Tim Challies Journalist Profile

Articles

Humility on social media

Jan 4, 2025 | evangelical-times.org | Tim Challies

This article was first published in Tabletalk, the Bible study magazine of Ligonier Ministries. Find out more at TabletalkMagazine.co.uk or try it free for three months today at TryTabletalk.co.uk. Every coin has a head behind a tail, every die a six behind a one, every stamp a sticker behind a face. In much the same way, every technology has a virtue behind a vice, a benefit behind a drawback, something beneficial behind something sorely detrimental.
A Collection of Random Thoughts on Christian Living

Jan 2, 2025 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

Perhaps the best gift you can bring to God is not a list of good deeds, but evidence of a character that has become transformed to the image of Jesus Christ. The deeds will follow the character. Not every thought makes a good article and sometimes an entire article can be distilled down to a single thought. For those reasons, I like to occasionally create what I have created here–a roundup of brief, random thoughts about Christian living.
Now’s the Time to Consider a New Year’s Resolution

Dec 26, 2024 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

For the one who has been downcast and not seeking the Lord’s help. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4) For the one who has been anxious and not taking those anxieties to the Lord. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6) For the one who spent too much of the past year in anger.
Those Who Sing Songs in the Night

Dec 18, 2024 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

This is the sacred calling given to those who suffer—to lift trembling hands, to raise tear-stained eyes, to sing with wavering voice, to praise God as much in taking as in the giving. Imagine that you are sitting in a prison cell. This is not some posh or even stark 21st-century prison cell, but a primitive Roman one. Your back is pressed against cold stones. Your stomach is aching with hunger. Your nose is assaulted by terrible smells. Your heart is filled with despair.
You’re Exactly as Holy as You Want to Be

Dec 11, 2024 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

You and I are exactly as holy as we want to be. We are exactly as holy as we’ve determined we will be through every opportunity to act righteously or sinfully, to move forward or fall back, to be more like Christ or to forsake him altogether. Every Christian is a work in progress. Every Christian is striving for holiness, laboring to put off the old man and put on the new. Though none of us is as holy as we will be in heaven, I trust that each of us is holier now than when we first came to Christ.
A Pastoral Prayer

Dec 8, 2024 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

If you transform our hearts we will long for what is good, we will think thoughts that are pure, we will speak words that are sweet, we will do acts that are selfless, we will even follow in ways that are difficult or that cut hard against our natural desire for ease. So please do that work in us. Let us be as holy as men and women can be on this side of heaven. From time to time I like to share an example of a pastoral prayer that was prayed at Grace Fellowship Church.
On the Other Side of the Wall

Dec 5, 2024 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

I cannot now see him, I can be certain that he is blooming there, on the other side of the wall, where the sun is brighter, where all shadows are gone. And I can anticipate the day when, I, too, will pass through the garden gate to finally see him in that place where he has gone not to die but to truly live. A story is told of a convalescent woman and the lovely vine that grew in her yard.
A Sober Reminder: the Same Sins Can Disqualify Believers at the Beginning of Life and Near the End

Dec 4, 2024 | epm.org | Tim Challies

A Sober Reminder: the Same Sins Can Disqualify Believers at the Beginning of Life and Near the End Note from Randy: Immediately after speaking at a pastors’ luncheon in Portland a few months ago, on the subject of sexual purity, I went to my car and turned on my phone, and the first thing I saw was an email about speaker and pastor Steve Lawson—yet another prominent Christian leader going down in flames and taking down his family with him.
Marriage Happy, Marriage Holy

Nov 28, 2024 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

The couples who endure with joy are most often the couples who embrace one another as a complex bundle of strengths and weaknesses, helps and hurts, joys and sorrows, and who set their expectations for marriage accordingly. They are each more concerned with their own holiness than their spouse’s, each quicker to embrace an opportunity to overlook a sin than to confront one, each eager to forgive in the ways they’ve been forgiven by God.
From Practice to Perfection

Nov 8, 2024 | theaquilareport.com | Tim Challies

The more we practice, the more we find ourselves playing our instruments with joy and skill and the more we find ourselves playing well as part of an orchestra. The more we practice together, the more it becomes second nature to carry out the role that has been assigned to us. The more we rehearse, the more beautiful and harmonious we become. And as we press on and continue to practice, we find our hearts restless and longing for the end of rehearsal and the beginning of the true performance.