spiritual blessings

Shepherding visits are helpful for shepherds and sheep. For the flock, the visit provides informal genuine care and guidance. Among many blessings, shepherding affords the under-shepherd an opportunity to glean information that will enable him to better care for the flock in the future. Several...

I have sat before women with tears streaming down their face confessing the truth of God’s sovereignty, but questioning His love in the face of death, despair, disappointment and disillusionment. Whether it’s the loss of a baby, the end of a marriage, the loss of financial security, the end of a...

Recently, while picking up my daughter from school I asked my customary question: “So, how was your day?” Normally, the response is brief, but this day was one of those exceptions. “History class was interesting. We had a discussion on predestination.” As it turned out, since they were studying the...

Questions Women Asked (and Might Still Be Asking) Simonetta Carr returns to the podcast to share highlights from her new book. Simonetta is a contributor at PlaceForTruth.org through her column Cloud of Witnesses and an acclaimed author known for the series Christian Biographies for Young Readers...

The much-loved hymn, ‘I greet thee who my sure Redeemer art’ – included in the Strasbourg Psalter of 1545 and attributed to John Calvin – contains the lines, Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness, No harshness hast Thou, and no bitterness These words have often drawn comment, or been quoted...

“Our life on earth is a brief pilgrimage between two moments of nakedness.” So wrote the late Rev. John Stott. He was commenting on Paul’s candid way of summoning the believer’s soul to the green pastures of contentment. Writing to Timothy, Paul says: “But godliness with contentment is great gain...

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, (Col. 1:17-18). Reformed...

A five-part series on the solas of the Reformation is timely and needed. There are several good books on the importance of remembering the Protestant Reformation and the doctrinal distinctions that made it necessary, but more can and should always be written. In an age of ecumenicism and doctrinal...

Charles Haddon Spurgeon and His Struggle with Depression Charles Spurgeon is known as one of the greatest preachers in history. Not everyone knows about his ongoing battle with depression. Even fewer people know about his advocacy for people who lived with the same – or a similar - condition. While...

In the last section of the golden book Calvin asks how the present life and its comfort should be used by the Christian. The question of use invites us to think about fit. In other words, says Calvin, we must let the use of God’s gifts “be governed by their author’s purpose.” [1] Imagine a group of...