Category: PASSION Collections

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points1 Comment

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Teaching Children the Ten Commandments – Michael Snow
Michael shares the Ten Commandments in rhyme from the McGuffey readers.  Looks like a good way to teach young children – maybe it could be put to music.

Gentleness Is Not an Option – Dane Ortlund (via Jared Wilson)
[G]entleness is essential to Christian living. It is not an add-on. It is . . . one of the few indisputable evidences of the Holy Spirit alive and well within someone.

Sobering Up: The Prerequisite to a Good Prayer Life – Darryl Dash
Sobering up means that we see reality as it really is; that we recognize that time is short; that we give up any thoughts of trying to live or serve apart from the enablement that only God can offer.

The Tone Deaf Singer – Tim Challies
We sing best when that gospel is dwelling richly within us. God is not looking at the quality of our tone or the perfection of our pitch. He is looking at the heart. 

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day praising our Lord from your heart with your local church!

Ministry Monday

On By BrianIn Ministry Moments

Here are some good posts on ministry:

What I Wish I’d Known: Reflections on Nearly 40 Years of Pastoral Ministry – Sam Storms (TGC)

What Are Ten Characteristics I Look for in an Aspiring Pastor – Brian Croft (Practical Shepherding)

5 Components of Effective Delegation – Matt Perman (Catalyst)

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Don’t Waste Your Twenties – Trevin Wax
Friends, if you are entering or still in your twenties, let me exhort you: do not sit these years out. Do not wait on the big job or the amazing ministry you think you deserve. Love God and love people now.

Apple Watch – Lev Grossman and Matt Vella (via Mike Wittmer)
I’m thinking all of this has something to do with idolatry, identity, and loving people:
The reality of living with an iPhone, or any smart, connected mobile device, is that it makes reality feel just that little bit less real. One gets overconnected, to the point where one is apt to pay attention to the thoughts and opinions of distant anonymous strangers over those of loved ones who are in the same room. One forgets how to be alone and undistracted. Ironically enough experiences don’t feel fully real till you’ve used your phone to make them virtual–tweeted them or tumbled them or Instagrammed them or YouTubed them–and the world has congratulated you for doing so.

The Spirit Is Willing But the Schedule Is Tight – Garrett Kell (TGC)
So if the Spirit is willing to set up divine appointments, how should we prepare to respond—even when our schedule is full? There are no magic answers, but here are a few things to prayerfully consider.

26 Ways to “Provoke the I Peter 3:15 Question” at Work – J.D. Greear
Peter is supposing that your life provokes that question—that people are asking, “Why do you do what you do?”  Here is a list of 26 ways…

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Idolatry, PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Gospel Ripples – Jeremy Walker (Reformation 21)
Here are reasons why the saints need to go on hearing the gospel. It brings back to our hearts and minds the truths of our salvation, stirring us up to love and prompting us to serve. It emphasizes spiritual realities, the enduring facts of man’s sin and God’s grace, of heaven and hell and the sacrificial Lamb who stands between them. It reminds us of life and of death. It reinforces and freshly adorns our convictions. It prepares us to make Christ known.

Preaching the Gospel To Yourself – Tim Challies
Why don’t you make it part of your practice, and see the difference it makes to begin each day reminding yourself of who you were, and who you now are in Christ.

Three Questions To Help Diagnose Possible Football Idolatry – Kevin DeYoung
Wherever there is a consuming passion for anything that is not God there is the danger of idolatry. And football is certainly a consuming passion for many in this country. So what are some of the signs that football has grown to idolatrous proportions in the heart of the Christian?

Becoming Christ-like: The Goal of the Christian Life? – Daniel Wallace
If my goal is for me to become Christ-like, then my goal is inevitably and necessarily self-centered. How well am I doing at this goal? What do I look like as a Christian? My goal had become my role, and the focus had become too inward.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day celebrating our glorious and gracious God with your local church!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

9 Questions to Help You Steward All Of Your Life For God’s Glory – Brad Hambrick
Life is not primarily about what we avoid, but what we pursue.

“All the Law and the Prophets…” in a Piece of Fruit – Jared Totten
Or to say it another way, if you keep this one rule (love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength) then by default you will have kept all the other rules as well…including that one way back in the garden. Yes, the one about the fruit….

Never Resist the Urge to Pray – Erik Raymond
Let us be a people who never, ever, resist the urge to pray. After all, we know the urge is from God, to be used by God, [in] accordance with his commands for our good.

Why Does God Let Me Stay So Weak – Mark Altrogge
To be content with weakness doesn’t mean we give up trying to put sin to death. It doesn’t mean we quit trying to bear fruit for God. But it means that when we fail, when we realize how weak we are, we won’t despair but turn to Christ and ask him to give us HIS power. HIS strength. HIS wisdom. HIS grace.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with the Lord and his church!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

5 Great Reasons To Memorize Scripture Today – Tim Challies (from Donald Whitney)
There are few areas of the Christian life where there is a wider gap between what Christians want to do and what Christians actually do than in this area: memorizing Scripture.

A Simple Method To Organize Your Prayers – Tim Challies
Christians have created many patterns and systems to help them as they pray. One of my favorites is John Piper’s model of praying…

Spiritual Disciplines, Legalism, and Laziness – Trevin Wax (with Donald Whitney)
When I consider my own spiritual life, I can’t help but think about certain practices and disciplines that the Lord has used to shaped me over the years.

A Gospeled Church – Jared Wilson
You cannot grow in holiness and holier-than-thou-ness at the same time. So a church that makes its main thing the gospel, and when faced with sin in its ranks doesn’t simply crack the whip of the law but says “remember the gospel,” should gradually be seeing grace coming to bear. 

You see above two posts interacting with Donald Whitney whose revised version of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life just came out.  Highly recommended!

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