What Does It Profit A Man…? (Calvin)

You've no doubt read these words of Jesus in one of the Gospels: And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? (Mark 8:36 NLT) These words are in the context of Jesus' explanation of discipleship - what it means to follow him in self-denial and cross-bearing. So …

A Monday Devotional on Self-Denial (Flavel)

The English Puritan Thomas Manton (1620-1677) wrote a helpful treatise on self-denial. He based the treatise on Jesus' words from Matthew 16:24: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself..." (NASB). It's a longer treatise with some very helpful insight. Here's a paragraph that I marked up this morning. I hope it …

Deep Discipleship: A Brief Review

Someone recently mentioned this book to me: Deep Discipleship by J. T. English (B&H, 2020). The main argument of this book is that Christian discipleship must be done in the local church and by the local church. After lamenting the doctrinal shallowness of many churches, English gives a biblical way forward: to make and grow …

Behaviors, Addictions, and Helping One Another (Welch)

Scripture often calls God's people to help one another (1 Cor. 16:11, 2 Cor. 1:11, Phil. 4:16, 1 Thess. 5:14, etc.). One aspect of loving one another in a Christ-like way is giving others of our time, energy, and effort to help when and where help is needed. Speaking of this topic, here's how Ed …

Mentoring for Men

 While there are overwhelming numbers of Christian books on many topics (parenting, anxiety, homosexuality, Bible commentaries, etc.), I haven't seen too many on mentoring.  Sure, there are some mentoring books out there, but as far as I can tell it's not an area that has been covered as much as other areas.  Because I've not …