From the monthly archives:

September 2007

Martyn Lloyd-Jones Monday – Sin and Self-Sufficiency

September 30, 2007

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was not known as “The Doctor” merely because he had a medical degree. He was a master spiritual diagnostician, and skillfully applied treatment with God’s Word to our condition. The following extract is a good example of this, dealing as it does with the nature of sin and its relationship to our prideful [...]

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John Owen on How Conscious Communion With Christ Keeps Us From Sin

September 29, 2007

In this extract from the forthcoming Owen book, John Owen reveals just how distant he is from many modern-day Christians. How often do we talk about a conscious relationship with the living Christ? How much do we truly enjoy his presence? How much are we aware of how precious he is? Is our failure to [...]

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John Owen on Communion With God the Father

September 28, 2007

The following passage, taken from the forthcoming John Owen book, Communion with the Triune God, highlights a reason for our spiritual weakness and our lack of joy—we do not consciously commune with God the Father, and when we think of him, we think of him as full of wrath toward us:

“First, then, this is a [...]

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John Piper on John Owen and Assurance of Salvation

September 27, 2007

There are few places where one can go to study church history more rewarding than Dr. John Piper’s biographical talks. He has a way of opening up the life of a great hero of the faith and showing us what we can learn from them. I’m finding myself in John Owen’s Communion with the Triune [...]

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Was John Owen a Charismatic?

September 27, 2007

You may remember a simple definition of the word charismatic I shared from a recent book review which began: “Those who recognize that the gift of the Spirit is to be received . . .”
While it is anachronistic to ask if John Owen was a charismatic, it is very interesting indeed that, like John Piper [...]

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John Owen, the Trinity, and the Atonement

September 25, 2007

The atonement is never far from this blog. It seems that misconceptions common in our day were, sadly, also common in John Owen’s day. We see in this quote something incredibly topical today. Perhaps sometimes the answers to today’s debates do indeed lie in studying the theological upsets of the past:
“Unfortunately, many Christians often have [...]

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Sermon – ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST – EPH 2:1-10

September 24, 2007

This is some notes from a sermon I preached last Sunday. You can download the audio or listen to it right here with this player.The following notes havent gone through my usual ‘tidying up’ process and I thought I would share them with you without any real editorial input just so you can see [...]

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John Owen and Knowing God Through Jesus

September 23, 2007

Sometime ago I posted about the fact that it is Jesus who best reveals to us the attributes of God. It was therefore thrilling to see that this concept echoed down the centuries in the writings of John Owen. “The great revelation of Christ to us is that of “God as a Father,” and this [...]

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Persecution in India

September 23, 2007

My buddy, Mark Moore, has asked us to pray for a friend of his who is a pastor facing persecution in India. See Mark’s blog for the full story:
“One of our international pastors in Acts 29, Pastor Sudhakar in India, is facing tremendous persecution, having been drug out of his church on a Sunday [...]

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Mark Driscoll in Christianity Today

September 22, 2007

Christianity Today has a profile of Mark Driscoll. This piece is a great introduction to the man and the controversy surrounding him. I have previously interviewed Driscoll and one of the Mars Hill deacons. Here are some sections of the interview that stood out for me:
“Driscoll can’t stand in front of a crowd for long [...]

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John Owen on the Trinity

September 21, 2007

Some today argue that the Trinity is a relatively novel concept. Owen demonstrates this is not true and cites Gregory of Nazianzus’ statement: “No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the Splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to [...]

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John Owen on the Vital Place of Knowing God

September 19, 2007

Yesterday we shared a great definition of the Gospel taken from the Forward to the forthcoming Crossway book, Communion with the Triune God.
Today we will share more words from the introductory portions of that book which will explain this further and show the emphasis Owen placed on an experience of God: “I pray God with [...]

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John Owen on the Gospel and Communion With God

September 18, 2007

Yesterday I began a series of posts inspired by the introductory materials to the forthcoming Crossway book, Communion With the Triune God by John Owen.
One major preoccupation of this blog which has been overarching much of my writing has been that of the Gospel itself. In an age which tends to assume or even deny [...]

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Introducing John Owen to a Generation That Desperately Needs Him

September 17, 2007

Every now and then a book arrives in my hands that I realize is too important for me to wait until I have finished reading it before I comment on it here. The book I want to discuss is so important that I knew before I had even finished the introduction I had to tell [...]

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