Truth For Life Blog

John Owen: Five Qualities Every Preacher Should Have

TFL — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Faithful preaching has never been measured merely by eloquence, personality, or even theological precision. Throughout church history, the men God has most powerfully used have recognized that preaching is more than delivering information; it is the work of shepherding souls with the crook of God’s Word.

That conviction shaped the ministry of seventeenth-century pastor and theologian John Owen. In his sermon “The True Nature of a Gospel Church and Its Government,” Owen considers the qualities that should mark every faithful preacher. While his language reflects another era, his concerns remain current, reminding us that effective ministry requires personal holiness, spiritual wisdom, pastoral care, and genuine love for God’s people.

“Sundry things,” Owen writes, “are required unto this work and duty of pastoral preaching.” Here are the specific requirements he mentions, along with part of his explanation for each:

“Spiritual wisdom and understanding in the mysteries of the gospel, that they may declare unto the church ‘all the counsel of God’ and ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ[.]” … The generality of the church, especially those who are grown in knowledge and experience, have a spiritual insight into these things … and if those that instruct them, or should do so, have not some degree of eminency herein, they cannot be useful to lead them on to perfection.”
“Experience of the power of the truth which they preach in and upon their own souls. Without this they will themselves be lifeless and heartless in their own work, and their labour for the most part will be unprofitable towards others. … A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them.”
“Skill to divide the word aright …; and this consists in a practical wisdom, upon a diligent attendance unto the word of truth, to find out what is real, substantial, and meet food for the souls of the hearers,—to give unto all sorts of persons in the church that which is their proper portion.”
“A prudent and diligent consideration of the state of the flock over which any man is set, as unto their strength or weakness, their growth or defect in knowledge (the measure of their attainments requiring either milk or strong meat), their temptations and duties, their spiritual decays or thrivings; and that not only in general, but, as near as may be, with respect unto all the individual members of the church. Without a due regard unto these things, men preach at random, uncertainly fighting, like those that beat the air.”
“All these, in the whole discharge of their duty, are to be constantly accompanied with the evidence of zeal for the glory of God and compassion for the souls of men.” Where these are not in vigorous exercise in the minds and souls of them that preach the word, giving a demonstration of themselves unto the consciences of them that hear, the quickening form, the life and soul of preaching, is lost.”¹

Whether you regularly stand behind a pulpit or simply benefit from the preaching of God’s Word each week, Owen’s reflections invite careful consideration. They encourage pastors to examine their own hearts and practices while reminding congregations what faithful shepherding truly looks like. May his words deepen our gratitude for those who labor to preach Christ faithfully—and prompt us to pray that God would continue to raise up ministers whose lives and message bear the unmistakable marks of His grace.

This article was adapted from the sermon “Practical Issues of Pastoral Ministry — Part Two” by Alistair Begg.

John Owen, “The True Nature of a Gospel Church and Its Government,” in The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold (London: Johnstone and Hunter, 1853), 16:75–77. ↩︎

Wallpaper: God's Purpose

TFL — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:59:59 GMT

“It was God’s purpose from all of eternity that His Son would be the atoning sacrifice for sins.”
—Alistair Begg

Click below to download your image:

Apple Devices:
iPads
iPhones

Other Devices:
Android Phones
Amazon Fire
Microsoft Surface

Social Media
Facebook Banner
Facebook Post
Twitter Post
Instagram Post

Desktop Computer
Large
Small

Who Wrote the Bible, Really?

TFL — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT

To paraphrase Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is expired.”

“What!” says someone. “Does Scripture have an expiration date? I thought Scripture was inspired by God.”

That is traditionally the way the passage has been translated—in the King James Version, for example. Of course, people also say that Mozart was inspired, or that he was inspiring for those who hear him. They mean that there is a certain liveliness to his music, or perhaps that some creative force from outside of him empowered him as he wrote.

That’s not what we mean when we’re talking about the Bible. What Paul says is that all Scripture is theopneustos, “God-breathed” (NIV) or “breathed out by God” (ESV)—expired by Him. It is not that God took a writer or a body of writing and empowered them. No, God Himself breathed the Bible out. It has its origin in Him, no less than our own words emerge from within us on our breath.

But what does this mean, then, when we speak of Paul writing 2 Timothy or Moses writing the Law? Who can we say really wrote the Bible?

Dual Authorship

When we say God breathed out the Scriptures, we shouldn’t imagine that God made man into a mechanism, like a typewriter or a laptop—as if Jeremiah somehow or another went into a strange psychological neutrality, and before he knew what had happened, he had written a book. Nor is it a kind of fifty-fifty split, where God gave the outline and Jeremiah fleshed out the details, or where Jeremiah drafted and God edited. No, God wrote it, one hundred percent; and Jeremiah wrote it, one hundred percent.

Theologians call this the dual authorship of Scripture. William Hendriksen describes this process excellently: “The human authors were powerfully guided and directed by the Holy Spirit. As a result, what they wrote is not only without error but of supreme value for man. It is all that God wanted it to be.”¹ In other words, God, operating through His Spirit, guided the writing of the words of Scripture in such a way that every Word, without reservation, can be said to be His.

God, operating through His Spirit, guided the writing of the words of Scripture in such a way that every Word, without reservation, can be said to be His.

Yet Henriksen also explains that “the Spirit … did not suppress the personality of the human writer, but raised it to a higher level of activity …. And because the individuality of the human author was not destroyed, we find in the Bible a wide variety of style and language.”² Thus, the psalmist wrote the Psalms, and he wrote them from the depths of personal experience; and James wrote the epistle of James, leaning on and repeating the teachings of his older brother, Jesus. The individuality of the individuals involved comes through because they wrote organically. Yet, in a way that is true of no other book, they also wrote exactly what God intended them to write.

Concurrence

B. B. Warfield writes, “If God wished to give His people a series of letters like Paul’s, He prepared a Paul to write them, and the Paul He brought to the task was a Paul who spontaneously would write just such letters.”³ In other words, God, who is sovereign over all things, can bring about exactly the circumstances that will prepare His people to write His Word.

Through His sovereign ordaining of people and circumstances, God acted to write His own words to us in the Scriptures. The prophets and apostles indeed wrote them, but more importantly, God wrote them.

God, who is sovereign over all things, can bring about exactly the circumstances that will prepare His people to write His Word.

The theological term for this is concurrence. The life of Joseph in the book of Genesis gives us a clear picture of this concept. Speaking to his brothers, after all has been revealed, he says, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20). The human activity was commitment on their part to the destruction of Joseph. Yet they were actually fulfilling the purpose of God, who was active in it all to save many people. In the same way (but without the evil intent), in the authorship of Scripture, human authors were completely active in writing out the Scriptures, and God was completely active in composing—breathing out—the book of salvation through them.

This means that Luke, as he was writing his Gospel, didn’t hear a voice and write down what it said. No, he testifies that “it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account” (Luke 1:3). His Gospel comes from the mind, desires, and motivations of Luke. Yet God had prepared Luke, with all of his historical acumen, with all of his medical input, with all of his eye for detail, to write exactly the Gospel he wrote.

The Spirit’s Work

Finally, God is actually superintending the process. As Hendriksen says, God “suggested to the mind of the human author that language (the very words!) and that style, which would be the most appropriate vehicle for the interpretation of the divine ideas for people of every rank and position, age and race.”⁴ In other words, “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). God actively worked in and through them as they spoke or wrote.

It was the work of the Spirit of God to advance the truth of God in the lives of the apostles of God and then through them to others.

In John 14:26, as He was preparing to leave His disciples and return to the Father, Jesus told them, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” In 16:13 He adds, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” It was the work of the Spirit of God to advance the truth of God in the lives of the apostles of God and then through them to others.

Jesus received the words that He spoke from His Father (John 17:7–8). Jesus in turn gave them to the apostles. The apostles, under the invisible direction and jurisdiction of the Spirit like the prophets before them, spoke those words to those who would come to believe in Jesus. And they wrote them down.

What the Bible Tells Us

Sinclair Ferguson writes, “The Scriptures do not tell us everything about everything.”⁵ You can’t go in the Bible and find out how to improve your golf swing. You won’t find the name of person you’re meant to marry. You won’t find a recipe for overnight oats. Those things aren’t in there. They’re not supposed to be.

But Ferguson reminds us, “Scripture teaches us something about everything.”⁶ When you go in the Bible, you discover—from dozens of authors over thousands of years—one compelling story showing that salvation belongs to the Lord and explaining the why of it all. It tells us about the origin and ultimate destiny of humankind. It tells us about the world that God made. It tells us about God. It tells us what we must do to be saved.

God tells us. The Bible is a book breathed out by God. This is why the Bible is the priority, authority, and sufficiency of all Gospel ministry. May we learn, then, to say with the disciples, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

This article was adapted from the sermon “Scripture: God-Breathed” by Alistair Begg.

William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1957), 302. ↩︎
Hendriksen, 302. ↩︎
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, ed. Samuel G. Craig (Philadelphia:: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1948), 155. ↩︎
Hendriksen, Exposition, 302. ↩︎
Sinclair B. Ferguson, From the Mouth of God: Trusting, Reading, and Applying the Bible, rev. and enlarged ed. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2014), 37. ↩︎
Ferguson, 37. ↩︎

The Language of Rivers and Stars: How Nature Speaks of the Glories of God

TFL — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:59:59 GMT

There are few experiences as refreshing as stepping outside and being reminded of the beauty, power, and wonder of God’s creation. The Language of Rivers and Stars extends a compelling invitation not only to simply admire the natural world but also to discover how creation itself points to the glory of its Creator. You’ll be encouraged to view rivers, mountains, animals, skies, and stars as part of God’s ongoing testimony to His greatness.

Drawing on Scripture and everyday encounters with nature, The Language of Rivers and Stars explains how God’s creation speaks a meaningful language that reveals His character, wisdom, and power. Whether you’re a gardener, hiker, birdwatcher, or simply someone who enjoys a walk outdoors, this book provides a fresh perspective on the relationship between God’s Word and God’s world.

What makes The Language of Rivers and Stars especially engaging is its combination of theological depth and accessible, engaging prose. The author, Seth Lewis, writes with warmth, wonder, and a contagious enthusiasm for both Scripture and creation. You’ll find yourself challenged to look more carefully, think more deeply, and worship more fully as you encounter familiar aspects of nature through a biblical lens.

If you’ve ever sensed that there is something profound being communicated through a sunset, a flowing river, or a star-filled sky, The Language of Rivers and Stars will help you understand why. This thoughtful and inspiring book is an invitation to rediscover the wonder of God’s creation and to hear, more clearly, the message it has been declaring all along.

“This is unlike any book I have ever read. Seth is a great writer, and this work of poetic theology is as beautiful as it is faithful. It has impacted me to the extent that even walking in the park is a new experience—one of awe and wonder.”
—Alistair Begg

Request your copy of The Language of Rivers and Stars when you donate to Truth For Life today.

Wallpaper: Illumination

TFL — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:59:59 GMT

“The Spirit of God … opens our eyes to understand the truth about Him. … All of a sudden, the Bible becomes to us light and illumination. And then the Spirit of God enables us to put our trust in Jesus.”
—Alistair Begg

Click below to download your image:

Apple Devices:
iPads
iPhones

Other Devices:
Android Phones
Amazon Fire
Microsoft Surface

Social Media
Facebook Banner
Facebook Post
Twitter Post
Instagram Post

Desktop Computer
Large
Small

What Does It Mean for a Christian to Grow Up?

TFL — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Growing up is no little deal. As children make the transition to adolescence, as adolescents make the transition to adults, and as graduations send kids out of the home to colleges, universities, training programs, and places of work, the question of what it means to grow up becomes a pressing one. Particularly, we might ask: What would it mean to grow up as a Christian?

Paul offers us an answer to this question in Ephesians 4:11–16. If we are not merely to grow into physical, emotional, and social maturity but also into spiritual maturity, there are resources to take hold of, a model to follow, and responsibilities to take up.

The Resources to Take Hold Of

Maturity means, in one sense, that we no longer act like children. Children wobble. They totter around the place, setting their parents’ hair on end: “Don’t go there! Hang on! Don’t do that!” They are easily distracted, always responding to what is most immediately appealing.

Paul says that God gives preachers and teachers to His people “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (v. 14). In other words, as we grow up, instead of being wobbly, we ought to be marked by doctrinal stability. We need feet that stand firmly on solid ground.

So many people never stop being children. They are forever changing their minds about what they believe, like the man in the song by the Kinks: “One week he’s in polka dots, the next week he’s in stripes, ’cause he’s a dedicated follower of fashion.”¹ You meet them one Sunday, and they seem to be on track, but then they read another book or attend another seminar, and they’re off on another side track, because they’ve never actually been grounded in the Scriptures.

As we grow up, instead of being wobbly, we ought to be marked by doctrinal stability.

The stabilizing influence in a Christian’s life is the ongoing, persistent, faithful exposition of Scripture rightly understood and applied. It’s God’s Word being taught, believed, meditated on, and acted on that saves us from the immaturity that simply follows the next cultural or theological trends. This, indeed, is why God “gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers” (v. 11): so that they might equip the saints and help them to grow up into Christ.

A Model to Follow

This is the second thing to notice in the passage: Maturity has mold. We are to be cast in the image of Jesus when we “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (v. 15). We are, in other words, to attain “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v. 13).

The center, the object, the goal of the church is found in its union with Christ. United with Christ, we’re brought into union with one another. To grow up is to grow in Christlikeness, becoming increasingly marked by the characteristics of the Lord Jesus. And the process that’s involved is “speaking the truth in love” (v. 15).

That is a familiar phrase. Ironically, it is most often used as a justification for an immature comment, excusing overly frank personal criticism as biblical. In fact, the “truth” referred to isn’t just any old true statement; is the truth of the Gospel, which is needed to counter the waves and winds of doctrine that toss the immature to and fro. To be a loving teacher, we might say, means to represent God’s truth faithfully.

There is a way to proclaim the Gospel that is not in love. Some people live for a fight, and they will nail you down on every little point of doctrine you have never heard of. Yet at the opposite extreme is the “loving” group who won’t venture to offend by being certain about anything. Truth becomes hard if it’s not softened by love, and love becomes soft if it’s not strengthened by truth. As we grow up into Christ, we need both to help us.

Doing Our Part Properly

Finally, when we are no longer wobbly children but are instead growing up into Christ, we will begin to do our part properly. In Christ, “the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (v. 16).

In other words, each part of the body, in its own particular God-ordained way, exists to help the other parts. And it is from the head that the harmonious functioning of a body takes place. The harmony of Christ’s body is under His headship, held together by all of the joints that He has graciously provided.

The harmony of Christ’s body is under His headship, held together by all of the joints that He has graciously provided.

The effective functioning of the body of Christ needs all the moving parts to be united in Gospel ministry. The church is not a clubhouse in which we sit back and relax. It is a joint venture in which we all put in labors to see Christ’s name exalted at home and among the nations. Maturity comes with responsibilities—and having grown up into Christ, it will be our responsibility to help the body grow.

Show Up, Grow Up, Step Up

We might put the task before young people today simply: Show up, grow up, and step up. If you want to grow into spiritual maturity, make sure you show up when the Word of God is preached, when the people of God gather, when the sacraments are celebrated, and when the opportunity to invite friends and neighbors is there for you. Along the way, don’t forsake a regular nourishing diet of God’s Word. With that you will grow up—not just into anything but into Christ. And then it will be your responsibility to step up— to take your place, nourished by the Word of God, equipped and enabled.

The online church can’t do any of this. So many today want to create a highly privatized understanding of the Christian faith for themselves, with no involvement, no opportunity for service, no accountability, and no pastoral care. That is not maturity! But when the people of God take seriously the need to grow up together into Christ, we will be able to say that we’re paying attention to the Bible as we have it and that we have every reason to believe that God will honor His Word and use us as He sees fit.

This article was adapted from the sermon “Time to Grow Up” by Alistair Begg.

Ray Davies, “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” (1966). ↩︎

Wallpaper: God's Plan

TFL — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT

“God’s plan is not limited simply … to human beings. God’s plan, as Creator, is for everything. He’s determined to completely undo the effects of the fall and to renew the whole world.”
—Alistair Begg

Click below to download your image:

Apple Devices:
iPads
iPhones

Other Devices:
Android Phones
Amazon Fire
Microsoft Surface

Social Media
Facebook Banner
Facebook Post
Twitter Post
Instagram Post

Desktop Computer
Large
Small

No Passive Defense in the Christian Life

TFL — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:59:59 GMT

In 1 Peter 5:8, Peter issues two incisive imperatives: “Be sober-minded; be watchful.” We have a duty of personal vigilance, since, as Peter goes on to explain, “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” There can be no passive defense in the Christian life. The moment we let our minds wander, the moment we get lazy, unguarded, or slothful, we are immediately in a spiritual danger zone.

The Necessity of Action

The British evangelist Alan Redpath used to ask young people, “Do you have blanket victory?” He wasn’t using “blanket” in the sense of “total” or “all-covering.” He simply meant the blankets on their bed! Were they, he was asking, resisting the urge to be lazy with the God-given gift of their daily lives?

In the book of Proverbs we find a clarifying picture of the cost of the lazy life:

I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man. (Prov. 24:30–34)

The world reassures us, “There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of laziness.” But the Bible responds, “Yes, there really is!” And this is all the more true and pressing when, as Peter reminds us, predatory spiritual forces are hot on our heels. In such circumstances, we have to stay awake and alert—and we’ve got to act.

The story is told of a chaplain on the South Coast of England. The sailors to whom he ministered said to him once, “Chaplain, if you were in the real world like the rest of us, you would know that it’s not so easy. When we sin, we are just swept along by the wind.” In response, the chaplain pointed out over the bay at the sailing ships crossing this way and that, and he said,

One ship drives East, one ship drives West
By the self-same wind that blows;
It’s the set of the sails, and not the gales,
That determines the way it goes.¹

Nothing could be more obvious in life than that the winds and currents push us where God says not to go. But just as the skillful sailor sets sail to beat windward, we may choose to move against the currents of the world, the flesh, and the devil, hard going as it may be.

The Path of Resistance

The reason that we must be alert, the reason that we must be awake, is in order to mount this resistance movement. The Bible warns us to flee all kinds of things—sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:18), idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14), false doctrine (Rom. 16:17), greed (1 Tim. 6:10–11), and so on. But we are never, ever told to run away from the devil; instead, we’re told to resist him (1 Peter 5:9; James 4:7), and to do so in the assurance that God’s Word will actually take care of all things necessary in relation to his malignant designs.

How are we to do this? We may “stand against” his schemes by taking up the armor of God (Eph. 6:11), being “firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9 NIV). The definite article there, “the faith,” tells us we’re talking about the truth of the Gospel, not the strength of our own belief. It means that we need to have a theological underpinning for dealing with our sinful desires, as in the hymn:

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.²

In other words, we stand firm in the doctrine of the atonement and in our union with Christ.

We are never, ever told to run away from the devil; instead, we’re told to resist him.

We might easily imagine the Evil One coming to us and asking, “Have you been reading your Bible the way you should?”

If we’re honest, most of us would likely reply, “No, no—but I’m going to do a better job soon, I promise. Perhaps starting Monday.”

“And what about the matter of Christian love?” he might then ask. “Are you loving people the way that Jesus said to love?”

“Well, no,” we’d perhaps reply, “I’m not. I haven’t been doing real good on that either. I’ll get it sorted out, though. I’m going to redress the balance.”

And so on it would go, with the devil targeting our failings each in turn, until eventually we feel ourselves being crushed under the weight of all the endeavor necessary to measure up to God’s perfect standard.

There’s only one answer that we can give that offers freedom and hope, and that is to look to Jesus. Jesus is all our righteousness.

That answer, the Bible affirms, only leads to despair. There’s only one answer that we can give that offers freedom and hope, and that is to look to Jesus. Jesus is all our righteousness. We set Him before the Evil One, and then we can say, “You can go back to hell where you belong, because it’s checkmate. I am in Christ. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation’” (Rom. 8:1). Then our resistance will be grounded on something firm and final.

The Source of Our Help

If we stand amidst this battle distracted, disengaged, disinterested, what will become of us? We will be easy prey. Our vigilance is necessary so that when the hour of trial comes, we may be ready to look away to the cross, to set our minds on things above, where Christ is, seated in victory at God’s right hand (Col. 3:1–2). Then we can remember the promise that Peter, after he has issued his imperatives, goes on to declare: “The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

This article was adapted from the sermon “Security” by Alistair Begg.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “’Tis the Set of the Sails,” paraphrased in Derek Prime, From Trials to Triumphs, A Bible Commentary for Laymen (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1982), 32. ↩︎
Charitie Lees Bancroft, “Before the Throne of God Above” (1863). ↩︎

Alistair Begg Shares Memories of How “Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow”

TFL — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Dear Friend,

August 3, 1983, was a day I will never forget.

Forty-three years on, it remains etched indelibly in my memory. The previous evening had been spent with family and friends at my father’s home just outside Glasgow. I recall the laughter, the stories, and the sense of wishing to make the evening last, because when we said goodnight, we knew that the dawn would mean a parting, and “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” The following morning, Susan, I, and our three wee ones (ages four, two, and ten months) walked across the tarmac and boarded a Northwest Orient Airlines 747, which would take us to Boston to connect with a flight to Cleveland.

In writing about this now, I realize, to my shame, how little thought I gave to another parting eight years before, when, newly married, Susan and I sailed out of New York for London, leaving her family behind. She was only twenty! I don’t remember ever asking her just what that parting meant for her, her mum, and dad but simply swept her off to a new world and a new life! It surely didn’t help her father, as he filmed our departure, to see the hammer and sickle flying above the Russian ship that would be our passage to London. Before you enquire: It was the least expensive way to get ourselves and our few belongings to the UK. Incidentally, our ship, the Mikhail Lermontov, later sank off the coast of New Zealand in 1986.

The sadness of separation was softened by the sweet anticipation of what the new day would bring. Perhaps one day, if we have time and you are interested, we can have coffee, and I will tell you of the warm welcome we received from our new church family in Cleveland and of the beginnings of the great adventure which continues to this day.

The privileges and challenges of raising our children are behind us now, and, like so many of you, we have graduated to the noble, fascinating, enjoyable role of grandparenthood. We were young, and now we are old, able to tell our stories and share the hymns that helped establish our faith, hoping that our grandchildren will also be strengthened by them. We have a unique opportunity to field questions they might not care to ask their parents and to provide insights and guidance for them as we drive them to school or to sporting events. I don’t recall my grandparents ever “preaching” to me, and certainly not at me, but their down-to-earth godly goodness influences my life to this day.

Susan is much better than I am at being intentional about these matters. On a recent trip with two of our nine grandchildren, we used the occasion to reinforce the importance of personal faith and the blessings of family—and together had tons of fun!

A recent study shows that children and young people’s enjoyment of reading has risen for the first in recent years time since 2021. One of my grandmothers was a great reader, and she encouraged me to follow her example. Our book offers this month might help us to do the same. The Language of Rivers and Stars helps us to speak of the wonders of God in creation, and The Story of God and Us invites us to ponder God’s faithfulness from generation to generation.

Thank you always for your faithful partnership as we seek to fulfill our mission, not least of all in seeking to see our grandchildren become committed followers of the Lord Jesus.

With my love in the Lord Jesus,

Alistair

Psalm 71:17–18

Wallpaper: Trinity

TFL — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT

“There was never a time when God did not exist. … God existed always as a Trinity—God the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit.”
—Alistair Begg

Click below to download your image:

Apple Devices:
iPads
iPhones

Other Devices:
Android Phones
Amazon Fire
Microsoft Surface

Social Media
Facebook Banner
Facebook Post
Twitter Post
Instagram Post

Desktop Computer
Large
Small

Past Resources from Truth For Life

TFL — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:45:00 GMT

At Truth For Life, we take great care to select books each month that cover a diverse range of topics and that will help you grow in your faith. Below, you’ll find a list of our past recommended resources. While we don’t currently have all of the titles in stock, you’re welcome to browse to find new titles for your personal library.

The Story of God and Us: Finding Our Place in God’s Plan for the World

TFL — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT

Have you ever wished you could see how the entire Bible fits together as one cohesive story? In The Story of God and Us, pastor and theology professor Jonathan Murphy retells the grand narrative of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. You’ll begin with creation and trace the line of God’s unfolding plan of redemption through the fall, the patriarchs, the kings, the prophets, and then the coming of the Messiah in the Gospels. You’ll continue the storyline of God’s faithfulness from generation to generation in Acts and the Epistles and finally anticipate all to come as revealed in Revelation. This captivating book connects all the dots for those who’ve never read the Bible in its entirety or those unsure of how all the people and events tell one unified story.

Rather than treating the Bible as a collection of disconnected stories, Murphy demonstrates how every part of Scripture points to God’s faithfulness, His covenant promises, and, ultimately, His Son, Jesus Christ. Along the way, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of God’s character and discover how you fit within His greater story.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its ability to combine theological depth with practical application. Murphy pauses routinely to point out important lessons we must not miss from those who trusted in God’s promises and those who failed and reverted to their own understanding. Murphy’s warnings and encouragements are a great help as you aim to live faithfully, trusting in God even when He appears not present.

The Story of God and Us is a highly recommended book to use for a group Bible study with those who are new to learning the story of the Bible.

Request your copy of The Story of God and Us when you donate to Truth For Life today.

“Jonathan Murphy’s overview of the greatest story ever told is understandable, accessible, and wonderfully encouraging.” — Alistair Begg

Nehemiah Knew When to Rest

TFL — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The book of Nehemiah gives us a spectacular picture of godly leadership and initiative: Facing a run-down Jerusalem with a broken-down wall after the Babylonian exile, Nehemiah, the book’s namesake, leads the people in rebuilding the wall and rededicating the city and its people to God. Yet at the outset of the “great work” that Nehemiah accomplishes and the challenges that accompany it, Nehemiah 2:11 contains a simple sentence that we may be tempted to overlook: “I went to Jerusalem and was there three days.”

Why “three days”? Based on all that we read in the opening sections of the book, we can reasonably imagine that Nehemiah was champing at the bit to get started with the rebuilding efforts. After months of travel, anticipating the opportunity for work, could somebody so keen to lead and be active waste his time like this?

In fact, Nehemiah didn’t “waste” his time; he used it strategically, to rest from his journey. This is something that we do well to meditate on. By and large, our culture is reluctant to acknowledge what is an essential element in every task—namely, rest and relaxation. The models that young men and women in the marketplace are encouraged to follow are the kind of dramatic, unsleeping tycoons who appear on the covers of magazines, charging from one task to another with a laptop open in front of them. Yet despite the apparent worldly success that accompanies such a lifestyle, it comes with a cost—often one that impacts the church and the family first.

The kind of hard-driving leadership that we often want to emulate in our culture needs to be held up to the light of the Scriptures. In this simple sentence, Nehemiah provides a necessary antidote for many of our frenetic and frantic existences. After a journey of some eight or nine hundred miles, without the privilege of air travel or a highway system, there was one thing he knew he needed: rest. The task to which he had been called was crucial. The work would be demanding. It required his full strength. And because Nehemiah was a wise man—and, we may safely assume, because he understood the pattern of rest that God had established in the Sabbath—he took the time to relax.

Many Christians are overtired, and they don’t realize it. They’re too busy to observe their own exhaustion. Their judgment is impaired, their efficiency is diminished, and they’ve bought into a way of thinking that says we’re only effective when we’re running around from one task to another. They haven’t found their security in God alone. They haven’t learned to rest in His love and provision. They’re trying to justify their existence by trying to do it all—and they can’t!

A wise man or woman, no matter how dramatic their conviction regarding the project in front of them, no matter how consumed they are with the vision, no matter how tempted they are to charge ahead at the first available opportunity, ought to learn from this simple sentence: “I went to Jerusalem and was there three days.” If Nehemiah thought it was wise to take a break and a breath, even while his beloved city’s wall was yet a ruin, shouldn’t we?

This article was adapted from the sermon “Planting the Vision” by Alistair Begg.

Wallpaper: Clear Proof

TFL — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

“Faith … considers the amazing work of Christ as being a clear proof of the Father’s intention to fulfill His word.”
—C. H. Spurgeon

Click below to download your image:

Apple Devices:
iPads
iPhones

Other Devices:
Android Phones
Amazon Fire
Microsoft Surface

Social Media
Facebook Banner
Facebook Post
Twitter Post
Instagram Post

Desktop Computer
Large
Small

God Is Generous. Do We Pray Like It?

TFL — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

One of the evidences of being adopted into God’s family is that we pray. Paul says in Romans 8:15, “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” In the family of God, we have the privilege of baring our hearts to the Father.

Yet for all the privilege it represents, prayer can be a challenge. Charles Simeon, a minister in Cambridge for fifty-four years, on one occasion said it was easier for a pastor to preach and study for five hours than to pray for his people for one half hour.¹

We will be helped as we remember that when we come to God, we come to Him as our generous Father. That is the way Jesus taught us to pray (Matt. 6:9; 7:9–10; Luke 11:2). And few prayers demonstrate this attitude for us like Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21. As we consider what Paul asks, on what basis he asks, and why he asks it, we can see what it means to pray as children in the family of God.

What Does Paul Ask?

As Paul prays, we can see, first, that he’s not preoccupied with material things or undesirable circumstances. Those are real concerns, but they’re not the central issue. Jesus had told the disciples, regarding their anxiety for needs like food and clothing, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).

So the prayer that Paul prays is first of all a prayer for the kingdom: “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (v. 16). Our “inner being” is our essential self, the real core. Just as a golf swing depends on core strength, so our whole life depends on the strength of our inner being. The work of the Spirit of God within our hearts is to transform us, strengthening that core self even while the outer body wastes away with the passing world (2 Cor. 4:16), to the end that “Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:17), making His home with us.

Paul further asks that his readers would be “rooted and grounded in love” (v. 17)—rooted like a tree and grounded like a temple. This, he prays, will give them “strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (v. 18–19). This takes us far beyond our personal preoccupations! This is more, even, than just asking that we would love God more. It is aiming at our understanding God’s immense and immeasurable love for us.

When you become a Christian, you should find that within short order, you have a whole new view of Jesus, a whole new view of the people who love Jesus, and a whole new view of mercy.

Paul himself had at one point been an archenemy of Jesus and the church—until Jesus revealed His love to him. Paul understood the extent of God’s mercy. This should be true of anyone who becomes a Christian. You may not be lying by the side of the road like Paul was, struck blind by a great light (Acts 9:3–8), but when you become a Christian, you should find that within short order, you have a whole new view of Jesus, a whole new view of the people who love Jesus, and a whole new view of mercy.

Paul’s hope was that through this his readers might be “filled with all the fullness of God.” The old hymn reminds us how transformative that gift will be:

O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord,
Until my very heart o’erflow
In kindling thought and glowing word
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.²

As the inner being fills up with God’s self, the whole life overflows with God’s goodness—and to the wonderful gift of God Himself is added all the fruit of joy and promise of hope that He brings.

On What Basis Does Paul Ask?

Perhaps we might wonder what prompts Paul to ask for such a generous gift with such boldness. The answer is that he knows he has a generous Father. God can do what we ask, and far more than we ever thought of asking—“far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20). There is nothing we can ask for or think of asking for about which God does not say, “I’m able to do better than that.” Especially after having sent His Son to die for us, “will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

Jesus had masterfully and humorously encouraged the disciples, arguing from the lesser to the greater: “Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?” (Matt. 7:9–10). What a ridiculous idea! If sinful human fathers are not so cold, why would we ever expect God to be?

John Newton, who wrote “Amazing Grace,” discovered this reality of God’s generosity when he wrote,

Thou art coming to a King;
Large petitions with thee bring,
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.³

The problem in our prayers is not that we ask for things too great or that our prayers are too big. The problem is that we’re guilty of doubting God’s ability and generosity, and thus we become fearful of entreaty. As James explains, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (4:2). We ought to stop coming to God saying, “We’re just asking… We’re just wondering…” We need not “just” do anything! God is generous—and therefore, we can come boldly.

To What End Does Paul Ask?

Yet with all this in mind, we should also observe that Paul finishes his prayer by praying that God will get all the glory He deserves: “To him be glory in the church” (Eph. 3:21). This, we must remember, is the end of all truly godly prayer.

Just as God’s glory has been, is, and will be revealed in Jesus, so His glory is revealed in His people. It was revealed in Paul when God changed him from an enemy to a son. The believers in Ephesus reading this letter were Jewish and gentile Christians, called by God from hostile cultures and identities into one fellowship, united by the cross of Christ. As they came to comprehend God’s love for them, they glorified Him in their love for one another.

The problem in our prayers is not that we ask for things too great or that our prayers are too big. The problem is that we’re guilty of doubting God’s ability and generosity, and thus we become fearful of entreaty.

But God’s glory isn’t just revealed in Jesus and displayed in the church; it is also to be declared to the nations. Habakkuk looks forward to a day when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (2:14). Filled with the knowledge of God’s love, equipped by His generosity, and seeking His glory, apostles and missionaries through the ages have sacrificed comfort and kinship, life and limb to bring the word of Jesus to those who have not heard. They went out in the spirit of the modern hymn:

When faced with trials of every kind,
We know the outcome is secure,
And Christ will have the prize for which He died,
An inheritance of nations.⁴

When we pray, then, we do not come timidly before a reluctant God. We come as beloved children to a generous Father, asking Him to do what only He can do: strengthen us by His Spirit, deepen our grasp of Christ’s immeasurable love, and fill us with His own fullness. These are the kinds of prayers our Father delights to answer—not because we deserve His favor but because He has already welcomed us into His family through His Son.

And as He answers, the spotlight does not fall on us but on Him. The Father’s generosity produces a people who reflect His character, display His love, and proclaim His glory to the world. So let us come often, ask boldly, and leave the results in the hands of our generous Father, to whom, as Paul writes, “be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever” (Eph. 3:21).

This article was adapted from the sermon “Entreating the Extravagant Generosity of God” by Alistair Begg.

Hugh Evan Hopkins, Charles Simeon of Cambridge (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977), 149. ↩︎
Frances Ridley Havergal, “Lord, Speak to Me” (1872). ↩︎
John Newton, “Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare” (1779). ↩︎
Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, “O Church, Arise” (2004). ↩︎

Wallpaper: Fantastic Exposition

TFL — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

“If you want to understand your Bible … then you need to realize that essentially what you have is a fantastic exposition throughout history of the promises of God made to His servant, Abraham.”
—Alistair Begg

Click below to download your image:

Apple Devices:
iPads
iPhones

Other Devices:
Android Phones
Amazon Fire
Microsoft Surface

Social Media
Facebook Banner
Facebook Post
Twitter Post
Instagram Post

Desktop Computer
Large
Small

Two-Book Set: Christ and His Threefold Office and Christ Humbled yet Exalted

TFL — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

From seventeenth-century Puritan minister and author John Flavel, Christ and His Threefold Office and Christ Humbled yet Exalted invite you to see Jesus more clearly and love Him more deeply through a fuller picture of who He is and what He’s done for you.

Revised for modern readers, Flavel’s insights remain true and relevant today. In Christ and His Threefold Office, Flavel explores the biblical truth that Jesus fulfills three essential roles in the life of every believer: Prophet, Priest, and King. In Christ Humbled yet Exalted, he walks readers through the humiliation and exaltation of Christ, from His humble incarnation to His reign at the right hand of the Father.

In these books, you’ll read about the completeness of Christ’s work and come to better understand your ongoing need for Him. They’re meant to be read slowly and prayerfully as you’re reminded that Christ is your fountain of joy and everything you need.

Request this two-book bundle when you donate to Truth For Life today.

How Backsliding Happens, According to John Bunyan

TFL — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In Hebrews 10:26–27, the unnamed writer of the book issues a solemn warning: “If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” When we read these verses, we are reminded that clearly, in the writer’s context, there were those who had not simply neglected the gatherings of God’s people but also drifted from their moorings to the truth of God in Christ. They had become, in familiar church language, backsliders.

Reading such a warning, we should note that the writer is clearly not referring to genuine believers who had simply failed, stumbled, or temporarily lost interest in the things of Christ. As Calvin writes, “There is a great difference between individual lapses and a universal desertion of this kind.”¹ This is not someone who had a temporary lapse. This is someone who was a total deserter—someone who took the Christian uniform, then trashed it, burned it, and essentially said, “I have nothing to do with this anymore. I’m done.”

At one point in his allegorical masterpiece The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan raises (through the character of Hopeful, the traveling companion of his protagonist, Christian) the question of how such backsliding occurs. After reviewing “the reason of … sudden backsliding,” Hopeful asks Christian, “Now I have shown you the reasons of their going back, do you show me the manner thereof.” For today’s believers, Christian’s explanation provides a helpful examination of the process by which the sorts of people mentioned in Hebrews come to fall away:

They draw off their thoughts, all that they may, from the remembrance of God, death, and judgment to come.
Then they cast off by degrees private duties, as closet prayer, curbing their lusts, watching sorrow for sin, and the like.
Then they shun the company of lively and warm Christians.
After that, they grow cold to public duty; as hearing, reading, godly conference, and the like.
They then begin to pick holes, as we say, in the coat of some of the godly, and that devilishly, that they may have a seeming color to throw religion (for the sake of some infirmities they have espied in them) behind their backs.
Then they begin to adhere to, and associate with themselves with carnal, loose, and wanton men.
Then they give way to carnal and wanton discourses in secret; and glad are they if they can see such things in any that are counted honest, that they may the more boldly do it through their example.
After this they begin to play with little sins openly.
And then, being hardened, they show themselves as they are. Thus being launched again into the gulf of misery, unless a miracle of grace prevent it, they everlastingly perish in their own deceivings.²

As we read through this list, we may see the fallen inclination of our sinful hearts reflected in it. To the extent that we do, we should heed the warnings of Hebrews: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (3:12), for “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:31).

And yet those same hands, the writer reminds us, are also the ones that keep us so that we can say in truth, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (10:39). May we examine ourselves, then, thoroughly, and also come to rest and trust thoroughly in the keeping power of the one who has given us His grace and mercy.

This article was adapted from the sermon “Keeping Near, Keeping On” by Alistair Begg.

John Calvin, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews and the First and Second Epistles of St. Peter, trans. William B. Johnston, ed. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963), 146. ↩︎
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come; Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream, Moody Classics (Chicago: Moody, n.d.), 176–77. ↩︎

Wallpaper: Sanctification

TFL — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

“Our sanctification is a long and continued process.”
—C. H. Spurgeon

Click below to download your image:

Apple Devices:
iPads
iPhones

Other Devices:
Android Phones
Amazon Fire
Microsoft Surface

Social Media
Facebook Banner
Facebook Post
Twitter Post
Instagram Post

Desktop Computer
Large
Small

Study the Bible—but Don’t Miss Christ

TFL — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 05:00:01 GMT

Have you ever considered that you can be pharisaical in your study of the Bible? It’s true! In John 5, for instance, Jesus acknowledged the Pharisees’ commitment to studying their Old Testaments, but with an important caveat: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). The Pharisees knew their Scriptures well—but they missed Christ in them and so missed the point entirely.

Even for believers in a faithful, Bible-preaching church, it is possible to be meticulously, vociferously, painstakingly committed to the Bible and yet to be unconverted. What can we do about this problem? Unlike the Pharisees, we need to come to the Bible understanding the most important thing about it: that it is a book about Christ. And knowing it is about Christ, we can then study it with the confidence of someone who has “looked up the answer at the back of the book.” Christ is the answer! And so we ought to teach Christ in all the Scriptures so that we may come to know and love Him better.

Teaching Christ from Scripture

For those who have the privilege of preaching or teaching the Bible (whether from the pulpit, in a Sunday school class, or at a child’s bedside), the great danger is that we would do so without presenting Christ. We may pride ourselves on the systematic and consecutive nature in which we move through the Scriptures. We may spend hours and hours of our week in quiet study or opening the Bible’s pages alongside other believers. Yet we may at the same time be so close to the text that we fail to stand back from it and see the big picture of redemption through the Lord Jesus.

The apostolic pattern, right from the day of Pentecost on, is to present the Lord. In Acts 2, when Peter addressed the crowd, he began, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth…” (v. 22). He didn’t begin with the benefits of the Gospel or appeal to their felt needs: “I know a number of you are unhappy, your marriages are falling apart, you’ve had difficulty with your finances, some of you are in deep dilemmas with your teenage children,” and so on. No, he began by confronting them with the Savior, telling them who He was and what He did (Acts 2:22–36).

It’s much easier to tackle the how-tos and present little moral messages than to present Christ. It’s similarly easy to adopt a political posture or to condemn everything and everyone. The hard thing to do is the right thing to do: to demonstrate how every iota and every dot of God’s Word (Matt. 5:18) points ultimately to God’s Savior. What a dreadful waste of creative energy it would be to provide instruction about almost everything rather than the saving story of Jesus!

Knowing Christ in Scripture

Of course, if the Bible needs to be taught properly, it also must be learned properly—and that will mean studying it with a desire to know Christ better.

In Luke 24, following Christ’s death and resurrection, two disconsolate disciples do not realize they are walking and talking with the risen Lord Jesus. They explain to this “stranger” that the salvation story has come to a grinding halt in a Palestinian tomb. But before Jesus reveals Himself, the text says, He “interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (v. 27). And when He finally makes Himself known, what do the two disciples latch on to? “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (v. 32). They came to know Christ in the Bible.

R. Hudson Pope wrote a little prayer that teaches us how we ought to come to the Scriptures:

Make the Book live to me, O Lord,
Show me Thyself within Thy Word,
Show me myself, and show me my Savior,
And make the Book live to me.

In other words, when we approach the Scriptures, whether in our quiet times, at a Sunday morning service, or elsewhere, we shouldn’t treat it as simply another task on the to-do list: “Teeth brushed? Check. Hair combed? Check. Bible read? Check.” That would be to miss the glory and wonder of what Scripture really offers us: an opportunity to know the Savior of the world through His Word.

The real test of whether the Word of God is dwelling in us richly (Col. 3:16) is not going to be our ability to articulate a storyline or turn to the right reference. It is going to be that, as a result of having Christ taught to us in all the Scriptures, we come to know Christ in them.

Loving Christ Through Scripture

In 1 John 4:8 we read, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” It stands to reason, then, that to know God is to love—not only to love our neighbor but also to love God Himself as revealed to us in Jesus (Matt. 22:37–39). When we come to know Christ in the Scriptures—truly know Him—then we will also love Him.

We should beware of any approach to the study of the Bible that doesn’t issue in a growing love for Jesus. And how may we know that our love is genuine? Not through a certain surge of feeling when we sing on Sunday morning! No, Jesus tells us: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. … Whoever does not love me does not keep my words” (John 14:23–24).

Love for Christ, in other words, shows itself in our obedience to His commands. We don’t need a growing list of rules to keep; we need a love for the Savior who bought us with His own blood and a growing desire to honor Him with our thoughts, words, and deeds. As we come to love Christ in the Scriptures, we will come to see that “his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

As with the Pharisees (and the genuine disciples!) of Jesus’ day, God searches our hearts. He knows who we are and where we are. Some of us are very proud of our heavily annotated Bibles—so much so that we’ve come to look to them, rather than to Christ, for assurance of our faith. What a tragedy it would be if all that study filled us with information but failed to bring us to Christ! Let us rather seek to be people who teach Christ, know Him, and love Him through the Word that He has given us.

This article was adapted from the sermon “The Heart of the Matter” by Alistair Begg.