Category: Around the Web

The Early Bird Gets The Link

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16 Ways to Promote Unity Amid Political Disagreement
The more our culture looks to government to solve our problems and be our savior, the higher the culture-war stakes will become on both sides.

Needed: Women Disciplers

In an era of blogs, social media, and live-streamed events, Christian women are no longer limited to discipleship relationships in the local church. Instead, teaching and mentoring is increasingly outsourced to the leaders standing on national platforms.

8 Ways to Read (a Lot) More Books This Year

And then last year I surprised myself by reading 50 books. This year I’m on pace for 100. I’ve never felt more creatively alive in all areas of my life. I feel more interesting, I feel like a better father, and my writing output has dramatically increased. Amplifying my reading rate has been the domino that’s tipped over a slew of others.

Deadly Doctrines: The Pattern and Protection

How does a church come to reject sound doctrine? How do we guard ourselves against false teachers and their deadly doctrines? How do we protect ourselves, our families, and our churches from their seductive lies? Thankfully, God has given us clear guidance in his Word, showing us how churches descend into deadly doctrine and how we may protect ourselves against it.

10 Things You Should Know about Hell and Eternal Conscious Punishment

I take no special delight in writing this article. But hell is real and people are going there. So let’s look closely at what the Bible has to say about it as well as the on-going debate over whether hell is eternal conscious punishment.

Two Questions that Crackdown on Excuse Making

Excuses are the reason careers get stuck, life is on hold, and relationships grow dissatisfying.

You Don’t Have to Get Married to Be Happy

Romantic love is a heart terrorist unless it is anchored in a higher love.

The Early Bird Gets The Link

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Ladies, Please Consider: Who is the Subject of Your Bible Study?
If that Christian book on your nightstand or if your women’s bible study points you back to you, please put it down. The message of self found throughout the culture and even in the church will fail us
Why Tim Keller, Max Lucado, and Hundreds of Evangelical Leaders Oppose Trump…

The open letter, published Wednesday as a full-page ad in The Washington Post with more than 100 of the signatories listed, was notable for two reasons. First, it contained only conservative evangelicals, instead of the mix of progressive names that usually sign such open letters. And second, topping the list were Tim Keller and Max Lucado—two well-known and well-respected pastors and authors who rarely speak out on political matters.

Pride Is Poisoning Your Happiness

When we talk about the danger of pride, we’re talking about the danger of the desire in all of us to exalt ourselves to the place of God and prove to the world that we’re independent. 

Time in God’s Word Is Not a Grim Duty

Time with God is never wasted—it spills over into the rest of our day and colors it.

Are You Suffocating Your Creativity?

Have you ever noticed that some of your best ideas come when you are in the shower? 

The Early Bird Gets The Link 

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Do You Pray for Your Pastors?
The church is called to pray for all of the pastors who were watching over them and caring for their souls. You can’t expect the shepherds of God’s flock to watch over you and your family in the night hours, lead you to spiritual nourishment, protect you from the wolves, and lavish you with affection if you’re dry in your devotion to prayer and refusing to engage in intercessory prayer for them.

For goodness’ sake, be heavenly minded!

You have heard it said, “You’re too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.” But I say unto you…

How the Order of the Beatitudes Could Change Your Life

What does a blessed life look like? Is it having a happy marriage? Gifted children? Good health? Fulfilling work? Financial stability? Travel opportunities? You could add to this list of rich blessings. But none is included in our Lord’s description.

How to Defend the Gospel from Its Enemies—and Friends

In the context of Paul’s argument, the “youthful passions” are probably not sexual but intellectual—that sophomoric, triumphalistic passion we’ve all felt when scoring a gotcha zinger in debate. Do we really want to defend the gospel? Good. Then here’s how: “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone . . . correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Tim. 2:24–25). But a feisty immaturity is disqualifying.

If God Loves Me, Why Am I Still Single?

A big reason I missed out on God’s peace and joy during my singleness was because I believed a lie. At the time I couldn’t describe it. But deep down, I felt God didn’t notice me, hear me, or love me because He wasn’t giving me my greatest desire. It was a message straight from the father of lies, and I swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.

Four Qualities Every Christian Should Pursue

What makes a person a qualified minister on behalf of the church and of Christ? This question is answered in many parts of the Bible; but Paul’s command to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4 is extremely helpful for understanding a Christian’s role in service for Christ.

Do Pets Distract the Christian Life?

I wonder what John Piper will say? Listen in. 

The Early Bird Gets The Link

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The Five Tests of False Doctrine
Excellent series by Challies, hope you are reading it. “how can we distinguish sound doctrine from false? How can we distinguish teachers of truth from teachers of error? In our opening article, I said that putting a doctrine to the test is the best way to determine if it is true or false. As we test the doctrine, we learn our responsibility toward it: We either hold to it or we reject it. I am returning to those tests today to explain them in greater detail. They provide a grid that is useful for testing any doctrine.”

How to Raise Radical Children

Love this article! Taking radical back to its roots. 

More than a Month Long

But I think, for American Christians, there are deeply compelling reasons to learn beyond February. Here are two reasons why studying our country’s history and important African Americans has year-long significance:

15 Reasons Our Churches Are Less Evangelistic Today

In too many of our churches today, the congregations are reaching no one for Christ in the course of an entire year.

How Journaling Combats Sin

We are a forgetful people, we forget the struggle and sometimes the victories. Here are a few ways journaling can help: “By God’s grace, I’ve found journaling to be a means by which I fight against sin. Journaling is not an end in and of itself; the end is to look to and live by the cross.”

The Early Bird Gets The Link

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Impossible to Believe — Preaching in a Secular Culture
Secularization in American culture has reversed the conditions: not everyone is a non-Christian, but all must operate under a secular worldview that denies the legitimacy of a Christian worldview. In three hundred years, Western intellectual conditions have moved from an impossibility of unbelief to an impossibility of belief.

The Value of Christian Protest

Prayer is an under-estimated resource for affecting social change. Therefore, prayer is a powerful form of protest for Christians and one that should be more regularly ultylized.

Technology and Reformation

The impact of technology in the spread of the Gospel.

Is art really all about beauty?

A post worth reading and the conclusion is worth contemplating. “You may not be able to find a place for their work in your building or even in one of your meetings, but if you can’t appreciate and value what they are doing, they probably won’t find a place in your church.

And if they don’t find a place in our churches, Christians are unlikely to regain any sort of voice into our culture through the arts.”
Should Christians Watch Horror?

Christians unfortunately often respond to the horror genre, in its entirety, with disdain and fear. It is treated as the ultimate no-no for believers – as unredeemable, worldly entertainment. This raises the question for the Christian film fan. Should Christians watch horror?

The Early Bird Gets The Link

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MLK, Jackie Robinson, and Us
A few weeks before his assassination, King told black Dodgers pitching great Don Newcombe, “You’ll never know how easy you and Jackie [Robinson] and [Larry] Doby and Campy [Roy Campanella] made it for me to do my job by what you did on the baseball field.” Newcombe later said in a 2009 interview with the New York Post’s Peter Vecsey, “Imagine, here is Martin getting beaten with billy clubs, bitten by dogs and thrown in jail, and he says we made his job easier.”

Mohler on Preaching in a Secular Age

We, above all others, need to realize that the culture no longer shares our worldview and as a result the very language we use may mean something entirely different in the ears of our listeners than what we intend. The meaning of words like morality, personhood, marriage, or virtually any other moral term has radically shifted for many postmodern Americans, making our job as preachers that much more difficult. These challenges are demanding but Scripture is sufficient for the task. Our job as preachers is not to make the message of the gospel palatable to the postmodern mind but to preach in a way that is compelling, clear, and authoritative.

5 Truths About Great Ministry Leaders

Quick, simple and true.

How Prayer Affects Our Spiritual Formation

New Year, new habits. This spiritual habits series by Joe Carter is worth reading. “The goal of this spiritual discipline is to conform our prayer life so that whatever it is we are asking God for is rooted in the same seven words: Not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42).”

The Early Bird Gets The Link

On By joshnnomiIn Around the WebLeave a comment

November 8th is finally here, election day here in America. Get out and vote, trust in the Lord and live out the Gospel wherever you may live. With that said here are some good reads for your day.

Jesus Paid Taxes

Mark Dever delivers an excellent sermon concerning the Christian and government. One of the best I’ve heard.

Marriage Isn’t Meant to Meet Your Needs

When we approach marriage expecting our needs to be met, we fail to understand the real nature of love, and we sow seeds of marital destruction. God hasn’t designed marriage as a means to meet our personal needs. Assuming marriage is about meeting needs is dangerous for at least two reasons.

When A Man Loves A Woman Well

 

Fear God, Honor The King

We don’t have to like the state of the world around us—frankly, we’re right to be horrified as society sprints toward hell. But how we react to it—and especially to the authorities over us—speaks volumes about our faith, our confidence in the Lord, and our submission to His redemptive plan.

The Theological Liberalism Behind the Conservative Biblical Proof Text for American Christian Revival

Often, the way this verse will be preached in many evangelical pulpits is as a rallying cry. In so many sermons, the “people” referred to in the passage are the American people, and the “land” is the American land. The meaning of the text is understood as an invitation to 21st century America to “return to God” and then enjoy God’s blessing once again. It’s no wonder one scholar said that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is “the John 3:16 of the American civil religion.”