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We invited Scott Moonen to reflect on the birth of Christ for this year's Christmas Eve service. Here are his comments in case you weren't able to attend.

There are different kinds of books in the Christian world. There are the worship books, like Knowing God by J.I. Packer; books that set the manifold beauty of the Lord on display and draw your heart to behold and wonder. There are the paradigm shifters, like Desiring God by John Piper; books that make you stop and think and think and think some more. There are the deep books: the systematic theologies, Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, various commentaries and sermon collections that, like old, wise friends teach and explain and call us ever upward into the limitless glory and unshakable truth of God. And then, there are the Just Do It books. Personal. Practical. Pointed. Oh there is beauty, and there is truth, and there even might be a paradigm shift or two; but for the most part, these books are like physical therapists. They help you to evaluate your weaknesses and point out exercises you can do to grow strong. 

That is, in essence, the point of Mary Kassian’s book The Right Kind of Strong: Surprisingly Simple Habits of a Spiritually Strong Woman. God wants His people, He wants His daughters to be strong, mature, grounded and growing, in faith, in wisdom, in truth, and in godliness. 

Yesterday I paraphrased something I thought C.S. Lewis said. It turns out, he did say it, but much better than my paraphrase. Josh Burnett sent the quote to me, which is from Lewis' classic Mere Christianity. One of his points is that you can't honestly place on Christianity the claim of being man-made. It defies too many conventions for things we put our hands to. Here are Clive Staples' actual words:

Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect. For instance, when you have grasped that…

Last week in the sermon we considered our vision for our Sunday gatherings. One of the issues we considered was joy. We said that our vision is for our Sunday gatherings to have a consistent thread of joy even as we maintain a gritty honesty about the sorrows of life. Joy is not a simple idea for the Christian. Christians of all people are aware of the curse on this world, the fallenness of humanity, the darkness that lives in our own hearts, the devil and his demons that oppose us, and the myriad sadnesses of life. We…

This summer a group of us were studying the Trinity and exploring some very deep waters. As part of our reading we looked at Kevin DeYoung’s excellent post on the Trinity. In that article he makes the point that we need to be careful, very careful, when using the Trinity to defend a certain view of gender roles. He was referring to male headship in a marriage.

Our church affirms that God made men and women equal but different—equal in that both made in God’s image and thus are infused with inherent dignity (Gen 1:26–28), different in their…

A. W. Tozer in an editorial he wrote for his denominational magazine, “The Futility of Regret”:

The human heart is heretical by nature. Popular religious beliefs should be checked carefully against the Word of God, for they are almost certain to be wrong.

Legalism, for instance, is natural to the human heart. Grace in its true New Testament meaning is foreign to human reason, not because it is contrary to reason but because it lies beyond it. The doctrine of grace had to be revealed; it could not have been discovered.

The essence of legalism is self-atonement. The seeker tries…

For years, A.W. Tozer wrote an editorial for his denominational publication, Alliance Life Magazine. Eventually another of its editors, Anita M. Bailer, captured some of these for a book called, That Incredible Christian. One of these reflections was on "The Futility of Regret." It contains numerous insights on heretical and Pharisaic tendencies—and the grace to escape these. Below is his reflection with just some section headings added. 

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We're all recovering heretics and legalists

The human heart is heretical by nature. Popular religious beliefs should be checked carefully against the Word of God, for they are almost certain…

On March 23rd, Ken Sande will be with us to teach key principles of relational wisdom (sign up, pick your lunch). If his name is a new one for you, I'd like to introduce him a bit. You can find out more about him on his ministry website, but here is some of his journey in his own words. 

Twice Privileged

By God’s grace, I’ve had the privilege of founding two organizations that are dedicated to preserving and transforming relationships: Peacemaker Ministries and Relational Wisdom 360 (RW360).

I was raised on a ranch in Montana. Initially…

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Dave Taylor, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Sydney, Austrailia, is the Director of Emerging Nations within Sovereign Grace.

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Last week we looked at Philip's ministry in Samaria in Acts 8:4–25. These verses paint one of the more vivid pictures of what John the Baptist described as being "baptized in the Holy Spirit":

And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ (John 1:32–33)

As we worked…