Category: PASSION Collections

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands for our growth:

How Should We Pray? A Helpful Framework of Seven ‘P’s – John Stevens
It helps to have some framework for prayer that shapes our thinking and speaking. I find it helpful to bear in mind the following aspects of prayer, both for my personal praying and public prayers.

Leave Church a Little Tired: Serving the Saints on Sunday Morning – Sam Emadi (DG)
The next time you gather with God’s people, I hope you leave strengthened and spiritually fed, I hope you’re built up by the gospel, and I also hope you leave a little tired. I hope you leave looking a little more like the Son of Man, who gave his life to serve.

The Radiance of Real Holiness – Trevin Wax
I’ve been thinking more carefully about how compelling and attractive holiness can be in a world that has forgotten the sacred dignity of humanity and the high calling God has for us.

Follow the Truth, Not Your Heart – Robby Lashua (STR)
The Christian worldview teaches that the heart is deceitfully wicked and that transformation happens when our minds are conformed to the truth. According to the New Age worldview, the mind is a trickster, so we should follow our hearts. This is a complete inversion of the truth.

Flashback: Where God Dwells
God is high and holy, so it should not surprise us that he dwells in a high and holy place. What should absolutely amaze us….

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands for our growth:

Never Too Busy to Pray – Scott Hubbard (DG)
God wants us to run and build and work in this world, but not apart from prayer. Jesus knew as much. So, though busy, though sought out, though needed, though weighed down by a world of urgent responsibility, Jesus prayed. Will we?

10 Ways to Fracture Your Church – Conrad Mbewe (Crossway)
Although I have given ten ways to fracture a church, there are many more. This is only a sample. Often you will find that it is a combination of these causes that finally lead to the fragmentation. To arrest a possible breakup, you need to talk about the threat before the root of bitterness grows. Deal with it quickly. Like cancer, it must be handled as soon as it is discovered because any delay only allows the cancer to grow.

In the School of Contentment – Doug Eaton (Fight of Faith)
It is easy to boast when things are good, but the believer must often be trained by many hardships to make contentment a reality.

Have You Lost the Ability to Think Deeply? – Lydia Kinne (TGC)
Our society desperately needs more people who can think wisely, discern clearly, and guide the next generation in God’s truth. It sounds like a big task, but it can start with something as small as turning off the TV and picking up a good book.

Flashback: Everlasting Significance
Don’t seek lasting significance in the temporary. Only an eternal God can give you lasting significance. He gives us an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands for our growth in the new year:

How Healthy Is Your Soul? Six Questions for a New Year – Scott Hubbard (DG)
So, at the end of a new year, on the edge of another, let’s stop to take some spiritual vitals. How healthy is your soul?

5 Habits That Changed My Life – Ian Harbar (Back Again)
Everyone is different, but if you find yourself struggling under the weight of life, I hope these habits are something you’ll consider as we move into the new year. They won’t solve every problem, but I’ve found that they have helped me bear life and increase my capacity for love.

The “Plus One” Approach to Church – Kevin DeYoung (Clearly Reformed)
Are you feeling disconnected, unhappy, or bored with your local congregation? Let me suggest you enter the “Plus One” program of church involvement.

How I Am Getting My Mind Back This Year – Wyatt Graham (TGC)
If our age’s pathology threatens to unmake what it means to be human—that rational and emotional structure based on deep structures of reality—then how can we—how can I—get our minds back this year?

Flashback: What Are You Seeking?
What are you seeking? This is Jesus’ question to two of John the Baptist’s disciples. It is also an important question for us to ponder as we end this year and begin a new year.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands for our growth:

The Uselessness of Prayer – Trevin Wax (TGC)
Prayer is training us to look up to the God whose first and greatest commandment is to love him with our whole heart, mind, and soul. You cannot measure or quantify that goal. You can only give yourself over to that desire and direction.

The Golden Rule for Hard Conversations – Casey McCall (ROFD)
Now ask yourself, what would you want if you were that person? The Golden Rule helps us wisely discern when the difficult conversation is necessary.

7 Things to Remember When Tempted to Sin – Doug Eaton (FOF)
We all struggle with sin, but we must remember that sin makes us foolish. It is never reasonable, and when we are in the throes of temptation, we often become ignorant. It is as if sin puts blinders on our eyes, causing us to forget what is important to us. These blinders are why, when tempted to sin, it is crucial to pause and reflect on the following seven things.

The Olympic Vision: ‘My Way’ – Murray Campbell
Because of this, perhaps ‘My Way’ was a fitting end to the Paris Olympic Games. The Olympic flame was snuffed out, its dying embers a sign of where ‘Imagine’ becomes reality.

Flashback: Not Offended
Our identity is found in Christ and not in what others think or do. So let’s live as Christians and not be so easily offended.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!

Ministry Moments

On By BrianIn Ministry Moments, Uncategorized

Here are some helpful posts for small-town pastors:

Don’t Measure Small-Town Ministry Simply by Its Size – Stephen Witmer (TGC)
My friends’ ministry is expressing something of God and his gospel that couldn’t be expressed through a massive revival. All their many sacrifices, their unconditional friendship to a young Muslim family still blind to the glory of Christ, their consistent, prayerful sharing of the gospel with those who will listen—these demonstrate a generous God and a lavish gospel.

No City Is Too Small for God: Reaching the Crevices of the World – Josh Manley (DG)
But if you labor in relative obscurity and are tempted to think your work is unstrategic, I want to encourage you that, if you labor for the Lord, there is no such thing as an unstrategic city. He cares about every last sheep.

Brothers, Preach Your Heart Out — No Matter How Few People Are in the Room – Tim Counts (IX)
The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Only the Lord knows what he will do with an army of preachers committed to expositing God’s Word with precision and passion week in and week out in small churches across America.

Brothers, let’s press on for the sake of the kingdom!

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands for our growth:

Living From Approval, Not For Approval – Dave Harvey
Let me ask you a question: What do you think God feels about you right now? Irritation over your flaws — that tendency towards gluttony, or your inconsistency to getting up each morning to pray? Does God want to withdraw due to our failures — the impatient word with a wife or child; the angry outburst provoked by someone cutting you off on the freeway? Does he look down with a cosmic frown of disapproval on you, so prone to wander and full of weakness?

Love (All) Your Neighbors: A Surprising Test of True Faith – Scott Hubbard (DG)
So, if you want to see someone’s spiritual sincerity more clearly, don’t mainly watch him in church. Watch him with his children. Watch him at work. Watch him in traffic. Watch him when offended. For you will know him by his neighbor-love.

Can We Forgive When the Offender Doesn’t Repent? – Mike Wittmer (TGC)
Forgiveness means to pardon an offender by paying/absorbing his moral debt. When an offender repents, it’s clear we should both pay and pardon. We absorb the moral cost of being sinned against and assure the offender of our forgiveness. When the offender doesn’t repent for whatever reason—perhaps he’s hard-hearted or has died—we must separate the payment from the pardon. We don’t pardon him (and gloss over his offenses), because he hasn’t repented, yet we still must absorb the moral cost.

The Desecration of Man – Carl Trueman (First Things)
Contra Nietzsche, God is not dead. But we moderns have used Nietzsche’s claim as an excuse for desecrating man, for turning ourselves and others into insignificant, sexualized, animate lumps of meat. Only a reclamation, and a proclamation, of the living God in the vital worship of the Church will consecrate man and bring him back from the brink of a nihilistic, dehumanized abyss.

Flashback: Gentle Discipline
Paul is weary of Corinthians, who are like wayward children, and yet he wants to treat them with gentleness. He doesn’t want to come with a rod, but with gentle love. Notice he doesn’t demand, command, or threaten. But clothed with the gentleness of Christ, he entreats, he urges, he beseechs, he appeals to them. His discipline is gentle.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

The Christian’s Keystone Habit – Reagan Rose (RP)
But if you begin by carefully identifying a single keystone habit and focusing all of your attention on that, you’ll discover that other good habits follow it. So, this leads to a very important question: What keystone habit should we begin with?

Hospitality: A Command for Our Joy – Kyleigh Dunn (GCD)
If I hadn’t grown up in a community that loved hospitality, I wouldn’t naturally think of having people over for a meal. I can cook, but most of what I make is not that exciting. I love being with others, but too much social interaction exhausts me. Despite those excuses and the uncertainties children add to the picture, we’ve chosen to prioritize hospitality. This is in part because of the joy it’s brought to our lives but also because Scripture commands us to.

A Deadly Foe of Spiritual Growth – Tim Challies
As we live out the Christian life and cooperate with the Holy Spirit through the precious means of grace, we face a number of foes, a number of enemies that mean to derail us from our pursuit of God. Of all those enemies, none may be more prevalent and none more deadly than complacency.

Everyone Has Their Own Facts Now – Patrick Miller (Endeavor)
Indeed, our very concept of “being informed” is changed by this context. We become misled in our opinions, not because someone lied to us (though plenty of that happens online) but because online information is disjointed, superficial, and contextless. It creates what Postman calls “the illusion knowledge” while leading its consumers further away from actual knowledge. As a result, Postman writes, “we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed.” The problem is that you can correct ignorance. “But what shall we do,” asks Postman, “if we take ignorance to be knowledge?”

Flashback: Gentle Marriage
This is the great test of gentleness. It is easy to put on show in public, but what are we like at home? Are we gentle with each other, or are we harsh, brawling, loud, or manipulative?

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

God Beckons Through Beauty: Where Our Deepest Longings Lead – Jon Bloom (DG)
We long to be in the place where — or more accurately, with the Person from whom — all the beauty, all the glory, comes from….

How to Reach Our Neighbors in a Post-Christian Culture? – Josh Butler (TGC)
For our neighbors to encounter Jesus and trust in him for salvation, the church must embody the reality of his kingdom in practical ways that bear witness to the good news of his reign. What would this look like in today’s post-Christian culture, where some have never heard Jesus’s gospel and most simply consider it irrelevant to modern life? Three themes are significant….

The Secret Of Contentment – Seth Lewis
Think about it: If you tie your contentment to anything in this world, then it will always be insecure. Everything we have and experience here on earth, no matter how wonderful, is temporary and fragile.

Understanding the Metamodern Mood – Brett McCracken (TGC)
Why, when we look at contemporary pop culture—movies, music, TV, campus protests, meme culture, and TikTok (especially TikTok)—does the word “incoherence” often come to mind? Why does so much today feel random, disconnected, contradictory, aimless, and altogether void of coherent logic and purpose?

Flashback: Gentle Words
Gentle words can diffuse an angry conflict and bring healing and life to the hurting. Harsh words can stir up conflict and break the spirit of the bruised and battered. God calls us to turn from harsh words and grow in gentleness.

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strand for our growth:

Good News! You Can’t Engineer an Experience with God – Trevin Wax
The presence of God can feel elusive to us, even when we ask for it, because prayer isn’t magic. We aren’t conjurers. We cannot manufacture a true religious experience. Prayer is an encounter with the living God. The feeling that sometimes results from an encounter with God is uncontrollable because we’re dealing with a personal God, not a force we can harness through incantations.

Win the Next Generation with Love – Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)
Jesus said it best: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Jesus did not say, “They will know you are my disciples by how attuned you are to new trends in youth culture.” Or “They will know you are my disciples by the hip atmosphere you create.” Give up on “relevance” and try love. If they see love in you, love for each other, love for the world, and love for them, they will listen. No matter who “they” are.

When Self-Centeredness Sets In – justinmykoagpangan (By Grace Alone)
We are naturally self-centered. We live as if we are the center of the universe. We live to achieve what we want in life. We live for the aim of our self-centered pursuits in life. Our dreams, wants, and longings revolve around us.

The Case Against the Abortion Pill – Rachel Roth Aldhizer (First Things)
In this story, medical abortions induce an unnatural process, one in which up to 20 percent of women experience a complication—four times the complication rate of surgical abortion. The medical abortion process is designed to hide adverse events and discourage patient follow-up. Women seeking abortion receive lower standards of care than do women suffering miscarriage….

Flashback: A Gentle Life
A gentle person doesn’t attack others with her words. She doesn’t speak evil of people, slandering and maligning them. She doesn’t fight with others, quarreling or brawling. A gentle person is courteous, considerate, and polite towards others.

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

The Awakening We Need: Why the Reformed Pray for Revival – Ray Ortlund (DG)
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” May Psalm 85:6 grab our hearts and never let us go!

Is the ‘Silent Treatment’ a Godly Approach to Conflict? – Joe Carter (TGC)
Passive-aggressive tactics are ungodly because they promote division over unity, reflect anger rather than understanding, and withhold forgiveness and love in an effort to gain control.

How (and How Not) to Fight Sin – J. Garrett Kell (Crossway)
Fighting sin is spiritual warfare, and warfare requires a battle plan. If left to our own devices, we would have little success against our unseen enemy. Thankfully, God’s word supplies wisdom to assist us in eluding the evil one’s snares.

Rome Is Not Our Home: Live Counterculturally During Election Season – Pete Nicholas (TGC)
Charity is an underemphasized Christian virtue today, and to be charitable requires eschewing suspicion, cynicism, and laziness. It means good conversation and prayerful reflection to inhabit another’s point of view.

Flashback: The Spirit’s Fruit
And the gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us a gentle people in the image of our Triune God. The gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us gentle in situations where we otherwise couldn’t on our own. The Spirit works to replace our tendency towards harshness, loudness, and quarrelsomeness with a Spirit-led gentleness.