Tag: Church

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points1 Comment

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

End of Year Check-Up Questions For Christians – David Qaoud (GR)
In no particular order, here are some questions to help gauge your spiritual health:

Every Sin / Every Temptation Not Taken – Jamsco
Every time you sin, it is an act of …
Every time you’re tempted to sin and resist it, it is an act of …

You Can Memorize Scripture This Year – Andy Naselli (DG)
With the New Year here, I want to encourage you: you can memorize Scripture this year. It does not take superhuman skill or fanatic devotion to write God’s word on your mind and heart. It requires some passion, planning, and persistence.

What’s Encouraging You at Your Church? – Tim Challies
A couple of days ago I was eager for some encouragement, so put the question out to Twitter: What’s something encouraging you’ve seen in your church over the past few months? The answers were a blessing to me! And, just so you can be encouraged as well, I thought I’d share some of them with you. Here’s how the Lord is at work in churches around the world…

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Distraction Can Cost You Everything – Jon Bloom (DG)
So whatever it takes, we must pay attention to what we hear. For Jesus’s ways and words are often counterintuitive, and we live in a destructively distracting age. And everything hangs on how well we hear Jesus.

Supernatural Comfort When the Days are Dark – Jared Wilson (FTC)
We may not always (or ever) understand the ways of God’s providence, why he makes us certain ways or leads us through certain things. But one thing we can know: looking at the cross, we are very loved.

A 10-Point Social Media Strategy – Ligon Duncan (via Justin Taylor at TGC)
1. Relentlessly encourage, edify, and inform.

Together Again to Enjoy Him: What Makes Sundays More Satisfying – David Mathis (DG)
Our God is the all-satisfying fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13). When we seek to quench our deep soul-thirst in him, corporate worship becomes the stunning opportunity to gather together not just with fellow believers, but with fellow enjoyers 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:

The Lost Spiritual Discipline – Tim Challies
Watchfulness is “a careful observing of our hearts and diligent looking to our ways, that they may be pleasing and acceptable unto God.”

Eight Ways to Become More Humble – Jane Tooher (GTF)
Thankfulness stops pride growing. We can thank people for things that they do and who they are, and that’s important and encouraging for them. But we’re to thank God for that person, for the way he has worked in them. Thankfulness is a sign of a believer.

Organic Food, Essential Oils, and the Gospel of Grace – Stacy Reaoch (DG)
When promoting our own choices for food and medicine is becoming the latest form of evangelism, we are showing where our hope really lies — and that we are close to forgetting the gospel we say we hold dear.

Your 7 Job Responsibilities as a Church Member – Jonathan Leeman (TGC)
Will you sit back and stay anonymous, doing little more than passively showing up for 75 minutes on Sundays? Or will you jump in with the hard and rewarding work of studying the gospel, building relationships, and making disciples? We need more hands for the harvest, so we hope you’ll join us in that work.

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

Sermon Songs: Revelation 19:11-21

On By BrianIn Revelation Hymns

MusicNotes

Behold the King now is coming; Faithful, True, righteous judging
White horse riding, just war making; With His army following
His eyes flaming, crowns He’s wearing; Behold the King is coming

Behold the King now is coming; With a secret name bearing
His robe wearing, Red blood shedding; Word of God w/ sword striking
Jesus reigning, winepress treading; Behold the King is coming

See the Beast come with his Liar; See the birds up in the skies
Both Beasts thrown into the fire; As all of their army dies
Heed the warning, gospel telling; Behold the King is coming

To the tune of “Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending”

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Unexpected God: How He Meets Us in Disappointment – Brian Tabb (DG)
Unmet expectations. They are the constant thieves of our happiness and contentment. One of the greatest evidences of human falleness and finitude is how quickly we expect the wrong things, or the right things at the wrong time.  But the very heart and center of the Christian faith should remind us daily that our expectations do not typically map onto the grandeur and goodness and wisdom of God. The cross reminds us that God sent us the Messiah we really needed, not the one anyone expected.

Slay Sin by Savoring Christ – Erik Raymond
Too often professing Christians can be lulled to sleep with a false sense of security. Unwittingly they starve themselves of Christ and make provision for the flesh. This is a spiritual suicide mission! Instead of caring for and nurturing the flesh and its desires we are to starve and kill it.

Turn My Eyes from Worthless Things: Curbing Our Infinite Appetite for Distraction – Tony Reinke (DG)
Our endless desire for “the totally irrelevant” has finally been matched by the endless offerings of irrelevance in our smartphones. We love to be fed worthless things.  This onslaught of produced media is a major problem for us all because we can focus our minds only on a limited number of stimuli that come at us. So, how do we discern and navigate the digital age with wise discretion?

10 Prayers to Pray Before Church – Colin Smith
Going to church is not like a trip to the grocery store, visiting a friend, or a Christian task to complete. It is a declaration that worshiping the risen Christ is more important to you than sleeping in, eating brunch, playing sports, or working around the house….  As such, we should not enter church like any other place, but should prepare our hearts in prayer. Let these 10 prayers set your mind on God’s purposes for church and prepare your heart to worship the King.

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Holiness Will Make You Unbelievably Happy – Jon Bloom (DG)
God’s call to move “further up and further in” in holiness is an invitation to joy!

Gentleness – All About Communication – James Faris (GR)
Are you gentle? How would you know?

6 Very Good Reasons to Consider Your Short Little Life – Tim Challies
Our lives are short. They are, in the words of the author of Ecclesiastes, little more than vapor, dust blow by the wind. Yet the very thought that could dismay or depress you, can also motivate you. Here are some blessings that will be yours when you pause to consider your short little life.

I Won’t Let Cancer Take Away My Sundays – Jordan Standridge (cripplegate)
The profundity of her mumbled explanation for why she hadn’t stayed home this Sunday or any in the last year for that matter hit me hard. I’ve always said that there’s no place I’d rather be than with God’s people on Sunday morning and Sunday night but I’ve never had cancer in my lungs. Perhaps the bed would be a greater desire for me if I had cancer. And yet for this sweet saint, church was better despite the pain she incurred in coming.

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:

Spurgeon’s 15 Tips for a Deep and Effective Prayer Life – Kevin Halloran
Spurgeon knew the power of prayer and his need for prayer. When asked the secret of his influential preaching ministry, Charles Spurgeon frequently responded, “My people pray for me.”

4 Grave Dangers in Every Sin – Tim Challies
You can’t sin without consequence. That’s not the way God has structured his world. It’s not the way God has structured his people.

Begin to Hope Again – Scott Hubbard (DG)
We may still be a sorrowful people — burdened, broken, and beaten up — but we will not be a cynical people. We are a people of hope.

The Congregation and the Pulpit – Phil Newton
The congregation is not simply a static audience. They participate in what takes place in the pulpit. Maturing congregations help their pastors to faithfully deliver this means of grace to the church in preaching God’s Word.

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