Here is a great word from Michael Horton regarding the relationship between the inner life of the church and effective outreach, taken from his book A Better Way: John Calvin’s Geneva was a model city, historians say, in part because of the effectiveness of its restored diaconate (deacon board). As refugees fled persecution from all over [...]
Author Archives: Tullian Tchividjian
Repenting of Our Good Works
April 12, 2010 – 9:28 AM
Tim Keller from his book The Prodigal God on the need to repent, not simply of our unrighteousness, but our righteousness also: What must we do, then, to be saved? To find God we must repent of the things we have done wrong, but if that is all you do, you may remain just an elder [...]
Who Were You Carrying the Stone For?
April 9, 2010 – 11:42 AM
On Easter Sunday afternoon, my wife mildly rebuked me after listening to me complain about how I didn’t think I preached a good sermon that morning. Embarrassingly, she had to remind me that Easter is not about how little I liked my sermon and that to spend the rest of the day moaning and groaning about [...]
Higher Up and Further Back
April 6, 2010 – 7:11 AM
In one of the most powerful and poetic paragraphs I’ve ever read on human yearning and the hope of the gospel, Cornelius Plantinga (President of Calvin Theological Seminary) writes: The truth is that nothing in this earth can finally satisfy us. Much can make us content for a time but nothing can fill us to the brim. [...]
Counterfeit Gospels
March 19, 2010 – 9:06 AM
In light of Paul Tripp coming to Coral Ridge this weekend, I’ve gone back through a lot of my Paul Tripp books–he’s such a huge gift to the church! In one of his books (co-authored with Tim Lane), How People Change, he identifies seven counterfeit gospels—-”religious” ways we try and “justify” or “save” ourselves apart from the gospel [...]
Contextualization Without Compromise
March 10, 2010 – 12:45 PM
On April 26-27 I will have the privilege of joining men I admire and respect at the Advance the Church conference in Durham, North Carolina. My assignment is to speak on “contextualization without compromise.” I address this very issue at length in my book 'Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different'. The organizers of the conference have asked me to share some of my thoughts on contextualization. So, for better or for worse, here they are.
Be Not Afraid
March 4, 2010 – 4:15 PM
This morning I went back to a prayer that my friend Scotty penned recently -- a prayer about fear. It’s so natural to be afraid even though the Bible tells us over 300 times "be not afraid.” Scotty’s prayer gets to the heart of why Christians can live fearlessly. He quotes Revelation 1:17-18: He placed his right hand on me and [...]
The Gospel is For Christians
February 27, 2010 – 5:27 PM
The great theologian B. B. Warfield on why the gospel is needed for believers: There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This [...]
Generous Justice
February 23, 2010 – 10:14 AM
The subject of social justice and whether or not the church should involve itself in such things is a hot topic these days, especially amongst younger Evangelicals. I’ll never forget a conversation I had a couple years ago with a good friend named Lee. We were sitting in a hotel room discussing whether the church [...]
The Gospel Revolution
February 17, 2010 – 7:52 AM
This upcoming May I will be speaking in Dallas at a conference sponsored by the Association of Biblical Counselors called The Gospel Revolution: Rediscovering the Power of the Cross. I’m honored to be speaking with people I respect very much like Paul Tripp, Elyse Fitzpatrick, and Michael Emlet. A few weeks ago Jeremy Lelek, President of the Association [...]