Category: PASSION Points

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

What A Wonder – Tim Challies
You, Christian, are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God makes his habitation within you. He has joyfully, willingly, come to you so you can be near to him. This knowledge, this wonder, has powerful consequences…

Give Yourself to Constant & Committed Prayer! – Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Every Christian has at his disposal the most mind-boggling wonder. The weakest saint can come before the throne of Almighty God in heaven in simple prayer.

From Flight to Fight: How Christians Struggle with Sin – Greg Morse (DG)
The paths we take from various temptations will differ, but the principle is the same: seek to find refuge in Christ. Passivity will not keep us from tasting the forbidden fruit. So we actively flee to Christ through well-worn paths such as prayer, Bible intake, camaraderie with fellow soldiers, confession, repentance, accountability, and private and corporate worship.

God Knows What You Need in Worship – Nick Roen (DG)
We come together each week — this multifaceted mosaic called the body of Christ — and somehow, God meets us where we are.

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

4 Reasons to Soak Yourself in the Psalms – Chris Bruno (TGC)
For centuries faithful Israelites read, sung, and memorized the entire Psalter. Jesus likely knew all 150 Psalms by heart. For generations stretching back thousands of years, the Psalms have been the hymnbook of God’s people. Indeed, until recently, being part of the church for any length of time meant regular and systematic exposure to the Psalms.  So I decided to read through the Psalms once per month for a year. As I did, my eyes were opened to fresh depth and richness. Here are four reflections.

Don’t Waste Your Ambition – Tim Challies
Ambition is a powerful trait. It is the trait of visionaries, of leaders, of people who change the world and improve lives. Ambition sent missionaries around the world. Ambition build the ministries we love, the ministries God has used to bless and challenge us. Ambition planted the church you attend and serve. Ambition is good, but not as a trait that stands on its own. Ambition is good, but it needs to be strengthened by at least two other crucial traits: character and self-discipline.

How to Play and Watch Sports as a Christian – Gavin Peacock (TGC)
It’s no secret that sports often compete with Jesus in the hearts of many Christians. So how are we to think about, engage in, and enjoy sports without making them idols?

7 Things Your Church Needs From You – Tim Challies
Would the people of your church weep as they remember you for all the good you did to others? Find the place you can serve your church, and serve there without fail, without excuse, without requiring praise and accolades. Do it for the good of others and the glory of God.

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:

How Scripture Empowers Personal Holiness – John MacArthur (Crossway)
Christian spirituality involves growing to be like God in character and conduct by personally submitting to the transforming work of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.

Words Matter: Recovering Godly Speech in a Culture of Profanity – Jon Payne (ref21)
Dear Christian, words matter. They have the power to build up and to tear down; to bless and to poison (c.f. James 3). Therefore, let us recover, cultivate, and model godly speech in our homes, schools, neighborhoods, communities, and churches.

The Case for Boredom – Kevin DeYoung
I don’t get bored as much as I should. Chances are neither do you. And the chances are exceedingly good that your children aren’t as bored as they should be.

More God in the Daily Grind – Joshua Bremerman (DG)
God has closely connected the way we work and how unbelievers view the gospel.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

10 Things You Should Know about Sanctification – Sam Storms
We all hear a great deal about Christian sanctification, but what precisely is it, and how does it work? Today we look at ten things about this crucial biblical truth.

When You Feel Dead On The Inside – Jedidiah Coppenger
So what do you do when you feel dead on the inside? What do you say to your loved ones when they feel this way? I’ve found that people who reflect on the following 10 diagnostic questions find the life and energy they’ve been missing more quickly and deeply than those that don’t. The way you answer these questions will determine what steps you need to take next.

Reading Out of Love for Others – Tim Challies
Reading is a solitary pursuit. You grab your book, you kick back on the couch, and the hours roll by. But even though reading is a solitary pursuit, it is not necessarily a selfish one. Reading can actually be an important way to love others. Here are five ways to love others in your reading.

What We Need to Learn from the Early Church – Tim Keller (TGC)
The earliest church was seen as too exclusive and a threat to the social order because it would not honor all deities; today Christians are again being seen exclusive and a threat to the social order because we will not honor all identities.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Spiritual Disciplines and the Sinkhole Syndrome – Donald Whitney (Ligonier)
Pursue the Lord with a relentless, lifelong, obstacle-defying passion. Resolve never to let your daily life keep you from Jesus daily.

Lay Aside Every Suitcase – Tim Challies
A suitcase is a perfectly good thing that may just kill you in an emergency evacuation. It is a perfectly good thing, but it isn’t good enough to risk your life for. And our lives are full of good things that may just slow us down, that may just hinder us from matters that are far more important—matters of eternal consequence.

Thank God For Your Job (Doesn’t Matter What Your Job Is!) – Tim Challies
As you enjoy rest from your labors, why don’t you take a bit of time to thank God for your labors. No matter what they are, they are evidence of his kindness and mercy toward you.

How to Help Your Children Become Better Sermon Listeners – David Prince
These thoughts are certainly not exhaustive and you may have other creative ways that come to mind, but the key is to not act like getting them in the building is the end of your parental responsibility.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

10 Things You Should Know about the Presence of God – J. Ryan Lister (Crossway)
Scripture is clear that all of life—and, principally, the gospel life—is about being in God’s relational presence.

Self-Control and the Power of Christ– David Mathis (DG)
True self-control is a gift from above, produced in and through us by the Holy Spirit. Until we own that it is received from outside ourselves, rather than whipped up from within, the effort we give to control our own selves will redound to our praise, rather than God’s. But we also need to note that self-control is not a gift we receive passively, but actively. We are not the source, but we are intimately involved. We open the gift and live it. Receiving the grace of self-control means taking it all the way in and then out into the actual exercise of the grace.

Things Christians Just Don’t Get To Do – Tim Challies
These are all things—just a few of the things—Christians don’t get to do. These are things we don’t get to do because they are associated with godlessness rather than godliness, with sin rather than salvation. In every case God has freed us by his gospel to a new and better way of living—a way of love, forgiveness, generosity, encouragement, community, submission, industry, purity, and freedom. We don’t get to do those things that would only ever harm us and the people around us.

Keeping Our Commitment – Jeremy Walker
Are you not part of the body? Are you not a living stone in that divinely-indwelt temple? Are you not covenanted together with those fellow saints to minister to them and to be ministered to by them? Are you not persuaded that in this service heaven will draw near to earth, that the Lord will speak, more or less powerfully, through the preaching of the Word? That you will genuinely and really render prayers and praises to the Most High God in your participation in the whole service? That heavenly manna will be there for you to eat? That this might be the morning or the evening when you might obtain an unusual blessing, or your friend, or your child, or your neighbour, attending with you, might be converted? That, if nothing else, you have said, more or less formally, that you will not forsake the assembling together of those saints to whom you have made a commitment to love them and to be loved by them?

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church in the presence of our great God!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts to read as we wrap up 2016 and look towards 2017:

My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2016 – Collin Hansen (TGC)

10 Ideas and 10 Tips for Family Devotions in 2017 – Tim Challies

Bible Reading Plans for 2017 – Nathan Bingham (Ligonier)

5 Bible Inputs To Grow, Grow, Grow – Colin Adams

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Using Self-Examination for Spiritual Formation – Joe Carter (TGC)
The Christian life requires frequent self-examination to ensure we are overcoming sin and growing in obedience.

Fears and Fleeting Faith – Tim Challies
…there is no situation beyond God’s knowledge, no condition beyond God’s control, no circumstance beyond God’s power. The one who holds us in the storm is the very same one who holds the storm.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Helping the Hurting– Dave Furman (TGC)
No one wants to be like Job’s friends. We have hurting people in our lives, and we want to help them, but how do we manage to not make fools of ourselves? And how can we actually help hurting people without discouraging them even more?

The Best Day of the Week…for Your Kids – Nick Kennicott (TCC)
Here are eight ways we can help our children view Sunday as being the best day of the week…

Hope you have a great best day of the week!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Idolatry, PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Practical Suggestions for Cultivating Communion with God – Kelly Kapic (Crossway)
But interpersonal relationships are not “things” to be accomplished. They are more about “being” than “doing,” and they need attentiveness, mutual exchange, and care to flourish. Relationships cannot be life-giving sources of strength if we are not present in and to them. Communion with God is a deep need for every human, whether we acknowledge the need or not. Communion with God is how we were made to function, and it is ultimately about a loving and very present relationship with the triune Creator.

The Hidden Power in Every Idol – Tim Challies
If we worship the idol of the perfect body, the sweeping curves or the chiseled abs, we will become as vain and self-focused as the models in the magazines. If we worship the idol of money, we will become as greedy, selfish, and cut-throat as the worst wolf on Wall Street. If we worship athleticism, we will imitate superstar athletes in their arrogance, their moral depravity, their self-obsession. If we worship the idol of power we will mimic the flip-flopping, anything-goes, popularity-obsessed politician. On and on it goes.

5 Reasons Not to Waste Your Leisure Time– Jeff Robinson (TGC)
In today’s work force, some researchers have found the average work week for an American man is creeping beyond 50 hours. Thus, after a long and laborious work week, our finite bodies and minds often stand in need of refreshment. God set a pattern in the created order (evening/morning/end of the day) for six days, and then established a day of rest on the seventh.

Why the Local Church Really Matters – Tim Challies
As we prepare to worship God tomorrow, it may do us good to pause for just a few moments to consider the local church. What is the church? Why has God called us into these little communities? Does the local church really matter? It does! The local church is foundational to God’s plan for his people.

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:

3 Motivations to Hate Sin – Erik Raymond
Until sin is actually hated for its odious and repulsive character we will not make true progress in godliness.

Kindness Changes Everything – Stephen Witmer (DG)
We open ourselves to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit when we ask him to produce in us kind hearts that overflow through kind lips.

18 Prayers to Pray for Unbelievers – Tim Challies
A friend asked the question: How do I pray for unbelievers? How do I pray effectively? I trust that every Christian regularly prays for family or friends or colleagues or neighbors who do not yet know the Lord. And while we can and must pray for matters related to their lives and circumstances, the emphasis of our prayers must always be for their salvation. Here are some ways the Bible can guide our prayers.

Why We Desperately Need the Body of Christ – Paul David Tripp (Crossway)
Your walk with God is a community project. The isolated, separated, loner, Jesus-and-me religion that often marks modern church culture is not the religion that is described in the New Testament.