchedly,” when one of the leaders finally suggested to Spurgeon, “You had better take the meeting.”  So Spurgeon rose...

“‘Edith, I wonder what would happen to most churches and Christian work if we awakened tomorrow, and everything concerning the reality and work of the Holy Spirit, and everything concerning prayer, were removed from the Bible.  I don’t mean just ignored, but actually cut out...

The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea.  Jonah 1:4

The lot fell on Jonah.  Jonah 1:7

The Lord appointed a great fish.  Jonah 1:17

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.  Jonah 3:1

The Lord God appointed a plant.  Jonah 4:6

God appointed a worm.  Jonah 4:7

God...

“This book [of Acts] contains unanswerable evidence of the truth of the Christian religion.  It is a record of the early triumphs of Christianity.  Within the space of thirty years after the death of Christ, the gospel had been carried to all parts of the civilized, and to no small...

If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?  Luke 16:11

We are accustomed to the biblical message that we should trust God.  But here is another — smaller and subordinate, but still important — category: that God would...

“I hold myself bound, in conscience and in honor, not even to imagine that I have attained a proper knowledge of any one article of truth, much less to publish it, unless through the Holy Spirit I have had such a taste of it, in its spiritual sense, as that I may be able from the heart to say...

“When we are united to Christ a mysterious exchange takes place: he took our curse, so that we may receive his blessing; he became sin with our sin, so that we may become righteous with his righteousness. . . . On the one hand, God declined to ‘impute’ our sins to us, or...

1.  Get thoroughly dissatisfied with yourself.  Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. . . . When speaking of earthly goods Paul could say, “I have learned to be content,” but when referring to his spiritual life he testified, “I press toward the...

When God wants to drill a man And thrill a man And skill a man When God wants to mold a man To play the noblest part

When He yearns with all His heart To create so great and bold a man That all the world shall be amazed, Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects Whom He royally...

“We sit by and watch the Barbarian.  We tolerate him.  In the long stretches of peace we are not afraid.  We are tickled by his irreverence.  His comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us.  We laugh.  But as we laugh we are watched...

In a blog post entitled “4 Types of Mercy”, Matt Perman proposes that four mercies are to be discerned in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.  They are:

1. Advocacy
2. Assistance
3. Finances
4. Spiritual

Matt continues: “When we think of showing mercy and serving others, we...

The following is a letter my dad wrote several years before his death, which he left in his desk, where he knew we would find it:

Dear Family,

“The time has come for my departure” (2 Timothy 4:6). It’s strange to write this when I’m feeling well and vigorous, but unless Christ...

“It is very apparent from the Word of God that he is wont often to try the faith and patience of his people, when they are crying to him for some great and important mercy, by withholding the mercy sought for a season; and not only so, but at first to cause an increase of dark...

“Walking around St James’s Park I thought intensely of the difference between Tolstoy and St Augustine. Tolstoy tried to achieve virtue, and particularly continence, through the exercise of his will; Augustine saw that, for Man, there is no virtue without a miracle.”

Malcolm...

1.  Let’s rejoice in one another, because the Lord rejoices in us.

Psalm 16:3 sets the overall tone: “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” There is excellence to admire in every Christian. And it’s easy to discern. Two...

Led by Zwingli, the church in Zurich studied the Old Testament at a level of care which will doubtless amaze us today but which was certainly an evidence of the power of the Spirit in their midst.  A contemporary account paints the picture:

“This gathering began with...

“We should never come to [differences] with true Christians without regret and without tears.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Believe me, evangelicals often have not shown it.  We rush in, being very, very pleased, it would seem at times, to find other men’s...

“We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering Life within us. Each of us tends to be, not a single self, but a whole committee of selves. There is the civic self, the parental self, the financial self, the religious self, the...

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Psalm 32:3-4

Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses famously began, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said,...

Some years ago a friend of mine used these three simple categories to objectify the sequential stages of a church’s rise and fall.

Movement

A healthy church is born as a burst of positive gospel energy. It’s a Pentecost-like explosion of joy, a vital gospel movement. Such a church has a...

Here are four categories of speech that church leaders should keep in mind at all times:

1.  Wisdom

Saying only Christ-honoring, life-giving things. Always asking oneself, “Do the words I feel like saying rise to the level of wisdom? If not, they have no place in my mouth. Good intentions...

Written by: Ray Ortlund