Christian Living / Spiritual Growth

  • Amazing Love by John Piper

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2011

    The love of Christ for us in His dying was as conscious as His suffering was intentional. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). If He was intentional in laying …Read More

  • Fear Not by R.C. Sproul

    We are fragile mortals, given to fears of every sort. We have a built-in insecurity that no amount of whistling in the dark can mollify. We seek assurance concerning the things that frighten us the most.

    The prohibition uttered more …Read More

  • Turning Evil on Its Head by Joni Eareckson Tada

    FROM TABLETALK | June 2006

    Ask my husband; I am no theologian. I’ve never read Calvin’s Institutes all the way through, nor do I know Greek or Hebrew. But years ago, when I snapped my neck under the weight of a dive into …Read More

  • The Privilege of Assurance by Roger Nicole

    The privilege of assurance, which is secured by the work of Christ for His own and which is properly undergirded in the Reformed faith, is damaged or even destroyed in certain other theological structures.

    I. When justification by faith alone …Read More

  • The Real Prayer of Jabez by Steven Lawson

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2006

    Riding a tidal wave of surging popularity, few Christian books have burst onto the publishing scene and been as widely received as The Prayer of Jabez (Multnomah, 2000). In only its sixth year of circulation, this brief, ninety-three-page book has …Read More

  • True & False Assurance by John Gerstner

    Probably Romans 8:16 is the greatest assurance text in the entire Bible. It is appealed to by Reformed and Arminian evangelicals alike, though they have conflicting ideas of assurance.

    Romans 8:16 reads, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our …Read More

  • Assurance by John de Witt

    FROM TABLETALK | February 1992

    What does a pastor think about assurance? By assurance here I mean the certainty that through Jesus Christ one is a child of God: forgiven, renewed, having eternal life. I cannot speak for others, but I can give my thoughts …Read More

  • A Matter of Death and Life by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | April 2001

    We live in strange times. It used to be said that the only two things we could be certain of were death and taxes. You still can be pretty sure of taxes, but death recently has become rather more cloudy …Read More

  • Acquainted with Death by Peter Leithart

    FROM TABLETALK | April 2001

    Many today boast of near-death experiences. I do not. I have never had a near-death experience. But I am not intimidated by those who have, because I can boast, too. I have never been near death, but I have died …Read More

  • Cultural Narcissism and a Titanic Lesson by Harry Reeder

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2012

    In the inky darkness of April 15, 1912, the Titanic, billed as “the ship that even God could not sink,” plunged into the icy waters of the North Atlantic, its hull split in two. Amazingly, the lost consisted of men …Read More

  • Why Controversy is Sometimes Necessary by Albert Mohler

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2012

    I recently watched as a young mother acted quickly and decisively to end a squabble among two preschool boys. She acted righteously and quite effectively, and then she turned to her two charges and set down the law: “It is …Read More

  • I Believe in Doubt by Os Guinness

    FROM TABLETALK | January 1992

    “A man may be haunted with doubts and only grow thereby in faith. Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have …Read More

  • Consider the Public by Robert Rothwell

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2012

    Unbelievers, even though their hearts and minds are opposed to God’s truth, sometimes have more spiritual insight than we give them credit for. At least that is what I learned as a junior in college. As a religion major …Read More

  • Consider Yourself by Burk Parsons

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2012

    Controversy exists because God’s truth exists in a world of lies. Controversy is the plight of sinners in a fallen world, who were originally created by God to know the truth, love the truth, and proclaim the truth. We …Read More

  • Drawing the Line: Why Doctrine Matters by R. Scott Clark

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2012

    Imagine Mike. He’s an unusual mechanic. Where other mechanics find natural laws (such as gravity) unavoidable and even useful, he suspects them to be arbitrary, invoked in order to stifle his creativity. We can imagine how the story ends …Read More