Here are some good posts for parents on teaching the Bible to your children:
How to Soak the Next Generation in God’s Word – Jani Ortlund
5 Simple Ways to Teach Your Kids Theology – Aaron Earls
Helping Children Benefit from the Sermon – Erik Raymond
Teach Your Child to Have Devotions – Ryan Higginbottom
Here are some more helpful posts to help Christians think through the recent Supreme Court’s decision on “same-sex marriage.”
Everything Has Changed and Nothing Has Changed: The Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage – Albert Mohler
Why the Gay Marriage Debate Was Over in 1950 – Joel Miller
How Christians Can Show Countercultural Resolve on Marriage – Jennifer Marshall (TGC)
Dear Christian Friends: Remember you are not Home – Erik Raymond (TGC)
How Should You Talk to Your Children About Same-Sex Marriage? – Russell Moore
40 Questions for Christians Now Waving Rainbow Flags – Kevin DeYoung
Here are some good posts for the small church pastor:
The Rural Church Potential – Kyle Borg
Where A Desperate Small Town Pastor Found Hope – Chad Ashby (TGC)
Remarkable for Being Unremarkable – Darryl Dash
It has been a busy week with VBS, so I haven’t had time to blog. But I’m back, and here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
What We Need Is More Knowledge – John Stott (via Tim Challies)
Breaking Free from the Spell of Fantasy – Jon Bloom (DG)
Well-Planned, Hard, Sweat-Inducing Prayer and Work – Joel Beeke (via Tim Challies)
12 Questions for a Six-Month Spiritual Checkup – Chuck Lawless
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our Great King!
Here is an overview and some helpful initial responses to yesterday’s Supreme Court “same-sex marriage” decision. Don’t miss the last two especially.
Supreme Court rules gay couples nationwide have a right to marry – Robert Barnes (WP)
Here are the key excerpts on religious liberty from the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage – Sarah Pulliam Bailey (WP)
Why the church should neither cave nor panic about the decision on gay marriage – Russell Moore (WP)
What Your Church Needs to Know—and Do—About the Court’s Marriage Ruling – Erik Stanley (TGC)
But What Does The Bible Say? – Kevin DeYoung
So-Called Same-Sex Marriage: Lamenting the New Calamity – John Piper (DG)
Here are some helpful posts for the church on our response to the transgender issue:
What Should the Church Say to Bruce Jenner? – Russell Moore
How Should We Respond to Caitlyn Jenner? – Jon Bloom (DG)
If Rachel Dolezal Isn’t Black, How Is Caitlyn Jenner A Woman? – Sean Davis (Federalist)
Here are some good posts primarily aimed at young adults, but with some good wisdom for all of us:
Students! Seize the Summer to Grow in Godliness, Not Decline in Laziness – Geoff Kirkland
If you don’t plan you’ll fail. If you don’t busy yourself with the right things you’ll make yourself busy with time-wasters.
Letter to Teens Unboxing Their First Smartphone – Tim Challies (DG)
It is an incredible piece of technology that can be used in many different ways. It can be used to do so many good things, but if you are not wary, it can also be used to do an awful lot of bad things. So before you power it on for the first time, I think it would be wise to invest just a few minutes in thinking and planning.
Lessons For Young Men – Geoff Kirkland
Our world desperately needs men. Real men. Manly men. Godly men. Holy men. Courageous men. Men who fear no one because they fear their God more.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
I was talking to some other pastors this week about same-sex marriage, and we noted the great confusion on the Biblical Christian teaching on this issue, especially in the views of our young people. So here are a few helpful posts to help us keep thinking through the issue:
Five Questions for Christians Who Believe the Bible Supports Gay Marriage – Kevin DeYoung
Should We Support Gay Marriage? NO – Wolfhart Pannenberg
The Solemnization of Matrimony – Kevin DeYoung
Here are some helpful posts on ministry:
20 Lessons in 20 Years of Pastoral Ministry – Brian Croft
Toolbox for Skillful Shepherding – Andrew Davis (via Andy Naselli)
13 Tips for Leading the Congregation in Prayer – Kevin DeYoung
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
God Is an Inexhaustible Fountain of Love – Jonathan Edwards (via Trevin Wax)
And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love.
Fountain of Love, Fill Our Souls – E. B. Pusey (via Trevin Wax)
O God, Fountain of love, pour your love into our souls,
that we may love those whom you love with the love you have given us…
Conflicts: Our Laboratories of Love – Jon Bloom (DG)
Here’s the good news: Conflict is the laboratory in which love (agapē) grows. Conflict is the construction area where humility is built. Conflict is the radiology department where pride is exposed. Conflict is the field where our treasure is unearthed. Conflict is a discipline God uses to make us holy and bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:10–11).
Worship God as Our Father – Stephen Miller (DG)
Worship is responding to God — who he is and what he has done. And the truth that God would give his own Son that he might make us his sons and daughters ought to produce awe and wonder and amazement in us. It ought to make us stop for a second — or for a Sunday morning — and say, How great is the love of the Father! How could we not sing? How could we not shout? How could we not respond, with all that we are, to all that he has done for us?
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our Father and loving his people!
Brian J. Mikul 