I recently came accross an article by Joshua Harris calling us to examine and evaluate our entertainment choices.  I have found this to be an area where excuses come easily and even standards I find beneficial often subtly disappear and fall out of use.  It can become easy to avoid standards and thoughtful intake of media in the name of avoiding legalism. However, having standards and being careful in our intake of media does not mean that we are seeking to earn God’s favor by our works (although it can).  Our goal is to pursue the honor and glory of our Savior in our day to day lives.  In light of this I recommend this article for your reading.

Growing up without a father is a tragic and yet far to common experience in today’s world.  For those of you who have experienced this (and those who haven’t) I would recommend reading and article by Thabiti M. Anyabwile.  In large part the article deals with his personal experiences, observations, and God’s grace in his life.  Because of the nature of it I won’t post any here but instead will point you to the article itself in its entirety.

Mark Dever recently shared some thoughts on Evangelism over at Together for the Gospel.  I thought they were quite helpful and profitable for thinking through what real evangelism is.  You will find the majority of the post below.

             When you share the Gospel, think carefully about the language you use.  One of the best conversations I can remember having about evangelism was with a secular Jewish friend of mine.  I was to give talks soon on a college campus about evangelism.  And I decided to ask my friend about it.  We’ll call him “Michael.”  (In fact, that was his name!)  “So Michael,” I said, “have you ever been evangelized?” (more…)

John Piper recently wrote an article on Talking to People Rather Than About Them.  It addressed the danger of gossip that so easily creeps into churches and destroys relationships.  

Gossip is one of those sins that we easily excuse and justify.  It is so commonly accepted and practiced that it seems stiff and unnecessary to put a stop to it.  We are often adept at calling it something else or claiming that our motives were somehow right in what we said.  

I have pasted the majority of the article below.   (more…)

Here are a couple more nuggets from the book “The Enemy Within.”  They are from a chapter on fighting sin with the weapon of a true vision of God.

A vision of God like Isaiah’s [Isaiah 6:1-7] or Job’s [Job 42:5-6] or Habakkuk’s [Habakkuk 3:16] can’t be made to order.  But if we want to put sin to death in our hearts, we have to swallow the strongest doses of God’s terrible majesty we can.  We find them in meditations on the word.

Thoughts that reach up toward the excellency of God’s majesty are beautiful and delivious to the soul, but they come with unpleasant side effects.  Even a hint of his greatness shows us up as grasshoppers, dust, and ‘less than nothing’ in comparison (Isaiah 40:12-25).  No one wants to go out of his way to feel small, weak, and defiled; but this strong medicine gives us hope against sin.  In this humiliation our sin withers.

Sin can’t breate in an atmosphere of fear and reverence before God.  It suffocates.  Can you imagine your lust cheery and prosperous when you are on your face before a holy God?

By God’s grace may we keep fighting sin and living in light of the glory of our God.

I am currently reading Paul David Tripp’s book “Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands.”  It calls for us as people in need of change to help people in need of change.  Foundational for this is to understand who we are and what our problem is.  Here is a quote that is helpful in understanding life and our own hearts.

The bottom line is this: The problem is not that God is not here or that He is inactive; the problem is that we don’t see Him.  Our perspective on life is often tragically godless.  We miss the one thing worth seeing, the glory of the ever-present God.  When this happens, our lives are not built on the foundation of God’s glory, which was intended to give our lives a starting point and a destination, a reason to get up and the strength to go on.  Every aspect of my existence was meant to be filled with the glory of God.  Everything I think, every decision I make, every word I speak was meant to be shaped by a humble acknowledgement of his claim on my life.  I was created to live for his glory.

As we’ve seen, every human life pursues some kind of glory.  If it is not the glory of God, it will be some kind of earthbound psuedo-glory.  It may be money and possessions or acceptance and respect.  It could be achievement and success or intellectual prowess and philosophical acumen.  Perhaps it is the power to control people, the affection of a certain person. or a certain standard of living.  At the root of many difficulties and disasters is the pursuit of the wrong glory.

These quotes provide a great opportunity to evaluate what we live for and to reorrient our lives and thinking in order to make God’s glory our supreme purpose in living.

I am currently reading a book entitled “The Enemy Within” by Kris Lundgaard- I highly recommend it.  The book deals with indwelling sin and is largely a modern revision of some of the works of John Owen.  I thought I would share a couple of nuggets from my reading over the last couple of days.

If sin only came to visit now and then, like an unwelcome in-law, we could get a lot of godliness done while it was away.  If it were like an army that struck, then pulled back for a time, we could refresh ourselves and fortify our defenses during the calm.  But the flesh is a relentless homebody and assailant.  Wherever you go, whatever you do, the law of sin is with you step for step–in the best you do, in the worst you do.  How often do you think about the fact that you carry around in you a deadly companion?

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The marriedlife blog’s most recent post confronted the tendency of husbands (none that I know of course) to walk into their home more ready to judge their wives than to serve them.  I have quoted the post in full below.

Men, have you ever walked in the door from a long day at work to find your home a wreck, your wife crashed on the couch, and the kids hypnotized by the television? If you are like me you might think to yourself (first bad move), “What on earth is going on here?” Then you decide to say, “Love, what have you done all day?” (Second bad move) Back peddle quickly if you can. Most likely it is too late. You have judged your wife.

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I have just finished rereading D.A. Carson’s classic work, “The Cross and The Christian Ministry.”  I thought I would share a couple of nuggets that were challenging and encouraging to me.

Speaking of Paul’s description of the cross as the power of God and the wisdom of God Carson writes…

This is both deliciously ironic and entirely appropriate.  It is ironic because what the world dismisses with a shudder is nothing less than God’s means of bringing blessing the world cannot otherwise obtain.  It is appropriate because all of the world’s rebellious self-centereness is precisely what ensures that it cannot understand the cross, while God’s wise plan of redemption hinges on God Himself taking self-denying action to bring about the consumation of His authority.

and again later

…I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively preipheral insights that take on far too much weight.  Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.

and 

He [Paul] cannot long talk about Christian joy, or Christian ethics, or Christian fellowship, or the Christian doctrine of God, or anything else, without finally tying it to the cross.  Paul is gospel centered; he is cross-centered.

The cross is central in God’s plan as He works in such a way so as to bring glory to Himself alone.  Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.

In our last text from Luke 18:18-27, we saw Jesus use questions as a strategy to expose a man’s heart. Alan Shlemon from Stand to Reason has some great thoughts on that strategy. Here is a sample.

The Columbo tactic is a simple, yet powerful tactic. It involves
asking questions to productively advance the conversation. It puts you
in control of the conversation in a disarming manner. Although there
are many types of Columbo questions, its most modest application is
to help you gain information.

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