Here is your daily roundup

Your Addiction to Being Online? It’s Part of the Design

When you feel like you can’t stop checking Facebook every 5 minutes, when you stare at your iPhone despite knowing you’re being rude in doing so, when you lie awake at night on Instagram even though you’ve made up your conscious mind not to do so . . .  these things are happening because engineers have set out to manipulate you. They have control over you. Real control. None of it is an accident, and all of it is done because it is profitable.

Dependency and the Power of God

While we can look at this modern western life dependent on electricity and say “first world problems,” it can also teach us some things about dependence. We are raised in an independent society that tells us not to rely on anyone or anything but yourself. If we take a quick look at our lives, we will see we are dependent, even when we claim we are not.

How do you compare?

How often do you find yourself measuring your faith and godliness in relation to that of a fellow brother or sister—or even an unbeliever’s? How often do you compare yourself to another believer by the church that they go to or the amount of ministry activities that they do?

But when we compare ourselves to other people we fall into two big problems: comparing down, and comparing up.

What Is Self-Discipline?

Growth in personal holiness is largely determined by our progress in self-discipline. Without this foundational discipline, there can be no advancement in grace. Before other disciplines can be administered, whether in the home, business, or church, there first must be self-discipline.

Does the Reality of Evil Disprove the Existence of God?

https://youtu.be/gkDYOs0hws4

It was a hot humid night in Topeka, Kansas, I was 8-9 years old, it was my first journey out of the bubble I lived in, Salinas, California

It was at this age the world opened up to me, I have never travelled anywhere out of the state of California. I knew there was a world out there to experience and see but only by maps.

My grandmother bought a greyhound ticket to go visit her sister, Aunt Bea and open the world to me by buying a ticket for me too.

It was a 3 days journey on a greyhound bus, my grandmother didn’t trust flying, it was the 80’s. But we passed through the bright lights of Vegas, the desert, small portion of Texas and my face was glued to the window soaking in the sights.

Little did I know when I arrived in Topeka Kansas, I was about to see the greatest thing my childhood eyes have ever seen, I was about to experience something which will impact me into adulthood.

The evening came and we were all outside and all of a sudden I seen it, the flicker of light flying through the sky and then another and another.

It was amazing!

My child like mind went into action, if only I could capture some of these insects, which I did and put them in a mason jar. I wanted to bottle up the experience and show everyone back home.

Not only did I want to show them, but my plan was to migrate the firefly to California. Oh to be a child again.

All this came flooding back to me last night as we arrived home from hanging out with friends from church, sharing life together.

When we arrived home, my daughter came in and said dad look I caught a fire fly. I went outside to help my wife put some things in the car and looked out and our yard was just full of fireflies. My mind raced backed to my childhood experience but also pointed me in another direction.

Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps… Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! – Psalm 148:7,10

As I stood there watching the fireflies flying and glowing, the firefly (creeping thing) was doing what it was created to do and by fulfilling its purpose, the firefly brings praise to God.

Yet as I stood there watching my eyes drawn to the fireflies once again. But this time as my eyes were drawn to the glowing in my yard my heart was drawn heavenward in praise and adoration of the genius and greatness of God, who created the firefly.

Until Next Time

Solo Deo Gloria

Resisting the Desire to Simply Follow the Rules

It’s not enough for trainees to understand the tactical and procedural “rules” of their job, they also need to understand the underlying concepts that drive them.

The Dragon Hiding in Your Desires: Why Temptation Feels So Harmless

Over and over, God comes alongside us in moments of temptation and invites us to imagine what we are really facing. What is really happening when you walk past a woman and are tempted to look back? Or when you stand in front of a mirror and feel insecurity rising? Or when fantasies of a better life begin to fill your mind?

Learn How to Disagree Agreeably

It’s humbling to acknowledge that the unseemly disagreements that are standard fare on cable-news networks are also common in the church. Many Christians tell me they can’t talk about political differences with their best friends. What hope then is there to engage a new acquaintance on a substantial issue of disagreement?

6 Ways Not To Read The Bible

Because of Jesus, We Will See God…and Live

The glimpses of God we see in the world are just a preview of when we get to see him face to face.

Momma, Jesus Gives What You Do Not Have

Once again, sound familiar? What you desperately need is solitude, rest, and even a bit of nourishment, but instead you’re given a knock, knock on the bathroom door, a stolen Sabbath as your spouse ends up working, and a virus—another virus—when health and energy would make you parent better. Mind, soul, and body, you simply don’t have what you need. 

Or what you think you need.

What I usually do here is share a spoken word poetry piece which has impacted me, caused me to think and is rich in truth.

Today I want to share a sermon I heard this week which is beneficial for all believers to hear and practice.

Podcast: https://overcast.fm/+qkaeGgsU

The Five Things You Want Your Church To Be

This is life in this world. If there are five things you want your church to be, you can have three. The question is, what will you do with the other two? How will you relate to the church when those other two continue unaddressed or unimproved or under-prioritized? How will you live with such imperfection?

The Bondage of Either/Or Spirituality

Since pride de-centers God and his gospel in favor of self, it creates a self-defined, either/or view of the world, that grasps whatever can be used to make oneself look better. The surprising reality is: both the legalist and the libertine are walking down the same path, albeit on opposite sides of the fence.

John Stott’s Simple Secret for Spiritual Productivity

I’ve experienced many benefits from this practice: I depend on God in prayer for ministry fruit; God often brings clarity to complex situations; I often have fresh ideas; and at the end I’m refreshed to sit down at my desk with new vigor.

How Much Authority Does Satan Have in the World?

“Hello, Pastor John! In Matthew 4:9 and in Luke 4:6, what authority is Satan talking about? Is he lying that he has authority to give? Or does he truly have authority over the earth? If so, what is it, and how does this relate to God’s complete sovereignty over all things?”

Three Approaches to Ecclesiastes

I’ve found interpreters of Ecclesiastes to fall into three general categories, though there are subtle distinctions of flavor even within each category.

Here is today’s edition of The Early Bird, some days it is hard to limit it to 5 because there is too much good material. Today is one of those days

How Does God’s Law Apply to Me?

RC Sproul is helpful in answering this question.

“Where should a study of God’s law and its role in the Christian life begin? Some might consider the Ten Commandments the place to start, while others would turn to the book of Deuteronomy. Perhaps very few people might think of starting in the Psalms, but that is precisely where our journey begins.“

Want an Extraordinary Marriage? Be an Ordinary Christian.

Yet social science makes it abundantly clear that when married people embrace basic, plain, elementary biblical practices, this behavior powerfully and positively affects their marriages. Allow me to illustrate this by highlighting a handful of the most important aspects of the ordinary Christian life that affect marriage.

10 Quotes on the Christian Life from John Stott

While the Lausanne Covenant may have been Stott’s most significant contribution to modern Christianity, it was far from his only contribution. He wrote over 50 books, including the best-selling primer Basic Christianity and The Cross of Christ, which J. I. Packer called Stott’s “masterpiece.” He also edited The Bible Speaks Today: New Testament commentary series, writing eight volumes himself.

The Biggest Battle in Leadership

The difficult part of leadership is not figuring out a strategy moving forward. Or coming up with three to four goals you hope to accomplish in the next 90 days. Sure doing so can be a challenge, and some people are wired to do so more than others, but you can read a book, attend a conference, or get coaching to help you with things like that. 

The ‘Marks’ of Our Churches: Keeping from Mission Drift

But today I think we need to ask ourselves: What are the things that undergird the church itself?

In other words, what is one level below the purposes? What are the marks?

Took some time off, but I am back at it. Here are some links for your day.

Why Are You a Christian?

God Is at Work Worldwide—Even Here

This is just one more encouragement that God is powerfully at work in the hearts of his people all over the world, including right here at home.

The Leaders We Remember

How do leaders become positive memories?

Why Did God Create?

Why did God create? Was he lonely? Was there something missing? The link above is a great answer.

Was George Whitefield a Christian?

What are we to make of evangelicalism’s historical “heroes” who carry with them still a tainted legacy of sin? Such is the question constantly facing the American Church as we contemplate the theological and evangelistic impact of men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, both of whom owned and, at points, defended the sinful institution of chattel slavery.