5 Evidences for the Existence of God

William Lane Craig's post, "A Christmas gift for atheism"

"Let Us Adore Him"

A post for Advent season from Desiring God.

Worry is a waste...

“Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

"He knows..."

"'But He knoweth the way that I take [-- Job].' In the grip of the mystery of God's providential dealings with us, this is the very acme and apex of faith. To put it very simply, it means that our resting place, as we may be faced with the mystery of God's secret will is, 'I do not know, but I know that God knows.' The judge of all the earth will do right." -- John Murray (cp. Job 23:10-12)  "Collected Writings" vol. 3, p. 164.

The Gifts of the Magi

Frederick D. Bruner on the gifts of the magi (‘wise men’): 

“When people are drawn to, find, and worship God’s Christ, they also find themselves wanting to bring him their finest resources. Christmas gift-giving has its origin here. The first gift-giver is God. Now the first human gift-givers are Magi. Regenerate humanity’s first response to Christ is giving itself to his honor and service. The question of life’s meaning begins to be answered: it is to devote one’s gifts to God’s King.”

"If God does not exist...."

"Nor can anyone argue that the horrors of the twentieth century were unanticipated.  Although they came as a shock, the did not come as a surprise.  In The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov exclaims that if God does not exist, then everything is permitted.

"Throughout the nineteenth century, as religious conviction seeped out of the institutions of Western culture, poets and philosophers had the uneasy feeling that its withdrawal might signal the ascension of great evil in the world.  In this they were right...."

-- David Berlinski, "The Devil's Delusion:  Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions"

"3 Marks of Righteous Anger"

A good blog post from Tim Challies, based on the book, "Uprooting Anger," by Robert Jones.

Counting the Cost

"It costs something to be a true Christian. It will cost us our sins, our self-righteousness, our ease and our worldliness." ~ J.C. Ryle

God's Holy Love

"The deepest truths about God’s character are not simply about his holiness, or his love, but about his holiness in its bond to his love, the one expressing the other, each deepening the paradox of their belonging to each other, of belonging together. Each in relation to the other leads us into the glory of who God is in his character." -- David Wells

The Depths of Christ's Grace

"There is no pit so deep but Christ is deeper still." -- Corrie ten Boom

"You are the light of the world..."

"The Bible is not the light of the world, it is the light of the Church. But the world does not read the Bible, the world reads Christians! 'You are the light of the world.'" -- Charles Spurgeon

Carson on "The Gospel"

"The gospel is the great news of what God has graciously done in Jesus Christ, especially in his atoning death and vindicating resurrection, his ascension, session, and high priestly ministry, to reconcile sinful human beings to himself, justifying them by the penal substitute of his Son, and regenerating and sanctifying them by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, who is given to them as the down payment of their ultimate inheritance. God will save them if they repent and trust in Jesus." -- D.A. Carson

At the Foot of the Cross

"Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is here, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size."


— John Stott
"The Message of Galatians"
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1968), 179

HT:  firstimportance.org

"Don't Let Christmas Distract You from Jesus"

from Jared Wilson...

"There is a great danger this Christmas season of missing the point. And I’m not referring simply to idolatrous consumption and materialism. I’m talking about Christmas religiosity. It is very easy around this time to set up our Nativity scenes, host our Christmas pageants and cantatas, read the Christmas story with our families, attend church every time the door is open, and insist to ourselves and others that Jesus is the reason for the season, and yet not see Jesus. With the eyes of our heart, I mean.

"I suppose there is something about indulging in the religious Christmas routine that lulls us into thinking we are dwelling in Christ when we are really just set to seasonal autopilot, going through the festive and sentimental motions. Meanwhile the real person Jesus the Christ goes neglected in favor of his plastic, paper, and video representations. Don’t get distracted from Jesus by 'Jesus.' This year, plead with the Spirit to interrupt your nice Christmas with the power of Jesus’ gospel."

Alive to God

"The atoning death of Christ, and that alone, has presented sinners as righteous in God’s sight; the Lord Jesus has paid the full penalty of their sins, and clothed them with His perfect righteousness before the judgment seat of God.

"But Christ has done for Christians even far more than that. He has given to them not only a new and right relation to God, but a new life in God’s presence for evermore. He has saved them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin.

"The New Testament does not end with the death of Christ; it does not end with the triumphant words of Jesus on the Cross, ‘It is finished.’ The death was followed by the resurrection, and the resurrection like the death was for our sakes.

"Jesus rose from the dead into a new life of glory and power, and into that life He brings those for whom He died. The Christian, on the basis of Christ’s redeeming work, not only has died unto sin, but also lives unto God."


— J. Gresham Machen
"Christianity & Liberalism"