Spiritual Growth / Sanctification and Growth

  • 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

  • Give Without Pay by Jon Bloom

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2010

    When it comes to the mixing of gospel ministry and money, we who are leaders of churches or their ancillary ministries must have the fear of God struck into us. Heaven and hell are at stake in how we raise …Read More

  • Tevje Needed to Know by Joel Belz

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2010

    An eery discomfort links the two famous questions. Tevje, in Fiddler on the Roof, bluntly asks his wife: “Do you love me?” How can it not remind you of Jesus, in John 21, using the very same words to put …Read More

  • Motive Power by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2011

    I’m on a diet. Oops. I’m not on a diet. I’m on a lifestyle change. This has led me to become acquainted with any number of new friends on my plate. I had, until now, heard of …Read More

  • Whitewashed Tombs by Richard Phillips

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2009

    On March 10, 2008, the New York Times revealed that New York Governor Elliot Spitzer had been caught patronizing a prostitution ring. Two days later, Governor Spitzer appeared chastened before the public as he resigned from office. The story was …Read More

  • Discontentment by Jared Wilson

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2011

    Dearest Murktooth, We are happy to charge you with the present task for your assigned patient. We are happy because it is a rather easy task, evidence of your still remedial aptitude for temptations, which is itself evidence of your …Read More

  • To Whom Be the Glory by Robert Barnes

      I’m a confessional Calvinist, but I have the nagging sense that God slipped up when he allowed me to pastor a church. A number of questions go through my mind as I consider God’s decision to allow me …Read More

  • For All the Saints by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2009

      Unity matters. However, so does diversity. Indeed, unity and diversity unite in the very nature of God. God is three persons united in one essence. The world around us fails to see how God’s creation reflects the Trinity, and …Read More

  • Playing Your Part by Gene Edward Veith

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2009

    As seen in other articles this month, the word hypocrisy derives from the Greek term for “playing a part.” The ordinary word for an actor on the stage in Greek drama was hypocrite. In the tragedies of Sophocles or the …Read More

  • A World of Tomorrows by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2006

    Like the March hare, I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date. My column for this issue of Tabletalk was due yesterday. This morning I received from my friends at Ligonier a polite email reminding me of …Read More

  • The Precious Gift of Baby Talk by John Piper

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2011

    Human language is precious. It sets us off from the animals. It makes our most sophisticated scientific discoveries and our deepest emotions sharable. Above all, God chose to reveal Himself to us through human language in the Bible. In the …Read More

  • Radically Contagious by John Sartelle

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2006

    When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). I have always been leery of vaccinations. The …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

  • On Controversy by Keith Mathison

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

    John Newton is best known as the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace”. Were that all he bequeathed to the church, it would be an incredible legacy. There is another small work by Newton, however, that I believe could be …Read More

  • Thriving at College by Alex Chediak

    FROM TABLETALK | November 2010

    College represents a minefield of temptation for the Christian student. It is often the first time a young person raised in a godly home is under the direct, ongoing infl uence of both professors with secular agendas and classmates with …Read More