Joy in Christ

Think About These Things | Philippians 4:8-9

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3rq3FY30fLqEkFPibk41oJ?si=936c0641dfba439c Study Guide This sermon was originally preached in 2018. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and …

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Jesus Is the Application

Over the past two Sundays, I preached two fairly well-known texts, Jesus calming the storm and Jesus healing the demoniac. While studying for the first sermon, I began to think about all the possible applications that could be made from that passage, yet increasingly, I became even more rooted in my conviction that Mark particularly …

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Social Justice & the Church: A Podcast

By now I am certain that almost everyone reading this has at least heard in passing the words social justice. Perhaps you may have also heard some terms that are generally linked to them, things like Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, Cultural Marxism, and Intersectionality. If you have found yourself confused by the controversies …

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Reading Together

Quotes from The Mortification of Sin

Having concluded our read together through Owen's classic The Mortification of Sin, a gathering of some of my favorite quotations from the book seems to be fitting sort of epilogue. Of course, I did the same with Thomas Watson's book, Heaven Taken by Storm, but there is certainly a significant difference between the two. Watson …

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Reading Together

Chapter 14 (Mortification of Sin)

We arrive at last to the final chapter of Owen's treatise on mortifying sin. Here Owen explains that while the previous nine directions have largely focused upon preparing ourselves to mortify sin, he now speaks to "the work itself" (145). In our present edition of study, only one direction is distinguished here; Richard Rushing in …

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Reading Together

Chapter 13 (Mortification of Sin)

We come now to the penultimate chapter of John Owen’s classic, The Mortification of Sin. In this chapter Owen concludes his nine directions for making ourselves ready to mortify sin. Next week, he will conclude the book with two final directions for killing our sin before it kills us. The 9th Direction and subject of …

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Reading Together

Chapter 12 (Mortification of Sin)

Here in chapter 12, Owen presents us with his 8th Direction for mortifying sin, which is to “use and exercise thyself to such meditations as may serve to fill thee at all times with self-abasement, and thoughts of thine own vileness” (119). This is to build up within us a hatred against the sin that …

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Reading Together

Chapter 10 (Mortification of Sin)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cXwD6J5Nj7T0RclQnKJWR?si=0W08Es0tRbG_s2VYi0bKPg Having established the first direction for mortifying sin in the previous chapter, Owen now moves on to discuss the second direction: “Get a clear and abiding sense upon thy mind and conscience, first, of the guilt, secondly, of the danger, thirdly, of the evil, of that sin wherewith thou art perplexed” (99). The chapter …

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Reading Together

Chapter 7 (Mortification of Sin)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4l6IaUGaLaPryJKKNQxblY?si=K45SPwW7RCuPZTYSPT8PzQ Moving on from Owen’s description of what mortification is and is not in the previous two chapters, he now proceeds into two “general rules and principles, without which no sin will be mortified” (69). Our present chapter will deal with the first, and chapter 8 will discuss the second. This first general principle is …

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a secular virtue

On Pride & Humility

Pride should not be celebrated. Shocking, I know. Although I am purposely choosing to study pride and its opposing virtue, humility, during what has been dubbed “pride month,” my aim is not to launch a polemic assault on the LGBT movement. Of course, no one should be surprised to find those who gladly rebel against …

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