Decisions, Decisions DVD. By Todd Friel Summary:  In light of Todd Friel’s upcoming visit to MBC this month, we thought it would be good to highlight one of his resources.  His Decisions, Decisions DVD contains a couple of presentations devoted to knowing God’s will for your life.  Countless Christians have been faced with questions about who to marry, where to go to school,…

Triumphing Over Sinful Fear. By John Flavel Everyone experiences fear from time to time.  Some fear is natural since it is part of living in a fallen and broken world.  Yet, often this natural fear turns into sinful fear, a fear that paralyzes us and leaves us feeling helpless and hopeless.  Frequently, this fear stems from a fear of man, caring more about…

The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life. By Colin S. Smith Most people understand the 10 commandments are incredibly difficult to keep. Do you struggle with contentment? Do you find it hard to manage your time? Do you struggle with peace? Purity? Integrity? Generosity? Do you struggle with worship? The impulses of greed, lust, anger, and pride are so controlling that we quickly…

The Pursuit of Holiness. By Jerry Bridges Some books can be read only once.  Others should be read a number of times to continually glean from them.  Such is the case with Jerry Bridges’ book The Pursuit of Holiness in which he succinctly and biblically explains the Christian’s joint venture with God in becoming holy in practice.  Often we are plagued in…

Through Gates of Splendor. By Elizabeth Elliot Summer is a great time for reading.  And one of my favorite genres to read in the summer is biographies.  Stories of fellow believers who have gone before us and have served the Lord faithfully encourage us to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles to run with endurance the race that…

Teach Them Diligently: How to Use the Scriptures in Child Rearing. By Lou Priolo There are a plethora of resources available today aimed at assisting parents in raising their children including books, seminars, DVD’s, and conferences.  While these tools can provide some benefit in helping parents train their children, only the Word of God is completely sufficient to do so since it…

Being a husband and a father is filled with successes and difficulties, from great conversations about life and godliness to the discouragements of anger, favoritism, or neglect. We are thankful the Bible is not silent about how to lead our families as parents. In fact, in Being a Dad Who Leads, John MacArthur encourages fathers to lead according to God’s pattern for…

Addiction…that’s a word that we hear often today. Alcohol addiction. Drug addiction. Pornography addiction. What are we to make of this “addiction is a disease” concept and is there any way to break the hopeless cycle of “sickness, recovery, and relapse?” In his book, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave, Ed Welch tackles these issues head on and demonstrates how true hope…

The Protestant Reformation which occurred 500 years ago was the result of a number of key figures in church history. One of the most significant was John Calvin, whose commitment to the Word of God and glory of God ignited a great revival in the church. Although he was a leader of the Reformation, a theologian, a teacher, and a commentator, John…

Because of the entrance of sin into the world, this life is filled with times of great sorrow, sadness, and suffering. Trials come in a variety of forms – physical, relational, financial, and spiritual. If you have not already experienced one or more of these expressions of hardship, it will only be a matter of time until you do. And when those…

We all know “major sins” like adultery, murder, and stealing are clearly prohibited in the Bible and most Christians steer clear of these kinds of offenses. Yet, while avoiding these “major sins”, we often lose sight of our need to deal with our own more subtle sins. In fact, we often tolerate these more “acceptable sins” in ourselves thinking them to be…

If you have been attending our Doctrine of End Times class recently, you know that we have referenced Paul Benware’s book Understanding End Times Prophecy a number of times. This is an excellent resource if you want a comprehensive but readable and understandable book on the end times. Benware carefully explains how a proper method of interpretation, a proper understanding of the…

Every student of the Bible needs a good commentary series to help them understand the flow of the text, tackle problem passages, and gain practical insights for life application. While some commentary series are overly technical and others emphasize application over interpretation, the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series offers a good balance between the two. Intellectually stimulating and personally relevant, this insightful…

How important are the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ really? For many people, the cross and Christ’s resurrection from the dead are such scandalous events that once they begin to get a glimpse of them, they conclude it must be fiction at best or a lie at worst. How about you? Perhaps there is no better time to consider what really…

Being a believer does not exempt us from having conflict with others; it simply means that we have the obligation to and means by which we can resolve that conflict. At the heart of being a follower of Christ is being a peacemaker, one who seeks to make things right with those they have offended and to be at peace with all…