Be ye kind one to another. — EPHESIANS 4:32a DEAR CHILDREN, did you know that even if someone is mean to us we must be kind to them? Many times our being kind to them makes them feel bad for being so mean to us! Let’s pretend you are playing …
Beeke’s Book of the Month for August 2023 is Parenting by God’s Promises: How to Raise Children in the Covenant of Grace by Dr. Joel Beeke. Enjoy Dr. Beeke’s inspiring introduction to learn how the Covenant of Grace gives hope to Christian parents. My dad claimed he would never earn …
Our lives are not just a journey to death. They are a journey to one of two eternal places: heaven or hell. In heaven all evil is walled out and all good is walled in. Heaven is an eternal day that knows no sunset. Hell is an eternal night that …
In defining accommodation, we want to consider three significant matters: first, its basic meaning; second, its reflection of God’s character; and third, how it can be applied in our experience. First, the basic meaning of accommodation is difficult both to perceive and practice, for (1) our natural inclination is to …
The Bible itself turns out to be the best guidebook on how to contextualize and accommodate in evangelism. Here are a few points we can draw from this: Jesus is Paul’s pattern for a kind of freedom that becomes the servant of all in order to save. In this mindset, …
A weary and discouraged pastor who sees the title of this chapter might be tempted to stop reading, thinking, “I was zealous once. But now I’m ill-tempered and just plain tired! Zeal means trouble. Zeal causes pastors to be burned out, cussed out, or thrown out by the sheep or …
Our Reformed and Puritan forebears were fond of calling the Lord’s Supper a feast. They viewed it as a feast given by the Lord of hosts, the faithful, covenant-keeping God, who, in Christ Jesus, is the author, founder, master, and divine host of this feast. He provides this feast “of …
Coping with criticism in the ministry requires a healthy reckoning with reality. Perhaps this strikes you as a strange point for us to make at the beginning of a section on practical principles for handling criticism. What does reality have to do with properly receiving verbal critique? There is an …
A healthy church is one that is shaped by the gospel. Our people need to see the beauty of Christ. Nothing will enable them to lovingly and humbly give and receive constructive critique more than heart-searching, expository gospel preaching. This is our great task and privilege as ministers—to proclaim Christ. …
Prayer is amazing, glorious, delightful work. Yet apart from faith in Christ, prayer is also difficult, demanding, and in many ways impossible. There is not a believer on earth that cannot sympathize with that. So, though I may have bordered on the idealistic in this closing chapter, my aim is …
