Darryl Dash's Blog, page 18
August 4, 2024
Trusting God When Evil People Prosper and You Don’t (Psalm 37)
Big Idea: Don’t fret, but trust God when evil people get ahead and you don’t.
Do you ever look at someone else and think, “Where did I go wrong?”
I was sitting at a restaurant in Port Credit meeting with a friend. It was a beautiful day. As we ate, we watched yachts go by.
Now, God has been good to me. He has given me many material and other blessings. But as the yachts went by, I felt tempted to envy them. Somewhere along the line, their lives took a different path than the two of us sitting there...
August 3, 2024
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
10 Errors to Avoid When Talking about Sanctification and the Gospel
In the course of faithful preaching and teaching all the positive truths found in a robust, thoughtful doctrine of sanctification should be publicly declared.
Reconciling Free Will and Divine Sovereignty: A Three-Dimensional View from a Two-Dimensional World
To claim that it is either free will and human responsibility OR meticulous divine determination is to choose which passages of the Bible...
July 30, 2024
Small is Underrated
We’re impressed with bigness, but I believe that small is vastly underrated.
Small ChurchesTake a small church. A small church is probably going to be a difficult church, not because there’s anything wrong with a small church in itself. The tough thing about attending or pastoring a small church is that some people will see that smallness as a failure. They will see a good small church as a failed big church rather than what it really is: a church that’s beautiful and holy at its current size.
Pit...
July 28, 2024
God’s Goodness in Suffering (Psalm 34)
Big Idea: Learn about God’s goodness in the midst of suffering. But don’t just learn about it; experience it yourself.
Advice can be valuable, but only if it comes from somebody reliable. But when you find someone who’s been through exactly what you’re going through, and they have something to say, their advice can be incredible.
If you are getting married, it is so helpful to talk to someone who has been married for a long time and is making it work.If you’re going through joblessness, it helps s...July 27, 2024
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Keep Watch Over Souls: A One-Verse Charge to Pastors
As doctors deal with the health of the body, pastors deal with the health of the soul.
Dear Pastor, in a Celebrity Culture, Your Call Is Contentment
We want our work to be great so that people will see God’s greatness, not to show off our talents or to be greater than others.
How Pastors Can Encourage Others to Consider Vocational Ministry
Why are fewer people today answering the call to vocational ministry, a...
July 23, 2024
Two Kinds of Sin, Two Kinds of Prayer
When we think of sin, we don't typically think about the different kinds of sins that exist.
Psalm 19 can help with that. It not only helps us understand two kinds of sin, but it helps us learn how to pray for each kind.
Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
(Psalm 19:12-13)
The psalmist talks about two kinds of sins, with a ...
July 21, 2024
Trusting God in Crisis (Psalm 31)
Big Idea: In crisis, turn to God, remind yourself what’s true, and then you’ll be able to help others take courage in God.
Someone I know and respect went through one of the hardest crises of his life.
He had reached the peak of his professional career. He’d had a solid track record of accomplishments. But out of nowhere, a powerful group of people turned against him and forced him out of his job.
“It just about took me out,” he said.
And so, for a year, their agenda was simple: “to try not to die, ...
July 20, 2024
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Is Temptation Sin? Not According to Martyn Lloyd-Jones
He considers it a Satanic deception to confuse temptation with sin, and this undermines the assurance of Christians that they are truly the children of God.
What Does the Bible Teach About Divorce and Remarriage?
What are the common evangelical views on divorce and remarriage, and how do we evaluate them biblically?
When is the last time you thought about your baptism?
July 16, 2024
How Marriage Shows the Beauty and Poetry of the Gospel
“It was the breakdown of marriage that broke everything,” writes Ray Ortlund.
God created gender. He created man and woman, and he instituted marriage. All of this was a gift meant for his glory and for our joy.
But things went horribly wrong in the garden. Yes, they sinned, but part of that sin was the breakdown in how marriage is supposed to function. Kent Hughes says, “Everything was upside-down. Eve followed the snake, Adam followed Eve, and no one followed God.”
Both sinned. Their sins are sim...
July 13, 2024
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Heaven Remembered: Learning to Long for Home
You can learn to think well about heaven by enjoying all the good things in this life now, lifting them as high as your imagination can go, and saying, this, but better.
We live in a time when a reacquaintance with God’s blessedness could prove extremely useful for pastors and their flocks.
Do you want God? You will have God. Do you delight in God? You will enjoy Go...
