Category: PASSION Points

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Secular Salvation Story – Kevin DeYoung
The secular salvation story is a derivative and deviant version of the older Christian narrative. It tells the story of self, authenticity, and acceptance.

The Curious Incident of Modern Evangelism – Justin Taylor
When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology — but rarely of their daily experience of God. (J. I. Packer)

What Do You Do When the Word Leaves You Cold – David Murray
We remember the impact sermons made on us in the past – deep impressions, piercing convictions, powerful drawings – but now we feel like cold lifeless statues as we listen to the same preachers preaching similar sermons. What’s gone wrong?

Prayerlessness Is Selfishness – Tim Challies
If I believe that prayer works, if I believe that prayer is a means through which the Lord acts, if I believe that God chooses to work through prayer in powerful ways and in ways he may not work without prayer, then it is selfish of me not to pray. To pray is to love; not to pray is to be complacent, to be unloving, to be selfish.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day in the Word, in prayer, and in fellowship with God and your local church!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Renew Within Me a Spirit of Holiness – Ambrose of Milan (via Trevin Wax)
As you look upon the wretched creature that I am,
I ask that your eyes be filled with compassion and forgiveness.
And as I sit at your table,
I beg you to renew within me a spirit of holiness.

7 Directives for Meditating on Scripture – Joel Beeke and Terry Slachter (via Paul Tautges)
#5: Stir up affections such as love, desire, hope, zeal, and joy to glorify God. Preach the truth to your own soul (Ps 42:5; 103:1).

What Shames Us – Tim Challies
The challenge for each one of us who desires to be godly is not only to identify the sin in our lives, but to identify the better and holier trait. And this, this fruit of the Spirit, this evidence of God’s grace, is what we aim for in our desires, in our prayers, in our labors.

Waiting, Wasting, Wandering – Kevin DeYoung
Can you believe that God has something good in store for you? Will you trust that someday when you see your beginning and middle with the ending in view that it will all make sense? Can you hope against hope that God has not forgotten you, that his promises are true, and that he is up to something? He was for Abraham and Joseph and Moses. Why not you too?

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Holidays, PASSION Points1 Comment

Here are some good posts for your Easter Weekend reading:

9 Things You Should Know About Holy Week – Joe Carter (via Gospel Coalition)
Holy Week is the week before Easter, a period which includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Here’s what you should know about the days that commemorate the Passion of Christ…

Take Time to Stop – Trevin Wax
The best way to celebrate this week is to sense the stopping of time, and to remember the moments at the heart of our faith. To simply marvel at the Word of God and what these precious events mean. To listen for the Old Testament echoes, to catch the Old Testament overtones and familiar melodies that resound through the Gospel writers’ symphony of the cross. To look at Jesus – the One crucified in our place, who loved us and died for us.

Christ Forsaken – Joel Beeke (Ligonier)
The great High Priest enters Golgotha’s Holy of Holies without friends or enemies. The Son of God is alone on the cross for three final hours, enduring what defies our imagination. Experiencing the full brunt of His Father’s wrath, Jesus cannot stay silent. He cries out: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Why the Resurrection Changes Everything – Matthew Barrett (via Gospel Coalition)
Because Christ is risen, we, as those who are in Christ, have every assurance that our labor in sharing this gospel of the risen Christ is not pointless or without purpose, but will matter for all eternity. Therefore, do not forget this Easter that the resurrection of Christ changes everything. Without it, we have no gospel, no salvation, no saving message, and certainly no future hope.

Hope you have a great weekend celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus.

He is risen.  He is risen indeed!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading.

First are two good posts from Kevin DeYoung related to Stephan in Acts 7:

If You Expect Fruit Without a Tree, You’re Nuts
How To Prepare For Hostility

And then a couple on selfishness:

Six Types of Selfishness – R. W. Glenn
Don’t Worry, No One Will Remember You – Trillia Newbell (via Gospel Coalition)

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are two good posts for your weekend reading.  Both are packed with a lot to ponder and apply.

The Glory of God: Quotes – Trevin Wax
Contains several good quotes on God’s glory.  Here is one:
“The work of God in the cross of Christ strikes us as awe-inspiring only after we have first been awed by the glory of God.” – Matt Chandler

Church Was Great! Let’s Not Talk About It – Colin Marshall (Gospel Coalition)
We’ve just heard the Word read and proclaimed, sung the praises of our great God, and petitioned him for mercy in our time of need. And then we spend our time afterward talking about last night’s movie, the game, the hobby, the state of the nation, or whatever. Anything but the great truths of the gospel we’ve just heard and by which we’re saved. Why do we do this?

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day pondering God’s glory and actually talking about the things of God!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Idolatry, PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

I Bought Some Joy (But Dropped It Down the Stairs) – Tim Challies
My iPhone threatens to be an iDol in my life. It represents so many of the things I value...

How to Have Communion with the Spirit – J.D.Greear
The Christian life is not just about doctrines or spiritual disciplines, but about fellowship with God—koinonia. But how can you experience moments of fellowship with God?

The Abundance of Giving – John MacArthur
God’s Word clearly teaches that our giving is actually a direct pipeline to His blessings.

When My Love Grows Cold – Tim Challies
When my love for the Lord begins to grow cold, I will almost always find that I have not been spending time with him in his Word. When I have not been spending time with him in his Word, I will find that my love has grown cold, or lukewarm, at least.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with God’s people loving, communing with, and giving to the true source of all Joy!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Toward a Theology of Church Unity – Kevin DeYoung

Why Did God Use Spurgeon? – Chris Castaldo
There is one thing on which many Christians today agree–we need genuine revival…

Why Pastors and Elders Need Your Prayers – Kevin DeYoung

Six Ways To Encourage Your Pastor – Charles Stone
Being a pastor is a high calling, yet pastors often face loneliness and discouragement...

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading to help you grow in the Lord:

23 Reasons To Be Joyful – Paul Tautges
Re-training your heart for joy.

10 Point Inventory – Steve Cornell
Ten questions to examine your heart.

How Do We Grow In Holiness – Part One and Part Two – Tim Chester
Excerpts from You Can Change – highly recommended!

The Pursuit of Holiness – Part One and Part Two – Desiring God
Discussion on video between John Piper and Kevin DeYoung

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 end of the year weekend consideration.

I suggested a Bible reading plan a few days ago; here are some more possible Bible reading plans:

The Bible Eater – Trent Hunter at Gospel Coalition
Combines daily readings from Old and New Testaments with one longer Old Testament reading each quarter.  Plus a few days off each month are built in to keep you from falling behind.

Two Year Bible Reading Plan – Stephen Witmer at Gospel Coalition
If trying to get through the Bible in one year is too much for you, here is a plan to do it in two years.  More focus; less rush.  My biggest dislike is that you won’t get to the New Testament until mid-second year. Regular catch-up days keep you from falling behind.

Three Year Weekly Reading Plan – Tim Chester
Takes you through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in three years.  One passage a week divided however you like in whichever days you like.  Goes back and forth between Old and New Testament books.

And then a few more end of the year posts:

A Smorgasbord of Bible Memorization Methods – Matthias Media
Here are some helpful ideas for memorizing Scripture in 2013.

Where Was God in All the Goodness of 2012 – John Piper at Desiring God
We wonder where God is in the midst of suffering, but what about in the midst of all the goodness we don’t deserve?

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our good God!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts on afflictions and prayer:

Eight Helps for Coping with Affliction – Arthur Hildersham (via Joel Beeke)Acquaint yourself thoroughly with the Scriptures, for they prepare people for affliction, and teach us patience and comfort in affliction, like no other book can.

Leading Our Emotions: Depression – Chris Brauns
Only Christ satisfies the needs of our soul (though we often idolize other things such as children and believe they will satisfy). Does the use of your time indicate that you believe only Christ will satisfy the thirst of your soul?

Spiritual Depression: A Strategy for Defeating It – Chris Brauns
A central strategy in the battle depression must be to turn from a private focus on self, to a corporate worship of Christ.

You Asked: Can I Pray to Jesus? – Graham Cole (via Gospel Coalition)
So can you pray to Jesus? Of course you can. But let me suggest if this is the predominant way we pray we may lose something of enormous importance. We may lose sight of the glorious gospel with the Father as the architect of our salvation, the Son as the achiever, and the Spirit as the applier.

To Hell with the Devil and His Destructive Lies – John Piper (via Justin Taylor)
I hate the devil, and the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it is legalistic to be as regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and Internet use. Do you not see what a sucker he his making out of you? He is laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day celebrating our great Savior!