J. C. Ryle’s strategy to reverse the destructive effects of drunkenness point to possibilities in our battle against abortion.

Ryle was the first Bishop of Liverpool, England, starting in 1880 and ending with his death in 1900. He found that one of the great destroyers of family and society was drunkenness. There were 2,402 drinking houses in the city in 1884. One for every 229 inhabitants.

His strategy to change this was “an amalgam of preaching and social aid.” He urged the preachers of his town to “boldly denounce the great sin of the day.” And he lent his voice and energy to numerous reforms (like alternative evening amusements, women’s shelters, non-alcoholic coffee bars, and licen…

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We are children of the light. Abortion is a work of darkness. The apostle Paul said, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).

Our aim, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, through the authority of his word, is to glorify God by making much of his image in the unborn, and his mercy in forgiving sinners.

We would like to give you a free eBook based on three sermons I preached on abortion. We hope it helps you speak out. Please feel free to download it, print it, copy it, and share it with as many people as you like.

Here’s a sample sentence:

God is calling passive, inactive Christians today to engage…

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Psalm 135:1–6 —

Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord, give praise, O servants of the Lord, ² who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God! ³ Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant! ⁴ For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession. ⁵ For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. ⁶ Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

The psalm begins by calling us to praise the Lord: Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Then, starting in verse 3 the psalmist gives us reasons for why we should feel praise rising in our hear…

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Bloodlines is one of the most autobiographical books I have written. It tells my story from racism to the path of redemption. I preached on the theme of Bloodlines yesterday to mark Martin Luther King weekend. The title of the message was “From Bloodlines to Bloodline.” I argued that God is calling his people to move from the alienation of many bloodlines to the reconciliation of the single bloodline that began on the cross of Christ.

I urged my people to read the book. Not because I care about selling books, but because I want them to know my story, to be aware to the global relevance of the issue, and to feel the hope that comes from the power of the gospel.

In making the book avai…

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You may have heard people vilify or extol the Puritans. J. I. Packer is among those who extol. Indeed, he thinks that this century of pastors was the greatest the church has ever known.

Some of us have found our souls richly fed by these 350-year old pastors. When we have needed spiritual food, we have found ourselves grazing in the Bible-saturated, heart-searching seventeenth century Puritans.

If you have ever wondered just who they were, here is Packer’s description and list:

[The Puritans are] a type of evangelical believer that emerged in the Church of England in the sixteenth century and reached its high peak of development in the seventeenth century in men like Richard Baxter…

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If you want to be inspired to pray in 2012 and don’t have time for a long book, Here is a short one.

Probably no book has had a greater effect on my prayer life in proportion to its size than E. M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer. It was the seed from which grew the tree, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.

The preacher . .. is not a professional man; his ministry is not a profession; it is a divine institution, a divine devotion. (Location 55)

His passion is perhaps best expressed in this quote that he gives from William Wilberforce, a man of political action and great fruitfulness.

This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earl…

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What should you do if you know someone who seems to be more excited about movies than Jesus?

Many professing Christians give little evidence of valuing Jesus more than the latest movie they have seen. Or the latest clothing they bought. Or the latest app they downloaded. Or the latest game they watched. Something is amiss.

We are not God and cannot judge with certainty and precision what’s wrong. There is a glitch somewhere. Perhaps a blindness going in, a spiritual deadness at heart, or a blockage coming out. Or some combination. Christ doesn’t appear supremely valuable. Or isn’t felt as supremely valuable. Or can’t be spoken of as supremely valuable. Or some combination.

Here’s my s…

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Part of my message to Passion 2012 defined true Christian freedom. Here is a fuller statement of what that is taken from a sermon on John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

There are at least four kinds of freedom. And each one adds a crucial dimension of freedom to the last until we get to the full Christian freedom — "free indeed." Let me try to sum up these four kinds of freedom in one definition of full and complete freedom:

You are fully free — completely free, free indeed — when you have the (1) desire, (2) the ability, (3) and the opportunity to do (4) what will make you happy in a thousand years.

Or we could say, You are fully free when you have …

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What would the doctrines of grace sound like if every limb in that tree were coursing with the sap of Augustinian delight. (that is, Christian Hedonism)?

• Total depravity is not just badness, but blindness to God’s beauty and deadness to the deepest joy.

• Unconditional election means that the completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed as the overflow of God’s joy in the fellowship of the Trinity.

• Limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for us by the blood of the covenant.

• Irresistible grace is the commitment and power of God’s love to make sure we don’t hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the s…

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Ever since my days at Wheaton College, when I followed Clyde Kilby’s advice to read G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, it has been one of my favorite books. I think it’s the only book I have read more than twice (except for the Bible).

This is strange. Not only was Chesterton a Roman Catholic, he also hated Calvinism. So what’s up with me and Orthodoxy? I still think at least half a dozen Roman Catholic distinctives are harmful to true Christian faith (e.g., papal authority, baptismal regeneration, transubstantiation, justification as impartation, purgatory, the veneration of Mary). And I think “the doctrines of grace” (“Reformed theology,” “Calvinism”) are a precious and healthy expression of…

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