Category: PASSION Collections

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Unexpected God: How He Meets Us in Disappointment – Brian Tabb (DG)
Unmet expectations. They are the constant thieves of our happiness and contentment. One of the greatest evidences of human falleness and finitude is how quickly we expect the wrong things, or the right things at the wrong time.  But the very heart and center of the Christian faith should remind us daily that our expectations do not typically map onto the grandeur and goodness and wisdom of God. The cross reminds us that God sent us the Messiah we really needed, not the one anyone expected.

Slay Sin by Savoring Christ – Erik Raymond
Too often professing Christians can be lulled to sleep with a false sense of security. Unwittingly they starve themselves of Christ and make provision for the flesh. This is a spiritual suicide mission! Instead of caring for and nurturing the flesh and its desires we are to starve and kill it.

Turn My Eyes from Worthless Things: Curbing Our Infinite Appetite for Distraction – Tony Reinke (DG)
Our endless desire for “the totally irrelevant” has finally been matched by the endless offerings of irrelevance in our smartphones. We love to be fed worthless things.  This onslaught of produced media is a major problem for us all because we can focus our minds only on a limited number of stimuli that come at us. So, how do we discern and navigate the digital age with wise discretion?

10 Prayers to Pray Before Church – Colin Smith
Going to church is not like a trip to the grocery store, visiting a friend, or a Christian task to complete. It is a declaration that worshiping the risen Christ is more important to you than sleeping in, eating brunch, playing sports, or working around the house….  As such, we should not enter church like any other place, but should prepare our hearts in prayer. Let these 10 prayers set your mind on God’s purposes for church and prepare your heart to worship the King.

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

What Is It Like to Enjoy God? – John Piper (DG)
The enjoyment of God is the enjoyment of a Person — not just the enjoyment of a thing, or an idea, or a pattern of actions, or a mysterious force. The ultimate joy of God’s creatures is joy in a Person — joy in God.

10 Things You Should Know about the Resurrection – Adrian Warnock (Crossway)
…every Sunday should be Resurrection Sunday. The reason why the early church began to meet on the first day of the week was to celebrate Jesus’s defeat of death. Imagine what church would be like if we consciously gathered every week to celebrate the resurrection?

You Can Forget to Be Irritated – Scotty Smith (DG)
The more I remember God’s lavish, unwavering, inexhaustible love for us in Jesus, the more I forget to be irritated with others.

Worship as a Feast – Dustin Rouse (FTC)
As worshipers who come to church (this is also true, if not more so, for worship leaders), we need to come hungry. You can go to the nicest restaurant with the best reviews, but if you’re not hungry, you will not want to eat. It doesn’t matter what the meal smells or looks like, if you’re full, you won’t want to partake.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Good Friday Collection

On By BrianIn Holidays, PASSION Collections

Here are some good posts for your reflection today:

It Was My Sin That Held Him There: Weeping at the Foot of the Cross – Greg Morse (DG)

We Are Barabbas – Dave Furman (Crossway)

Let Us Never Grow Weary of the Cross – Kevin DeYoung

10 Things You Should Know about the Cross – Patrick Schreiner

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Holiness Will Make You Unbelievably Happy – Jon Bloom (DG)
God’s call to move “further up and further in” in holiness is an invitation to joy!

Gentleness – All About Communication – James Faris (GR)
Are you gentle? How would you know?

6 Very Good Reasons to Consider Your Short Little Life – Tim Challies
Our lives are short. They are, in the words of the author of Ecclesiastes, little more than vapor, dust blow by the wind. Yet the very thought that could dismay or depress you, can also motivate you. Here are some blessings that will be yours when you pause to consider your short little life.

I Won’t Let Cancer Take Away My Sundays – Jordan Standridge (cripplegate)
The profundity of her mumbled explanation for why she hadn’t stayed home this Sunday or any in the last year for that matter hit me hard. I’ve always said that there’s no place I’d rather be than with God’s people on Sunday morning and Sunday night but I’ve never had cancer in my lungs. Perhaps the bed would be a greater desire for me if I had cancer. And yet for this sweet saint, church was better despite the pain she incurred in coming.

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

Current

On By BrianIn Current Collection

Delaware’s Department of Education has proposed letting all children choose their own gender and race.  They would then be able to use the bathroom of their decided gender, play on the sports of their decided gender, and be able to expect everyone around them to use the pronouns of their decided gender.  All without informing their parents.

Nine observations:

Children simply do not have the cognitive ability to be making these decisions.

No one has the ability to make these decisions as they are defined by genetics, anatomy, and, in the case of race, family ancestry.  Physical reality matters.  Your body matters – it is an essential part of who you are.

The policy itself encourages identity confusion.  I grew up knowing I was a boy in part because my anatomy is male and my culture supported this physical reality. This policy tells children to distrust their physical reality.  Our culture’s ideology no longer agrees with anatomy.  How many otherwise unconfused children are we confusing?

The policy is quite frankly insulting.  It would be highly insulting to women everywhere for me to claim to be a woman, as I have no idea what it means to experience life as a woman (as many a wife has told her husband whenever the subject of giving birth comes up).  It would be highly insulting to African-Americans for me to claim that I am black, as I have no idea what it is like to experience life as a black person.

We should beware of forcing new untested ideas (that past generations would have immediately rejected) on the next generation.  These are unchartered waters, and we have no idea what we are doing.

Safety must come first.  There is a reason we have separate bathrooms and locker rooms for girls and boys.  This policy can so easily be abused by predators, as any boy could claim he is a girl to gain access to the girls’ locker room.

Once again parental rights are being trampled, as if the cultural elites know better how to raise our children.

I understand that some people struggle with their identity.  But the loving answer is not to encourage them to live in a self-made fantasy world.  Rather, the loving answer is encourage them to embrace their physical reality.

These are important issues that require rational consideration and discussion.  And these issues relate to real people who on all sides deserve love and respect.

For another helpful look at some of the issues see here.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Spurgeon’s 15 Tips for a Deep and Effective Prayer Life – Kevin Halloran
Spurgeon knew the power of prayer and his need for prayer. When asked the secret of his influential preaching ministry, Charles Spurgeon frequently responded, “My people pray for me.”

4 Grave Dangers in Every Sin – Tim Challies
You can’t sin without consequence. That’s not the way God has structured his world. It’s not the way God has structured his people.

Begin to Hope Again – Scott Hubbard (DG)
We may still be a sorrowful people — burdened, broken, and beaten up — but we will not be a cynical people. We are a people of hope.

The Congregation and the Pulpit – Phil Newton
The congregation is not simply a static audience. They participate in what takes place in the pulpit. Maturing congregations help their pastors to faithfully deliver this means of grace to the church in preaching God’s Word.

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Too Busy to Love My Neighbor – Ryan (A Small Work)
I noticed one unpleasant effect of this busyness. At least in me, busyness aggravates self-centeredness.

The Devil’s Glasses – Barry York (GR)
When you are being tempted, the devil sets on your nose a pair of false glasses. These glasses make the sin look so small that you view engaging in it as trivial….

10 Bible Reading Habits I’ve Learned from My Pastor’s Sermons – Colin Smith
Here are 10 habits I have picked up from my pastor’s weekly sermons….

Seven Key Lessons in Diversity from Grace Fellowship Church – Tim Challies
Over a few hours (and some pretty tasty soup and sandwiches) we discussed diversity and arrived at a number of keys to our experience. Here, from Grace Fellowship Church, are seven lessons on finding unity in diversity.

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