Did you know that American short story writer had a peacock farm when she was still alive? This I did not know. Until I learned about it in a most peculiar way. I’ll get to that in a minute. The Middle-of-the-Summer Outdoor Music Festival My first exposure to O’Connor, like many of you, was when…
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Introducing the 2/60 best books on the gospel. A 62-week long series. Baxter’s is a brutal little book. Not brutal in style like Owen. But brutal in content like Owen. Baxter’s is an unflinching prosecutor of the wicked. A man who approaches their conversion and condemnation like their life depended on it. Which it does. The Quick and…
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Mention the word submission and you’ll make some people’s hair stand on end. For instance, in a recent conversation I was groping for a word to describe someone who is compliant and respectful. The word I chose to use was “submissive.” The gentleman interrupted and said, “No. No. No. No. No. No.” Wagging his finger…
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Last week I talked about how God hates sinners in the first 50 Psalms. How this tied into the statement “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.” And how that particular post was only half the story. Let’s look at the other half today. God Curses Christ for Our Sins Christ did not deserve…
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This is a good century to be a sinner. You get all the perks of grace and none of the brutality of God’s severity. All of this rides on an overworked phrase that goes a little something like this: “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.” Quaint. But is it biblical? Sinners 3,000 Years Ago…
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Introducing the 1/60 best books on the gospel. A 62-week long series. The title. It is a joke. See, there is something you need to know about Matt. He’s tall. Like six five. And lanky–long in arm, long in fingers and long in legs. I knew this back when I first heard him preach via…
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What would you do if someone told you to starve your fatness of soil? Corpulence. Obesity. Plumpness. The best or richest part of something. Chew the fat. Fat pork. Fat year. Fat log of wood. Fat land. Get this into your fat head. Fat chance. George Orwell said, “There never was, I suppose, in the history…
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Yes, the gospel is making a comeback. We have the . Bands like writing songs heavy with gospel themes. And then there are the books. Lots of them. So many that when I searched Google for the best I landed on this GoodReads list: (49 at last count). Geesh, I thought, it should take me a…
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Part of a weekly series on Matthew. This week: Matthew 1:1-17. From the top. A homeless man, schemer and incestuous sexual predator. Then a prostitute and a Gentile woman. An adulterer and murderer. Devout kings and apostate rulers. Slaves and masters. Poor and rich. Men and women. This, my friends, is . It would be…
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Last week I published a monster cheat sheet to John Owen’s Mortification of Sin in Believers. As promised here is a list of reasons why every Christian should read the original book. 1. Understand it is your duty to kill sin Ask most Christians and they don’t have a clue what you mean when you…
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