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Articles by Desiring God

Articles by Desiring God

638 episodes — Page 10 of 13

Humbled, Whole, and Honorable: What to Look for in a Pastor

David Mathis | As our lists grow longer of what to beware in a leader, do we have any corresponding clarity on what to pursue?

Sep 18, 202213 min

How to Squander Your Spiritual Gifts

Marshall Segal | Are you wasting your God-given abilities? God builds the church through ordinary, everyday members taking the capacities he has given and gladly using them for the good of someone else.

Sep 15, 202211 min

Better to Have a Burden

Scott Hubbard | Don’t assume that the burdens you’re bearing in this season are somewhere outside God’s good plans for you. Assume they’re one of God’s plans for you. Because they are.

Sep 12, 202210 min

What Spoils the Lord’s Supper? How Not to Come to the Table

Joe Rigney | In many churches, the Lord’s Supper feels somber, heavy, and introspective. But is that what Jesus intended when he broke the bread and poured the cup?

Sep 11, 202210 min

We Work with You: How Pastors Serve Their People’s Joy

David Mathis | Pastors, remember your people want to be happy. Dignify your people as partners, not just recipients. And embrace ministry that is harder, not easier.

Sep 9, 202211 min

Escape from Every Temptation

Jon Bloom | How does Jesus help us in temptation? He gives us all his promises. He delivers us from the fear of death. He always intercedes for us.

Sep 8, 202210 min

The Dark Side of Equality

Greg Morse | Equality can be a gift and mercy in an unjust world. But when cries for sameness rise up against God-established authority, we see equality’s dark side.

Sep 5, 202211 min

The Messy Home of Blessing: Why Children Are Worth the Chaos

Marshall Segal | Does parenting feel trivial? Does it feel unrewarding? Does it feel futile? Let God remind you of the giant blessings buried in the chaos.

Sep 4, 202210 min

Why Bread and Wine? Enjoying the Meal Above All Meals

Scott Hubbard | If you want to taste more of Jesus’s love in the Lord’s Supper, take a closer look at the meaning of the bread and the wine.

Sep 1, 202210 min

Be Comforted in Your Smallness

Joe Rigney | Does one of your callings in life feel overwhelming? Let C.S. Lewis help you take comfort in your smallness.

Aug 31, 20229 min

Breakfast of Pastors: How God Feeds and Keeps Spiritual Leaders

David Mathis | How do you find your legs for life and leadership each day? God has given us a golden, well-worn, surprisingly ancient path for daily stability, clarity, and strength.

Aug 28, 202211 min

A Little Theology of Dinosaurs

Scott Hubbard | If dinosaurs could preach, what might they say? Trust the God of wisdom. Fear the God of power. Praise the God of wonders.

Aug 25, 202210 min

O Beard, Where Art Thou?

Greg Morse | Beards are no prerequisite for godly manhood. In days like ours, though, they can be a symbol for it.

Aug 22, 202211 min

The Spiritual Gift of a Closed Door: How Waiting Serves Ministry

Marshall Segal | Why might God give a man an ambition to lead, and the character to lead, and yet withhold certain opportunities to lead? Because unwanted waiting can be some of the best preparation for ministry.

Aug 21, 20229 min

Other Billy Graham ‘Rules’? The Modesto Proposal

David Mathis | The infamous “Billy Graham Rule” is not actually a rule, but a resolution — and just one of four that the evangelist made in 1948.

Aug 19, 202211 min

What Does Disunity Say? Three Common Types of Division

Jon Bloom | Not all divisions are created equal in the church. Some arise from the flesh. Some enter through differences in maturity. Others are necessary to distinguish the false from the real.

Aug 17, 202211 min

Our Gentle and Terrifying God: How Justice Holds Out Mercy

Marshall Segal | We will not feel the full weight of God’s mercy toward us if we downplay or ignore the fury of his justice.

Aug 15, 202212 min

Martyr or Madman? The Unnerving Faith of Ignatius

Greg Morse | What person would not only submit to martyrdom, but would embrace it, relish it, and even eagerly long for it? Ignatius of Antioch.

Aug 14, 202210 min

The Lost Awe of Majesty: Why I Love an Overlooked Attribute

David Mathis | Our God is not only great, but good. Not only big, but beautiful. Not only strong, but stunning. He is, in a word, majestic.

Aug 11, 202213 min

Slow to Anger: The Beauty of God’s Perfect Patience

Scott Hubbard | The patience of God is not like our shallow, short-lived patience. It is deep and long, wide and high. And in the perfection of his patience, we find great hope.

Aug 8, 202212 min

Put Your Anger to Bed: Five Lessons for Young Couples

Marshall Segal | Feeling angry over a spouse’s sin may not be wrong. But staying angry is.

Aug 7, 202211 min

Are You Not Provoked? The Jealousy of Godly Men

Greg Morse | Too many men sit around and watch the world burn without stepping up to tell someone about Jesus.

Aug 4, 202211 min

Everything in God Is God: How to Think About His Attributes

Joe Rigney | How might we think in an orderly way about God’s attributes? Here’s often overlooked help from Jonathan Edwards.

Aug 1, 202213 min

A Rest Sweeter Than Sleep: Nighttime Prayer for a Troubled Conscience

Scott Hubbard | Even the most faithful Christians end some days deeply wishing we had walked more worthy of our God. How do we find rest when our conscience keeps us awake?

Jul 31, 202212 min

Calm Under Pressure: Recovering the Grace of Equanimity

David Mathis | Our families, churches, and communities need leaders who have learned to keep their heads when others are losing theirs.

Jul 30, 202211 min

You Still Need Good Friends

Marshall Segal | Few realities in human life are as captivating, fulfilling, and elusive as friendship.

Jul 29, 20229 min

Do Infant Baptisms Count? Reconsidering Open Membership

Joe Rigney | If a Christian wants to join your baptist church but they tell you that they were baptized as a child, what do you do?

Jul 27, 202212 min

Where Do We Find Unity Now? The Surprising Path to Real Peace

David Mathis | Many today may feel afresh that true unity is rare and precious. But do we know from where that kind of unity comes?

Jul 24, 202210 min

The Progressive Pilgrim: Allegory for an Easy Age

Greg Morse | The world, the devil, and your flesh will tell you there is surely an easier way to heaven than the narrow way, a more comfortable burden than the cross, and a more reasonable spirituality than self-denial requires.

Jul 22, 202213 min

We Need More Holy Fools: How God Awakened Me to Eternity

Scott Hubbard | This world needs more people willing to look foolish in the eyes of the world so that more in the world might be saved.

Jul 21, 202211 min

Some Conflict Is Healthy: How Division Can Serve Churches

Marshall Segal | Sometimes God allows conflict in a church so that the body might finally heal and be whole again.

Jul 18, 202211 min

Tenacious Grace: How We Become and Stay One

Jon Bloom | As Christians, we can build unity, protect unity, and maintain unity because Christ has already made us one.

Jul 17, 202210 min

Chapter-and-Verse Protestants: The Reformation Legacy of Little Berea

David Mathis | Faithful confessions, creeds, and commentaries provide crucial insights into Scripture. And they never replace the words of God.

Jul 15, 202210 min

The Prudence Bucket: Applying the Bible to Gray Areas

Joe Rigney | Many of the most difficult decisions churches face are ones the Bible does not clearly address. This means pastors have to regularly practice humble, Bible-saturated prudence.

Jul 14, 20229 min

If Your Brother Sins Against You: How to Forgive and Let Go

Greg Morse | When we are the victim of another’s sin, we are often in danger of becoming a culprit in how we respond.

Jul 13, 202210 min

Triage in the Trenches: When Do Second-Tier Issues Divide?

Joe Rigney | If sexuality and baptism are both second-tier issues, why is the former often more divisive in the wider church today?

Jul 10, 202216 min

Of Mountains and Molehills: How Much Should Doctrine Divide Us?

Scott Hubbard | All biblical doctrine is important, but not all biblical doctrine is equally important. So how do we discern which doctrines should divide us?

Jul 8, 202213 min

Why Is Christian Unity So Hard?

Jon Bloom | Unity is often harder in our relationships and churches because we assume it should be easy.

Jul 6, 202210 min

Jellyfish Christians: The Costs of Thin Christianity

Greg Morse | The deepest, fullest, most vibrant unity is found in embracing, not a few favorite verses, but everything God has said in his word.

Jul 5, 202212 min

American Prodigal: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Alexander Hamilton

David Mathis | As the United States celebrates 246 years of independence, and Americans newly remember the ten-dollar founding father, what lessons might we learn from the rise, fall, and redemption of a prodigal son?

Jul 4, 202221 min

The Quiet and Crucial Work of Deacons

Marshall Segal | Deacons are not only handy, administrative, or good at meeting needs. They are also holy, humble, and unusually sacrificial. Deacons are spiritual giants who bow low.

Jul 3, 202212 min

‘In Faithfulness You Have Afflicted Me’

Jon Bloom | In his faithfulness, God promises not only that he will deliver us from affliction, but that we will do something good through the affliction.

Jun 29, 202212 min

A Wife No Man Would Want: Lessons from the Hardest Marriage

Marshall Segal | The moments when marriage feels most challenging are often the moments with the most potential to say something profound about Jesus.

Jun 27, 202211 min

Harry Potter Turns 25: What I Saw While Reading to My Sons

David Mathis | Today marks 25 years since the first Harry Potter book released. What Christian lessons might we take away from the bestselling series?

Jun 26, 202210 min

Casual Church: What Happened to Christian Reverence?

Greg Morse | Where reverence withers, worship suffers.

Jun 23, 202212 min

Immersed into Mission: Why Jesus Commands Us to Baptize

Joe Rigney | Being baptized into the church means being immersed in its mission. The old has passed and a new life now begins.

Jun 21, 20227 min

God Makes War with Words: Why Teaching Will Win the World

Scott Hubbard | Satan knows the power of words — he’s been undoing souls with them from the beginning. And wherever Christ is faithfully taught, the devil is undone by them.

Jun 17, 20228 min

Some Answered Prayers Hurt: The Hidden and Faithful Love of God

Jon Bloom | If God’s answer to your prayers hurts, don’t assume he doesn’t love you. Assume his love is working something good you cannot now see.

Jun 16, 20229 min

Do Not Fear to Leave This World

Greg Morse | Want to measure your growth in grace? Consider how deeply you long for heaven.

Jun 15, 20229 min

Find a Storm to Stir You

Marshall Segal | The friends we need will not always be the friends we want. They’ll often be the brotherly storm that wakes us back up to God.

Jun 12, 20229 min