Category: PASSION Collections

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

4 Ways to Cling to the Lord – Sam Storms (Crossway)
The temptation to forget God is always present. But there is a way to maintain one’s devotion to the Lord. Joshua’s counsel in Joshua 23:6-11 is especially helpful and can be summarized using four As.

How to Resist Temptation’s Mirage Moment– Jon Bloom (DG)
Temptation is a disorienting, defiling experience when evil is presented to us as good. Destruction comes dressed up to look like happiness.

5 Things You Can Give to God Every Day – Tim Challies
The heart of productivity is glorifying God by serving others. It is carefully and deliberately considering the things God calls us to do, and deploying all that we’ve got for his glory and the good of people made in his image. It is giving back to him what he has entrusted to each one of us.

Don’t Be Embarrassed by Your Ordinary Church – Erik Raymond (For the Church)
Is your church ordinary? Small? Well, my Christian friend, if it is preaching the gospel and endeavoring to help others to know and follow Jesus then it is not insignificant. It is powerfully important and surpassingly glorious.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your ordinary church and your extraordinary God!

Current

On By BrianIn Current Collection

Here are some helpful posts for thinking through President Obama’s recent letter to every public school:

Explainer: Federal Government issues letter on transgender policy to America’s public schools – Joe Carter (ERLC)

President Obama: Accept Transgenderism or Else – Denny Burk

4 Bigger Repercussions of the Bathroom Decree – Trevin Wax

What the Transgender Bathroom Debate Means For You – Russell Moore

We must bear witness to the goodness of what it means to live as creatures, not as self-defining gods and goddesses. – Russell Moore

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Joy of Self-Discipline – Tim Challies

Four Steps to Kill Nagging Sins – Gavin Ortlund (DG)

15 Discernment Diagnostics – Kevin DeYoung

4 Essentials for Finishing Well – Jerry Bridges (Crossway)

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day growing in the truth of God’s Word with your local church!

Current

On By BrianIn Current Collection

Here are some helpful posts to help us continue to think through the transgender issue – and more importantly to help us think through how our culture thinks and what it believes.

Watch: College Kids Can’t Explain Why a Short White Man Isn’t a Tall Asian Woman – David French (National Review)

Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme – Paul McHugh (Public Discourse)

7 Troubling Questions About Transgender Theories – Trevin Wax

Women’s Sanitary Bins & Bathroom Theology – Peter Jones (truthxchange)

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

5 Ways the Ascension Benefits You– Steve Mathewson (TGC)
His ascension wasn’t merely an exclamation point at the end of the resurrection; it provided his followers with power, grace, mercy, presence, gifts, and anticipation enabling them to advance his mission.

A Helpful Way To Think About Personal Discipleship – Mike Leake
First, I make a concentrated effort to spend time with people. Secondly, every time I spend time with them my goal is to leave them better than when we started—to help them take one step closer to Christ. That’s it. Every time I meet with you I want to love you and want to help you see Jesus a little better.

Governed by Bad News or Good News? – David Prince
Like Paul, we must make a radical commitment to be governed by Gospel truth, rather than our emotions, or the bad news on the 24-hour news shows. If bad news becomes our most prevalent reality, then our emotions will enslave us. But Gospel truth will always set us free. Paul is moved by the bad news he saw, but he was not governed by it.

3 Reasons You Should See Going to Church as a Privilege, Not a Chore – Trevin Wax
Church attendance is not a chore. It’s a gift. Therefore, it should elicit gratitude, not griping.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day celebrating our Ascended Lord with your local church!

Missions Collection

On By BrianIn Missions Collection

Here are some good posts to ponder about missions:

Seven Discoveries to Define and Ignite Passion for Missions – Julian Freeman

The Non-Negotiable Center of Missions– Interview of Zane Pratt by Matt Smethurst (TGC)

Why Your Church Should Support Fewer Missionaries – Mike Pettengill (TGC)

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points2 Comments

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Character of the Christian: Respected by Outsiders – Tim Challies
What kind of reputation do you have among the unbelievers you work with? Do you work hard and avoid meddling?

How Your Habits Show and Shape Your Heart – David Mathis (TGC)
The danger with having to make the decision all over again every time about these vital means of God’s ongoing grace is our wandering hearts may choose not to avail ourselves of his goodness. These are habits worth forming, because hearing his voice (in his Word), having his ear (in prayer), and belonging to his body (in the local church) are the lifeblood for the Christian life….  The signal joy in forming “habits of grace” is being freed from focus on self, on our technique, to turn our soul’s gaze to Jesus. After all, the great goal of the spiritual disciplines—the end of the means of grace—is knowing and enjoying Jesus.

Three Biblical Practices for Prayer – Colin Smith (UTB)
How easy it is to grow weary, lose focus, and become ungrateful. And yet, these very weaknesses—the same weaknesses faced by the disciples—point us to the One who prays for us. Like the disciples, let us be encouraged by Christ’s reminder to watch and pray. His example of steadfastness, watchfulness, and thankfulness teaches us to rely on what God can do through prayer rather than rely on ourselves.

Isolation from the Church Is Dangerous – Josh Buice (DBG)
We must learn to see the church as a blessing from God rather than an inconvenience. We must never look at the church as a violation to our spiritual privacy fence. We were never called to walk the journey of the Christian life alone. Surround yourself with gospel preaching, gospel singing, and gospel friends…

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

Current

On By BrianIn Current Collection

Michigan’s Board of Education wants to allow school-aged students to be able to decide what gender they are. And what bathrooms and locker rooms they can use at their public school.  Regardless of their biological and genetic reality.  With no input from the child’s parents.  Or even the parent’s knowledge. You can find the Board’s memo at the first link below.

Let me be clear that we should treat all people with compassion and respect as image-bearers of God.  But compassion does not encourage confusion. Or oppose the family.  Or put our daughters in danger of predators and peeping toms.

Here are some helpful posts addressing these and other related issues:

Safe Schools, Gender Non-Conformity, and Common Sense – Kevin DeYoung

Gender Ideology Harms Children – American College of Pediatricians

Transgender Thoughts – Mike Wittmer

An Open Letter to Bruce Springsteen and His Band – Michael Brown

One final thought.  Mike Wittmer suggests in his post above that our culture is caught up in “the classical view that our bodies don’t matter and that the real us is our soul. We couldn’t have such malleable views of gender and sex without a deficient view of the human body.”  Exactly.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Forgetting the Past – Ed Welch (CCEF)
Scripture does help us with our painful pasts, but it does more than that. It tells us to forget things we want to remember, and remember things we are likely to forget.

The Character of the Christian: Mature and Humble – Tim Challies
Christian leaders—and all Christians—are to strive to become more like Christ—they are to grow in spiritual maturity. As they grow in maturity, they will necessarily grow in humility.

10 Things to Remember When Reading the Bible – Vern Poythress (Crossway)
God’s redemption takes place in history. Christianity is not merely a religious philosophy, a set of general truths about God and the world. At its heart is the gospel, the good news that Christ has come and has lived and died and has risen from the dead, and now lives to intercede for us. God has worked out our salvation by coming in the person of Christ and acting in time and space. The message of what he has done now goes out to the nations…

18 Things to Pray for Your Church – Jonathan Leeman (TGC)
It’s comparatively easy for you and me to pray for ourselves, our families, and our friends. But how can we learn how to pray more fervently and consistently for our local churches?

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!