Spiritual Growth / Sanctification and Growth

  • Total Surrender by Kevin Smith

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2009

    Gary Thomas, in his book Seeking the Face of God, makes this statement: “Christian health is not defined by how happy we are, how prosperous or healthy we are, or even by how many people we have led to the …Read More

  • Basking in the Benefits by Kim Riddlebarger

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2009

    Q. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?  A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love …Read More

  • The Resolution Solution by Gene Edward Veith

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    A modern reader perusing Jonathan Edwards’ “Resolutions” is likely to think, what about dieting? And, didn’t eighteenth-century New England have any gyms that he could resolve to join? Today, losing weight and getting more exercise are about the extent …Read More

  • The Best-Laid Plans by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    To suggest that wisdom is always balanced seems to me to be a bit, well, unbalanced. Whoever first uttered the words of wisdom, “moderation in all things,” should, I believe, have healed himself. All things? Isn’t that a bit …Read More

  • Speed with God by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    When Sereno E. Dwight included the seventy resolutions in his biography of his great-grandfather Jonathan Edwards, he added the arresting comment: “These were all written before he was twenty years of age.” Doubtless the resolutions display the marks of relative …Read More

  • The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards by Stephen Nichols

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    He was a young man unsure of his future. He had many gifts and not a few options before him. His father and grandfather were ministers, as were uncles and others in the family tree. He had a first-rate …Read More

  • Resolved by the Grace of God by Burk Parsons

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    When I was nineteen years old, I joined the staff of a large evangelical church. A few of the pastors on the staff became wonderful friends and mentors, but as I encountered some of the pastors at that church and …Read More

  • Principle Vs. Pragmatism by R.C. Sproul

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    Some years ago, I drove along the Pennsylvania Turnpike about two o’clock in the morning with a friend after having spent all day at a steel corporation in eastern Pennsylvania dealing with labor management issues. My companion was a …Read More

  • Resolved to Live and Die by Burk Parsons

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    My wife’s father, my father by marriage, has served in law enforcement four decades. Having served as an FBI-trained sheriff’s detective in south Florida for many years, he came to be known as “smiling Jack” on account of …Read More

  • Dreams of Paradise by Robert Field

    FROM TABLETALK | December 2008

    Hawaii has often been advertised as one of those classic dreams of paradise. When streets on the mainland clog with snow and temperatures plummet far below zero, thoughts are enticed by Hawaii’s warm tropical waves lapping upon beaches saturated …Read More

  • Former Things by Scotty Smith

    FROM TABLETALK | December 2007

    Having read this incredible collage of articles on God’s kingdom in this Advent season edition of Tabletalk, hopefully you’re beginning to wonder how to “bring home” all this rich theology to your context and community. What are some …Read More

  • Spontaneous Compassion by Joni Eareckson Tada

    FROM TABLETALK | November 2008

    Bureaucracies aren’t programmed to be compassionate. It’s not in the nature of the thing. Take my friend, David Bowie, in his big, bulky wheelchair. After he became a quadriplegic in a car accident and his wife left him …Read More

  • Respectable Sins by Keith Mathison

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2008

    Have you ever found yourself so caught up and concerned with the rampant sinfulness of our culture that you forget about the subtle sins in your own heart? If so, Jerry Bridges has written a book for you. Respectable Sins …Read More

  • Envy & Kindness by Carol Ruvolo

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2008

    Take out a sheet of paper and number from one to seven. Now list the seven deadly sins in what you would say is their order of badness. Did you put envy last? Does it seem “less bad” to you …Read More

  • Standing Firm by Bill Haynes

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2008

    Martin Luther, in his Table Talk #403, makes the statement that “an upright shepherd and minister must improve his flock by edification, and also resist and defend it; otherwise, if resisting be absent, the wolf devours the sheep.” Resisting and …Read More