Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
When Things Get Complicated, Remember The Basics – Trevin Wax
9 Things You Need To Know About Widows – Gaye Clark (TGC)
Why You May Be Tempted To Neglect Your Church – Tim Challies
10 Love Challenges – David Murray
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day living out a passion for God and compassion for people!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Heaven Will Never Be Boring – Dave Radford (DG)
Because God is infinite, he can be infinitely enjoyed. Jesus Christ is not concerned about running out of ways to keep up with your ever-increasing ability to enjoy him. His character is endlessly deep, unsearchable, and inexhaustible. Imagine the scope of the entire universe: trillions of shining stars, burning brighter than the sun; magnificent constellations; billions of spinning galaxies, all magnificent and vast, colorful and mysterious. Yet, they are finite. Brilliant, though they are, they fall utterly short in comparison to the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ. His love, grace, kindness, wisdom, power, and mercy each stand as never-ending, infinite universes for all your affections to delight in.
All Of Us Need A Friend Like Martin Luther Once In A While – Justin Taylor
All of us need a Martin Luther in our lives now and then—a friend who is not afraid to stand on gospel promises and get in our face with gospel truth when we would rather wallow in self-pity.
Why the Church Needs Intergenerational Friendships – Joseph Rhea (TGC) Intergenerational community is part of God’s vision for the church (see Titus 2). It’s a beautiful one, and friendship is the key. When individual Christians believe it’s worth sacrificing for, our churches will begin reflecting that multigenerational beauty.
5 Reasons to Pray for Other Churches – Eric Bancroft (Ligonier)
When natural disasters take place, churches act lovingly to care for other affected churches. But why must we wait until problems strike and only help in physical ways? I propose that we act now with the greatest resource we have and for the greatest goal: that churches reflect the character of God.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day in fellowship with God’s people of all ages as you gather to worship our great Lord!
Here are two FREE devotionals you might find useful for the coming year:
Morning and Evening – Charles Spurgeon (audio)
TableTalk – January only (e-book)
And then here are a couple of good posts for your weekend reading:
Ten Practical Ways to Control Spending and Wisely Manage God’s Money – Randy Alcorn
Three Reasons to Attend Corporate Worship – Matthew Westerholm (DG)
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day in corporate worship with your local church!
It has been a busy week, so I haven’t had much chance for blogging. Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
6 Great Reasons To Study Doctrine – Tim Challies
Six Truths about Sickness – Brian G. Najapfour
How to Use the Back of a Napkin to Prove to a Jehovah’s Witness That Jesus Is God – Greg Koukl (via Justin Taylor)
Don’t Give Up Meeting Together – Michael Kelley (IX Marks)
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day meeting together with your local church to worship our great God!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Take a Break from the Chaos – David Mathis (DG)
You need a break from the chaos, from the noise and the crowds, more than you may think at first. You need the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude.
John Macarthur on Helps and Hindrances to Joy – David Murray
In a sermon on Rejoice Always (1 Thess. 5:16), John Macarthur listed eight sources of joy and then six thieves of joy. I’ve summarized them…
Discipleship in the “Age of Authenticity” – Trevin Wax
The church’s response must be to proclaim a gospel that comes from outside ourselves – no matter how countercultural this may seem. When people in our culture discover how exhausting it is to try to be “true to themselves,” when looking further and further inward eventually shows them they haven’t the resources to transform their own lives, the church must be ready to break in with good news that life change isn’t mustered up from within but granted through grace from without. We are to challenge the narrative that happiness is found solely in self-expression. The biblical view of the self is that we are broken, twisted, and sinful. The self is something that needs redemption, not expression.
Spurgeon’s Three R’s: A Useful Method for Evangelism – Jeff Robinson (TGC)
But recently, in my regular reading of C. H. Spurgeon’s sermons, I have discovered an excellent and pithy approach to the gospel, one that is fully biblical and establishes both man’s universal dilemma and God’s antidote in Christ: Spurgeon’s “Three R’s”: ruin, redemption, and regeneration. I like Spurgeon’s outline for several reasons: it is simple, the alliteration makes it easy to remember, the biblical texts all surround the number three (another aid to memory for the throes of nerve-busting, face-to-face evangelism).
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church exalting our great God!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
3 Things To Consider Before That Next Big Sin – Tim Challies
John Owen has a challenge for you. Before that next big sin you are pondering, he wants you to simply consider three things…
4 Things That Happen When You Study Leviticus More Than 10 Years – Jay Sklar (TGC)
In my experience, at least four profound things happen when this book begins to seep into your soul…
Someday It Will Be Worth It – Mark Altrogge (Blazing Center)
You won’t be disappointed. Keep believing in Jesus. Keep hoping in him. Keep clinging to him and abiding in him. Don’t give up, no matter how bad the pain gets. You won’t be put to shame. Keep rejoicing and giving thanks in all things. You can’t imagine your reward and the joys that await you.
Preparing for Sunday Worship – Jason Helopoulis
We believe our engagement in corporate worship is essential, so we should also expect to prepare even as we expect the pastor and musicians to prepare for their participation in the Sunday morning service. How can you prepare for worship?
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day prepared for corporate worship of our great God!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
God’s School of Waiting – Jeff Robinson (TGC)
You Might Be An Idolater If… – Stephen Altrogge (Crossway)
7 Marks of a Deeply Deadly Sin – Tim Challies (from John Owen)
20 Ways to be Refreshing in the Local Church – Jason Helopoulos
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
A Great Reward – Tim Challies
I was recently transfixed by Psalm 19 and David’s sheer joy at this great gift of God….
What Is Discernment? – Sinclair Ferguson (Ligonier)
So discernment is learning to think God’s thoughts after Him, practically and spiritually; it means having a sense of how things look in God’s eyes….
Are You Out of (Evangelism) Shape – Erik Raymond
Consider this: how would your day-to-day tasks look different if you did them with evangelistic intentionality?
Seduction and the Cost of Saying “No” – Mark Howard (TGC)
Our youth are engaged in a spiritual battle for their affections and their allegiance. Let’s not minimize the danger of our culture’s seduction, nor the cost that comes with our youth’s resisting the American way in the name of Jesus.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!
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!
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!
Brian J. Mikul 