Passion Points

On July 13, 2019 By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

God Has a Plan Through Your Life – Trevin Wax
We might say, then, that God doesn’t have just a plan for your life, but also a plan through your life. His master plan involves not only the circumstances you will confront, but also the good works you will accomplish. God will bless others through you.

What I Pack In My Spiritual First Aid Kit – Tim Challies
As I journey round the world, I know I need to carry a medical first aid kit with me. As I journey through this life, I know I need the spiritual equivalent. It has served me well and, I trust, will continue to as I plod on in this great pilgrimage.

What Our Anger Is Telling Us – Jonathan Parnell (DG)
If we find ourselves angry about getting snubbed in social media, or being cut off in traffic, or going unrecognized for work, or having an idea shut down, or feeling underappreciated by our spouse — the problem might be that we love ourselves too much.

Enjoy Your Summer Vacation—Just Don’t Vacate The Church – Benjamin Inglas (TGC)
The last few years, however, I’ve noticed a trend. It almost seems that as students return home, cottages open, and lakes warm up, Christians begin to adopt a vacational mindset towards the church. The problem here is not planning a few weeks away with the family but the symptoms that emerge when church fellowship is viewed as optional, inconvenient, or even unhelpful. Convinced of the danger of this trend and convicted by my own failure in the matter, here are five reasons why I believe we should all make church a priority not only for the summertime but throughout the year.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Doctrine Collection

On April 24, 2019 By BrianIn Doctrine Collection

Here are some good posts t help you think about God:

10 Things You Should Know about the Trinity – Fred Sanders (Crossway)

10 Things You Should Know about God’s Attributes – Mark Jones (Crossway)

A Vital Yet Neglected Attribute of God (God’s Patience) – Mark Jones (Crossway)

Preaching Point

On April 23, 2019April 23, 2019 By BrianIn Preaching Point

Someone whose task is to exhort others to a life of godliness in response to the gospel of grace should himself reflect that holiness.

– Derek W. H. Thomas in Expositor (Spring 2018)

We Have Found…

On April 22, 2019April 22, 2019 By BrianIn Virtue of Joy

In Christ, we have found a great love that came down to suffer with us and die for us.

In Christ, we have found a great peace with God – a relationship we can enjoy during the darkest storms of life.

In Christ, we have found a great hope that pierces the monster of death and transcends the grave.

In Christ, we have found a great joy as we remember the great love, peace, and hope we have found.

Passion Points

On April 20, 2019 By BrianIn Holidays, PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your Easter weekend reading:

Enter the Dragon Slayer – Jon Bloom (DG)
Weary years passed as the cursed earth and its depraved inhabitants languished in bondage to corruption. And then, in the fullness of the King’s time, the ancient, mysterious decrees began to unfold. In an unexpected place and an unexpected way, into the world stepped the Dragon Slayer.

10 Things You Should Know about the Cross – Patrick Schreiner (Crossway)
The Christian faith is distinctively Trinitarian and cross-shaped. Therefore, the cross must reveal the Trinity. God the Father sent the Son to save the world, the Son submitted to the Father’s will, and the Spirit applies the work of redemption to Jesus followers.

Salvation by Propitiation – Kevin DeYoung
The God who has always been for us in eternity sent his Son in time to be the wrath-absorbing sacrifice that we might enjoy peace with God for ages unending.

Hymn Stories – Christ The Lord Is Risen Today – Tim Challies
Here are all 11 stanzas published by the Wesleys. It is worth reading through each one thoughtfully, and perhaps especially the ones that we no longer sing. They are rich with biblical allusion and the wonderful implications of Easter.

Hope you have a great Resurrection Sunday!

It’s Friday

On April 19, 2019April 19, 2019 By BrianIn Holidays

The Look

On April 19, 2019 By BrianIn Songs of Passion

Q&A#12: God’s Image

On April 15, 2019 By BrianIn PASSION Catechism

Q/A#12
Q: After what pattern did God create us?
A: God created us in his own image to be relational and rational, to both work and rest, and to live morally upright in all things.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion…. – Genesis 1:26a (ESV)

See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. – Ecclesiastes 7:29 (ESV)

For Further Reflection
Genesis 2:3, 15-20

Our Response
Live as an image-bearer of God
Praise God for who he made you to be

Rest Reflections

On April 12, 2019April 9, 2019 By BrianIn Rest Reflections

But all that hurry has gotten me no farther ahead. It’s actually set me back. It’s diminished me. My efforts to gain time have only lost it. Whole epochs of my existence have swept by me in a blur, with nary a cheap souvenir to remember them by. There are seasons and seasons of my life swallowed whole, buried in a black hole of forgetting…. Through all that haste, I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.