Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
The Answer to Every Christian’s Identity Struggle – Paul Tautges
Good Works and Sanctification – Jason Helopoulos
How Many Motivations Are There for Godliness – Kevin DeYoung
9 Ways to Pray for Churches and Pastors – 9Marks (via Justin Taylor)
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Your Most Courageous Resolution for 2014 – Jon Bloom (Desiring God)
Let this be the year that we pursue love. Let this be the year that we stop talking about love, that we do less regretful moaning about how little we love and how much we need to grow in love and actually be determined to love more the way Jesus loved…
True Freedom is Freedom to Be My True Self – John Stott (via Trevin Wax)
True freedom is freedom to be my true self, as God made me and meant me to be. And God made me for loving. But loving is giving, self-giving. Therefore, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself and give myself….
Why Real Christians Are So Odd – A. W. Tozer (via Justin Taylor)
A real Christian is an odd number, anyway.
He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen;
talks familiarly everyday to someone he cannot see;
expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another….
The Centerpiece of Sunday Worship – Marshall Segal (Desiring God)
Even in corporate worship, with sermons every week, we can too easily wander from our wonder at all that we have in Scripture. What if we came to church hungry, even starving, for the word of God (Matthew 4:4)? What if we expected God to inspire, change, and commission us in the sacred moments we spend together over these pages? What if we thought we’d become more like him — undeserving sinners wading into the divine nature — when his words wash over us as the Bible is read and explained (2 Peter 1:3–4)?
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day being incredibly odd as you love your brothers and sisters in Christ and hungrily dig into His Word!
Here are some good posts on ministry – pondering past, present, and future:
Brothers, We Are Not Pioneers – Josh Blount (GC)
Seven Ways Pastoring Has Changed in 30 Years – Thom Rainer
The Future of Pastoral Ministry: Are We Really Up to This? – Joel Rainey
Here are some good posts for you weekend reading. They are also very important posts to consider – the wisdom within them could save all of us much grief.
The Road to Apostasy – Ordinary Pastor
First let me give you a bottom line proposition: The road to apostasy is paved by bricks of apathy towards Christ. If you want to persevere, then give attention to your affections. This is a summary. Let’s work it out.
The Scandal of the Semi-Churched – Kevin DeYoung
I’m not talking about nominal Christians who wander into church once or twice a year. I’m talking about people who went through the trouble of joining a church, like their church, have no particular beef with the church, and still only darken its doors once or twice a month.
A Better Country for Old Men – David Mathis (Desiring God)
This is a plea from the younger generation to the older. We desperately need you.
Nothing Else Does Nor Shall Delight Me – Thomas a’ Kempis (via Trevin Wax)
…let others seek what they please instead of You,
but as for me, nothing else does nor shall delight me,
but You only, my God, my hope, my eternal salvation.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day delighting in our great God with your local church!
Here are some good posts on the relationship between missionaries and supporting churches:
What I Want for All Missionaries – Mike Pettengill (GC)
But we want to be loved, and we want to know people are thinking and praying for us. If my team members were reminded that others care and pray for them, they would have strength to endure the hard days.
Missionaries Should Communicate – And Churches Should Demand It – Mike Pettengill (GC) Missions is a partnership. Missionaries and prayers and givers have all been called by God to join together in the expansion of his glory. Your mission team has many members who combine their talents to glorify God in the world. When missionaries communicate what God is doing through the combined efforts of our team, the One who called us all gets the glory.
6 Ways You Can Support Missionaries – Jennifer Su McIntyre
Writing quick emails to your missionary to tell them you’re praying for specific requests assures them that, no matter how isolated they might be, their ministry is being covered in prayer. Being specific about your prayers will help them know you are looking over their requests carefully.
In Acts 16, we get a glimpse of the planting of the church at Philippi. The first members include a wealthy woman, a jailor, and possibly a slave girl. These are very different people – hardly people that would have associated with each other until they came to Christ. But now in spite of their differences, they are part of the same church. And Paul admonishes them to stand firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side, and again to be of the same mind, the same love, in full accord, of one mind (Philippians 1:27, 2:1-2). Paul calls the Philippians to oneness, to unity, to be at peace with one another.
Our own churches include some very different people (I hope). There are different backgrounds, different types of employment, different seasons of life, different opinions, different ideas, and on the list goes. And God calls us to stand firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side. He calls us to be of the same mind, the same love, in full accord, of one mind. God calls us to oneness, to unity, to be at peace with one another.
How is this possible? How can we live in peace together in midst of all of our differences? Philippians provides us with two very important answers:
First, we must center on the gospel of the Lord (1:27). We are to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. It is the gospel that unites us. The gospel is what brought us together. With all our differences, we became one in Christ. And we are to strive side by side for faith of the gospel. We cling to that faith together. We encourage one another in that faith. We proclaim the faith together. We live that faith together. As soon as we elevate our differences above the gospel, we have problems. As soon as we start chasing after our own pet projects, we have problems. As soon as we come to church expecting things to follow our own opinions, we have problems. The gospel brought us together and it is the gospel that will keep us together as we strive side by side for the faith of the gospel, as we keep the gospel central.
Second, we must walk in the humility of the Lord (2:3-8). There is to be no rivalry among us – it is not about getting my way. There is to be no conceit among us – thinking we are better than others. Instead we are to humbly put others first. We are to look beyond ourselves to the good of the others. It is not about you…or me. Strife is hard to have when we have this kind of attitude. We are to have the same attitude that our Lord had as he humbled himself, coming down from heaven to be born as a little baby and ultimately die on the cross. This is God we are talking about! The King of Kings humbled himself! The only one who can honestly say it is all about him chose to humble himself. And he calls us to follow.
We can have great peace in a church filled with differences as we center on the gospel of the Lord and walk in the humility of the Lord.
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Sloth – Mike Wittmer
I’ve spoken of sloth because I suspect it lies at the root of many people’s crisis of faith. More people shrug away their faith than are argued out of it.
What He Could Have Been – Tim Challies
I have been reflecting recently that some of the greatest evidences of God’s grace in the life of the Christian are the things that person could be or inevitably would be without the active presence of the Holy Spirit and without a commitment to the pursuit of holiness.
12 Reasons You Should Pray Scripture – Andrew Naselli (Themelios)
So why should you pray Scripture? For at least twelve reasons….
Four Little Words – Julian Freeman
Customs start with single acts. Good customs start with single acts of conscious obedience. So … where will you be this Sunday?
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping the Lord with your local church!
Here are some helpful posts on worship for pastors and worship leaders:
What Is Worship? – Matt Mason (TGC Worship)
Some helpful summaries…
Scripture in Worship – Joe Thorn
Because God’s word is what revives the soul, makes us wise, enlightens the eyes, and is the means by which God sanctifies us (Ps. 19; Jn. 17:17), we should be eager to give it a prominent place in our worship. While it is common to read the Scripture with the sermon and before the Lord’s Supper, I want to suggest 5 more places in worship where the word of God can be lifted up.
Truth We Believe and Songs We Sing – Matt Smethurst (Gospel Coalition)
Sound theology should shape everything we do in corporate worship. But what does that mean for music in particular? Don Carson recently sat down with worship leaders Keith Getty and Matt Boswell to discuss the relationship between the truth we believe and the songs we sing.
Here are some must-read posts about the church:
Church as an Oasis of Grace – Trevin Wax
Cultivating a Gracious Climate in Your Church – Jared Wilson
Is Your Church a Learning Community? – David Wells via Kevin DeYoung
Create a Contrast Culture in Your Church – Jonathan Leeman (Gospel Coalition)
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day applying some of these great ideas!
Here are some good posts related to the church for your weekend reading. As a pastor, I’d highly recommend the last two.
How To Stop Church-Killing Gossip – Justin Taylor
The Difference between Congregational Worship and a Concert – Justin Taylor
How To Criticize a Preacher – David Murray
So you’ve heard a sermon and you’re not happy. You feel the preacher got it badly wrong in either his interpretation, his words, his manner, his length, his whatever.
What now?
Praying for Your Pastor – Joe Thorn
There are a number of ways we should be praying for our leaders in the church, but as we approach Sunday I want to encourage you to pray for your pastors and their preaching in 4 specific ways.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
Brian J. Mikul 