Topic Archives: Spiritual Growth

John Owen’s classic work ‘On Temptation’ has recently been published by Banner of Truth in an updated edition as Temptation Resisted and Repulsed.1 The church which I serve used this newer version as the basis for a series of adult Sunday School classes over a course of months. It became quickly apparent that the material […]

Paul described himself to Titus as ‘a servant of God’. And that was how he imagined himself in his pre-conversion days. He was, so he thought, blameless as ‘touching the righteousness which is in the law’ (Phil. 3:6); he was, in his own eyes, a marvellously-faithful servant of God. But when he met the risen […]

Horace Bushnell, the 19th-century Congregational minister from Hartford, along with Universalist Hosea Ballou, and Unitarian William Ellery Channing altered the way many people thought about Christ’s atonement. Until that time, the conventional view in the church of Christ was God-centred and objective. That is, the sovereign Triune God who created man requires obedience from mankind. […]

In times of revival sinners experience a deep conviction of their sinful condition. Sometimes this experience can be agonising. As souls first discover their appalling condition of lostness and guilt and then are led to search for and find salvation by faith in Christ, the glory of God’s grace shines resplendently. The hymns which stem […]

Has it ever struck you how often the New Testament defines the life of faith in terms of the words we speak and the way we speak them? Writing to the Christian church in Colossae, Paul urged God’s people to rid themselves of “anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from (their) lips.” John warned […]

… among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:3. Ernest Hemingway, an American icon of the 20th century, one who, perhaps more than any other writer, changed […]

A reader wrote to Iain Murray: “I have a request. I am seeking Puritan or Reformed authors and books that deal with the pursuit of holiness, practical godliness and a deeper walk with Christ. I want more experimental power over sins, attitudes and the core inner failures that plague me. Any authors that you may […]

By the mid 1960’s George and Patti Harrison were deeply into Eastern mysticism, evidenced in a number of George’s songs he had written for the Beatles during that time. But on Thursday, August 24, 1967 their involvement in Eastern mysticism went to a whole new level. Patti heard that the Maharishi Yogi was lecturing in […]

Caroline Hand writes on how reading John Gwyn-Thomas’s Rejoice Always1 helped her. Why is it we do not always see the fulfilment of God’s promises in our own personal circumstances? Romans chapter 5 tells us that tribulation produces perseverance, character and hope, with the end result that God’s love is poured into our hearts. But […]

David declares that our Lord is a God of deliverances, to whom belong escapes from death (Psa. 68:20). Some of those escapes can be quite narrow, as David himself experienced. At one time only a mountain stood between a murderous Saul with his army and a fleeing David and his company (1 Sam. 23:26). At […]

Aaron Burr, Jr. was less than two years old when his father, the President of Princeton, died suddenly and unexpectedly in September, 1758. A few months later Aaron’s grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, who had been elected President of Princeton to succeed his son-in-law, died from complications due to a small pox inoculation. A few months after […]

Perpetua, a young, well to do woman, lived in Carthage in 200 A.D. Carthage, modern day Tunis in north Africa, had a vibrant Christian community living amongst a pagan people, and Perpetua had come to believe in Jesus as the Christ. She was attending a Catechism class to prepare her for public profession and baptism, […]

THE 2002 PASSAGGIO REFORMED CONFERENCE IN ITALY The eighth annual conference of the reformed publishers ‘Passaggio’ took place at a new venue this year. Some fears had been expressed beforehand that moving the conference farther south to the town of Misano on the Adriatic coast would deter some of the participants of past years from […]

DOUBTING GOD by C.H .Spurgeon “And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. “-1 Samuel 27:1 The thought of David’s heart at this time was a false thought, because he certainly had no ground for thinking that God’s anointing him by Samuel was intended to be […]

THE INDISPENSABILITY OF GENTLE INSTRUCTION Everything in our lives matters to God. If there are things wrong in our lives, they need to be dealt with, removed. by Ian Hamilton Our Lord Jesus’ teaching is always deeply searching, sometimes almost unbearably so. Few statements of our Lord are more calculated to search out our hearts […]

THE VALUE OF A GOOD BOOK When Dr James Stalker gave the nine Yale Lectures on Preaching in 1891, which were subsequently published by Hodder and Stoughton under the title “The Preacher and His Models”, he drew to his conclusion with these words: A student ought, while at college, to make himself master of at […]

We will not be strong because of our own sense of righteousness, morality and good behaviour. by Geoff Thomas What a constant theme is Christian weakness in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. How alien a message it is to the prevailing Christian ethos of the 21st century. For example, those churches which claim to […]

SPORTS AND GAMES FOR CHILDREN “As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4 Some men are spending their time in making money. That is the main object of their lives. They would be as usefully employed probably […]

A WARNING AND A CHALLENGE Never, never he afraid to hold decided doctrinal opinions We cannot withhold our conviction that the professing Church is as much damaged by laxity and indistinctness about matters of doctrine within, as it is by sceptics and unbelievers without. Myriads of professing Christians nowadays seem utterly unable to distinguish things […]

LITERATURE IN TAMIL The 1689 Confession of Faith (3000 copies) and the Children’s Catechism (2000 copies) was printed in South India two weeks ago. Already, 200 copies have been sold and more orders keep coming. 200 copies will be sent to Sri Lanka as well. We are in the process of informing the churches and […]

TRUTH IS THE CURRENCY OF OUR LIVES Whatever else Christians are to be, they are to be men and women of integrity I recently heard the following cynical quip: How can you tell when a politician is lying? When he opens his mouth. People are increasingly disillusioned with politicians and the whole political system. The […]

THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF THE WORD More Thoughts On Reading And Writing I’ve been thinking again about the importance of reading and writing. There are several reasons I write. One of the most personally compelling is that I read. I mean, my main spiritual sustenance comes by the Holy Spirit from reading. Therefore reading is […]

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD – OUR HIGHEST PRIVILEGE In our communion with God we are so prone to look first into our own hearts to see what love to Christ is there The highest privilege a Christian can enjoy this side of eternity is fellowship or communion with God. John holds out the prospect of communion […]

OTHERS LABOURED: WE ENTERED INTO THEIR LABOURS As a congregation we inherited a living tradition of historic Christian teaching enfleshed in the lives of hundreds of people across the Principality. When I returned to Wales from three years’ study in America in 1964 I did not come into a wilderness. I came into a prepared […]

BRAZIL AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE Brazil is a fertile country, with its warm-hearted people drawn from many nation Four days up the Amazon from the ocean, and more than another four days from the Andes where that river has its sources, lies the town of Manaus. Despite its remoteness, it equals Birmingham, U.K., in […]