Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is based on a poem that describes heaven from a child’s point of view. The music certainly sounds heavenly. The symphony’s fourth movement features a soprano singing the German words to the poem “Das himmlische Leben”—“The Heavenly Life.” English listeners might simply be moved by the serene beauty of the music. But the German words paint a peculiar picture of heaven.
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John MacArthur's message “Fifteen Words of Hope” has been referred to as “the finest single summary of the gospel message in the entire sermon catalogue. Expounding the rich truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21—“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”—John walks us through the glorious doctrines of justification, imputation, and reconciliation, explaining how, as he ...
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True reconciliation requires God’s forgiveness; it can occur only if the offended party is willing to forgive and remove the barrier sin creates. The sinner cannot remove that barrier, and so cannot reconcile himself to God. Only the Lord can effect reconciliation by choosing not to count our trespasses against us.
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Just reading billboards on a road trip is enough to realize that people want to change their lives. Whether it be physical, financial, or relational, there are a vast range of self-help industries that have sprung up around the world’s insatiable demand for self-improvement. In effect, they perpetuate a lie that dominates the world: you can change yourself.
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Evolution’s doctrine of man is fundamentally wrong on two counts. That was the diagnosis Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones delivered during an interview in 1970: “I criticize the modern view of man on two grounds. One is that it makes too much of man. Secondly, that it doesn’t make enough of man.”
Read MoreLater this week, most of us here in the U.S. will gather with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving. While the world’s view of the holiday is bound up in food, football, and Black Friday savings, believers ought to know better. Certainly we can enjoy those aspects of the day as well, but not at the cost of cultivating a heart of true gratitude for the Lord’s abundant blessings in ...
Read MoreDear Friend, Market research is big business these days. Corporations spend billions of dollars trying to determine what consumers want and how to motivate them to buy it. They study customer habits and preferences so they can shape their products and services to make them as enticing as possible. When it comes to the business world, the consumer is sovereign.
Read MoreA small item I read in the news twenty years ago has stuck in my mind ever since. The Rockdale County High School Bulldogs basketball team of Conyers, Georgia, won their first-ever state championship in March of 1987, rolling over all their opponents. After eighteen years of coaching the team without a championship, coach Cleveland Stroud was ecstatic.
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