Someone has said that nothing changes a human being faster than a deeper understanding of who God is. It’s true! Our lives are simply the outworking of what we conceive God to be like. Thus, to live rightly, we must think about who God is rightly. A.W. Tozer captured the essence of this thought when he famously wrote in The Knowledge of…

The principle “how you think is how you live” is taught repeatedly throughout Scripture. Since the mind and heart are the source from which the springs of life flow from, God’s Word frequently emphasizes the priority of the one’s thinking. Because of this, our minds must be renewed on a daily basis to avoid adopting the culture of the world around us…

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 William Tyndale who began to understand the need for the people to have the Bible in their own language so that they could see the truth for themselves, directly from the Word of God. As a…

Atheists frequently deny the existence of God citing the world’s injustice, pain and suffering. They use standards of good and evil – justice – that can only come from God to argue that there is no God. One of the great paradoxes of suffering is that those who haven’t suffered much allow the suffering of others to turn them away from God;…

Summer is a great time for reading Christian biographies. To that end, let me commend to you Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, a biography which will challenge you to trust God wholly and to not waver in your faith in Him. Following his conversion, Hudson Taylor traveled to China as a pioneer missionary. There he endured tribulation, hardship, poverty, frustrations, and misunderstandings. Despite…

It was Augustine who wrote, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every man that only Christ can fill.” This statement captures the essence of an intimate relationship with the Lord…God has designed us to know Him and walk with Him closely. Too often, however, we seek to fill that God-shaped vacuum with other things, pursuits, relationships, and pleasures. Thus, we must constantly…

A frightening trend has reached the church in America – nearly 2/3 of those 20-somethings who were raised in the church are already gone. The same spiritual epidemic which decimated the church in Europe has now reached America and is spreading rapidly. Many young people have little or no interest in spiritual things and, consequently, have abandoned the church. Such trends are…

The church must be leading the way in adopting children! God tells us that pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans in their distress (James 1:27). For this reason, the church must not relegate adopting children to state agencies or hope that “others” will do it, but must practice this very tangible expression of the Gospel. At MBC, we want to…

Have you ever wondered how the cross of Christ and the Gospel relates to you now that you are a Christian? While it is easy to put the Gospel on the shelf after coming to Christ, it is imperative that we keep it central in our lives since it is the very lifeblood of our relationship with God. All of God’s grace…

Do you or someone you know struggle with caring more about what people think of you than what God does? Do you battle being self-consciousness and controlled by the opinions of others? There is hope for you! The Bible addresses this as the “fear of man” and Ed Welch has written a wonderful, practical book on how to replace your “fear of…

The Epic of Eden. By Sandra L. Richter Have you ever found the Old Testament confusing? Or leaned more toward reading the New Testament because you thought it was more relevant to you as a Christian? Have you ever wished you could understand the Old Testament better, but didn’t know where to begin? The Epic of Eden is written just for that purpose:…

Parenting is hard work! Raising children in the fear and admonition of the Lord requires consistency, strength, and much wisdom. Equally important to effective parenting is keeping the Gospel at the center of all child-rearing attitudes and activities. In short, it is the Gospel that shapes and transforms parenting by keeping the focus on Christ’s work on the cross not only as…

In our series on biblical counseling, questions have come up about what issues are medical and whether or not medicine helps with these issues of the heart. Will Medicine Stop the Pain? is a book written to bring clarity to this confusing issue and bring hope from the Word of God to those struggling with these issues. This book will describe how…

I highly recommend this book. I could hardly put it down. It is a book filled with moments of sheer joy as Mary Beth shares about the wonder of adoption. It is also filled with sharing of times of deep sadness and grief as they mourn the loss of one of their adopted children. If you are like me you will not…

This is Book four in The Swans are not Silent series. This book contains mini-biographies of 3 of our early church fathers. These 3 are Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen. All of these defended Truth and treasured Christ in their lives. Athanasius devoted his life to defending the deity of Christ. The great enemy was the Arian heresy. Arianism stated…

C.H. Spurgeon once said, “The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father…It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so…

It’s summer. Time for blue jeans, winter coats, and sweaters to go away and shorts, t-shirts, and skirts to come out. Unfortunately, often little thought goes into what we wear except what “looks good” or is “the latest style.” In today’s culture, there are virtually no secrets when it comes to modesty and keeping hidden what should be hidden. Almost anything goes.…

Contentment is an elusive virtue, even for the believer. So many situations arise in life that threaten to rob us of our contentment in Christ. Yet, as the apostle Paul noted, “godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment” (1 Tim 6:6). It is necessary, therefore, that we fight for contentment and learn to be content in whatever…

Have you ever wondered what words like propitiation, justification, and other words concerning salvation mean? Have you wondered why Christ had to suffer and die for your sins? John Piper has taken the time to answer these questions and a few more in this wonderful book. Not only does he take these long theological words and put a meaning to them, he…

The first book I read after I was saved was Disciplines of a Godly Man. It changed my life! It showed me that I needed to put effort into my relationship with the Lord and, when I do, my life is blessed richly. Kent Hughes shows that personal discipline is the indispensible key for accomplishing anything in life, but particularly growing in…