Category: PASSION Points

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points2 Comments

Here are some really good posts for your weekend reading:

Stop Having Quiet Times– David Powlison (TGC)
In the verbal actions of the psalms—rejoicing in who God is, asking for needed help, expressing heartfelt thanks—we’re talking to someone. It’s fair to say that having a “quiet time” is a misnomer. It’s more of an out loud, “noisy” time.  When you talk aloud you express the reality that you’re talking with someone else, not simply talking to yourself inside your own head.

Lay Aside the Weight of Irritability– Jon Bloom (DG)
Our irritability never has its roots in the soils of righteousness. It springs out of the soil of selfishness and springs up fast, like the sin-weed that it is. We get irritated or easily provoked, not when God’s righteousness or justice is scorned, but when something we want is being denied, delayed, or disrupted.

Gospel Weariness – Tim Challies
Trials do us good in at least one more way: Trials develop a gospel weariness, a weariness with this world….  Gospel weariness elevates our perspective from our feet to the horizon, from the trials of this world to the hope of the world to come. It stirs within us a holy longing to be done with this life and to enter into the life to come. It fixates on God’s promises, promises of deliverance, of restitution, of eternal peace. It is a weariness that rests on the promises of the gospel, that finds its hope in the God of the gospel. It does not wallow in despair but gazes with confidence to the future. It is a weariness that cries with the saints of all the ages, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

How My Parents Taught Me To Love The Church – Ricky Alcantar (TBC)
When you’ve had a busy weekend and you make it to church, your kids notice. When you rearrange athletic obligations to get to church, your kids notice. When you get in late from a trip Saturday night and make it to church, your kids notice. When you are willing to slog through traffic after work to make it to a small group meeting where the snacks aren’t amazing and the fellowship is a little forced but you do it anyway, your kids notice.

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:

The Attraction of Idolatry – Kevin DeYoung
It is easy to see how we can make idols out of everything from health insurance to retirement accounts to political candidates to academic approval to sports to entertainment to Facebook to food and sex.

3 Godly Ambitions for the Christian – Tim Challies
Some of my favorite biblical commands are the ones that most counter our culture, and even our little Christian subculture. We find just such a series of commands….

4 Ways to Win the Battle Against Busyness – J. D. Greear (TGC)
The draw of busyness is that it gives us a sense of importance. When my schedule is full, I feel like I’m in demand. Without me, we think, all of this would fall apart. As Christians, we all too often baptize this idolatry by assuming that busyness equals faithfulness. And all the while we’re “burning ourselves out for Jesus,” we’re running on the fumes of our own self-importance. Meanwhile, Jesus is unimpressed.

If We Are So Burdened Then Why Aren’t the Prayer Meetings Full? – Erik Raymond
If we believe that God is good, sovereign, and holy, and that he has told us to cast our burdens on him in prayer then, where are the public prayer meetings by God’s people? If we are so exercised by injustice and depravity, why don’t Christians flood to church prayer meetings to gather with their brothers and sisters and plead with God in prayer? Why aren’t prayer meetings overflowing with burdened and broken people who want God to intervene and act?

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Remember, He Loves You– Joseph Tenney (DG)
Those of us whose lips are parched from sucking on the sands of idolatry, whose souls are shriveled from being hidden under the shadows of lesser loves, whose hearts long to drink full from his cup and be flooded with an inextinguishable light, we need only turn to Jesus. In Jesus, we experience the love that the Father has for us.

Four Questions for Obeying the First Commandment – Kevin DeYoung
What should we do in prayer? Try adoration, trust, invocation, and thanksgiving. What should we find in our corporate worship services? Plan for adoration, trust, invocation, and thanksgiving. What can we talk about with our friends in the car, our family at the dinner table, or our kids at bedtime? How about adoration, trust, invocation, and thanksgiving.

The Biggest Temple in Town – David Mathis (DG)
Sports and athletic competitions are good gifts from God, but we dare not go all-in without our eyes wide open. Not in this culture. Sport is one of the most alluring, and subtle, competitors for our heart’s deepest allegiance.

Why Sunday Should Be a Day of Rest – Nicholas Davis
Do we view Sunday as our own time, or is it God’s time? By attending church on Sunday, we show that we really belong to Christ. The question Christians ask should never be who am I? Instead, it should be whose am I? Since we belong to God, our time—and even a portion of the day—is not our own but instead belongs to another (God) and to others (our neighbors).

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day resting and worshiping our great God with your local church!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

What to do When You Are in a Spiritual Dry Spell – Scott Slayton

On “Stranger Things” and Being a Big Prude – Tim Challies

The Evangelical Drug of Choice – Phillip Holmes (DG)

How Skipping Church Affects Our Children – Micah Anglo

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:

13 Reasons You Are Precious To God – Mark Altrogge (TBC)

Scripture’s “Top Two” List – Ed Welch (CCEF)

Why Believers Must Avoid Immoral Joking – Chuck Lawless

7 Ways to Become a Better Sermon Listener – Christopher Ash (TGC)

Hope you have a great Lord’s challenged and encouraged by the preaching of God’s Word!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

I took the week off from blogging, but I am back today with some good posts for your weekend reading:

3 Keys To a Powerful Prayer Life – Tim Challies

How To Not Grow Weary In Doing Good – Mark Altrogge (TBC)

Nine Questions to Help You Steward All of Your Life for God’s Glory – Brad Hambrick (BCC)

Does Your Pastor Love You? – Erik Raymond

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Read the Bible as Your Spiritual Food – Geoffrey Kirkland

Run! Run Away! – Tim Challies

Take Up Your Cross: Live a Balanced Life – Ajith Fernando (Crossway)

There Are 3 Kinds of Churches – Tim Challies

Let’s be the third kind of church as we gather this Lord’s Day to worship our great God!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

How to Commune with Christ on a Crazy Day – David Mathis (Crossway)

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit – Tim Challies

Hobbies to the Glory of God – Tim Challies

Yes Christian, You Need the Church– Josh Buice (DBG)

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

17 Benefits to Reading the Entire Bible – Kristen Wetherell (FTC)

Recovering the Priority of Personal Holiness – Alistair Begg (Ligonier)

4 Essentials for Finishing Well – Jerry Bridges (Crossway)

3 Keys to Listening During Sermons – Dave Jenkins (GCD)

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points1 Comment

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

How To Pray When Your Soul Is Bone Dry – Tim Challies
There are times when your soul feels bone dry, when even opening your mouth to pray seems an impossibility. What do you do?

You Can Change – Tim Chester (Crossway)
Jesus came to remake us in God’s image. Jesus took our brokenness, our hatred, and our curse on himself on the cross. He took the penalty of our sin and in its place gave us a new life and new love.  God is in the business of change. He’s interested in making us like Jesus.

Don’t Waste Your Summer – Kevin DeYoung
What can we do to make the most of June, July, and August? Here are twenty suggestions.

10 Reasons Why the Church Gathers – Casey Lewis (FTC)
As Christians, we should all desire to gather together with one another as often as possible. As motivation, here are ten reasons why gathering regularly with the church is important.

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