Sports

• LPGA Tour Player Makes Eagle to Win Tournament. After chipping-in on the 18th hole to force a playoff with Inbee Park, Sei-Young Kim pulled an 8-iron from 154 yards on the first extra hole and knocked it in for an eagle.
• Tim Tebow Signs with the Philadelphia Eagles. Tebow joins former teammate Mark Sanchez and fellow believer former St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford on the Eagles.
• LeBron James Sinks Half-Court Shot. Watch him toss in a 94-foot shot like an NFL quarterback.
• Prayers for Adam Wainright. As I write this it appears that St. Louis Cardinal ace Adam Wainright will be out for the remainder of the season with an Achilles Heel injury. Our prayers go out to Adam, a believer, who also missed the entire 2011 season due to injury.

In The News:

• Three Cheers for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Kevin DeYoung looks at statements from them in the past affirming the biblical view of marriage.
• On Abortion, Rand Paul Simply Did What Most Reporters Won’t. Trevin Wax writes “Forty-two years after Roe v. Wade, the nation’s two major parties are more entrenched than ever regarding the question of abortion rights.
• Millennials are the ‘Don’t Judge Generation’ on Sexual Morality According to Survey. Cathy Lynn Grossman writes “Most young adults hold views on moral issues that are a long way from what some major religions preach on issues such as abortion and contraception.”
• 3 Important Church Trends in the Next 10 Years. Ed Stetzer shares these trends.
• The God of Justice Hates False Reports. Kevin DeYoung writes “Please, please, please, let us be more careful with our words. Let our blogs be based on knowledge and our tweets be founded on facts. Let us be among the last to speak our minds if we are not one of the first to know the truth. Let us not confuse a social media scroll with actual research. Hearing a report is not the same as the right to speak.”

Media Resources:

• Twice Born. Tim Challies shares information about a PBS series titled Twice Born. He states that “This series is one of the greatest arguments against abortion you will ever see.”
• Eric Metaxas Show Podcast. Listen to the show anytime you want to via the podcast.
• Logic on Fire. Carl Trueman, who I enjoyed a wonderful class on B.B. Warfield with at Covenant Seminary a few years back, looks at the new film about Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
• New Website for the Alliance of Confession Evangelicals. Check it out.
• Interview with Tim Challies. Check out this interview with Tim on Greg Dutcher’s Podbean podcast as he discusses topics such as pornography and Reformed theology.
• Download The Holiness of God App for iPhone and iPad. R.C. Sproul’s classic video series The Holiness of God is available now in the App Store as a free interactive course from Ligonier Connect for iPhone or iPad.
• An Interview with Kevin DeYoung on His Excellent New Book on Homosexuality. Watch this interview that Justin Taylor had with DeYoung about his new book What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality.
• New Documentary on the Banner of Truth Trust. Watch the first of three short mini-documentaries.
• Time’s 100 Most Influential People. Here is their list, broken into the categories of Titans, Pioneers, Artists, Leaders and Icons.
• A Banner of Truth Book Recommendation from Steven Lawson. Banner of Truth sat down with Dr. Lawson to ask him if he had to recommend one Banner book for Christians to read, which would it be?
• Russell Moore Sermons. Russell Moore is President of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral, and ethical concerns. Here’s a link to his audio sermons, sorted by the book of the Bible.
• Shepherding Your Children through Media Choices. Kurt Gebhards writes “Christian parents must take special care in making wise decisions for their families. Whether we like it or not, our children are targeted as prime consumers in the media market.”
  

  Only 7 minutes of Beatles music?

Christian Living:

• If We Expect We Won’t Be Persecuted for Our Faith, We Need to Readjust Our Expectations. Randy Alcorn writes “Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18). Peter said, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). In spite of these promises, many Christians seem shocked and outraged when they have to face these very trials.
• Religious Liberty is Not Freedom from Ridicule. Russell Moore writes “As citizens, we should expect freedom of religion. As Christians, we shouldn’t expect freedom from ridicule.”
• Free Yourself from Divided Interests. Jon Bloom writes “Divided interests are costly. Every relationship we nurture, every activity we engage, every cause we get involved with, and every decision about what we will own and where we will live has a time, energy, concentration, and often financial cost attached to it. They all require some investment of life. The more divided our interests, the more diluted our lives.
• Twelve Bad Reasons to Hide, Downplay or Distort the Gospel. Jonathan shares twelve bad reasons to hide, downplay, or distort the truth of the gospel and our new, otherworldly identity.
• 9 Unbiblical Statements That Christians Believe. How many of these statements from Shane Pruitt did you think were in the Bible?
• Five Things I Don’t Ever Want to Do Again. Dave Kraft shares these five things, that with the Lord’s help, he doesn’t ever want to do again.
• How the Prosperity Gospel Hurts Racial Reconciliation. Russell Moore writes that after interviewing John Perkins, he’s convinced that the so called “prosperity gospel” is a barrier to racial reconciliation.
• That Hideous Beauty of Calvary. Marshal Segal writes “We have to be offended by the cross for it to ever be truly beautiful.”
• If God is Sovereign, Why is My Sanctification so Slow? Justin Taylor, writing about John Newton, states “Newton was one of the the most spiritually healthy Christians in church history. You almost certainly will not regret any chance to read his counsel.” I’m currently reading Jonathan Aitken’s excellent book John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace.
• How Do You Know You’re Repentant? Jared C. Wilson shares 12 signs that we have a genuinely repentant heart.
• Repentance as a Path to Joy. David Prince shares applications from Psalm 32. He asks us to consider the ways we often attempt to avoid gospel repentance and the pattern of genuine gospel repentance.
• When Fear Seizes You. Stacy Reaoch writes “When fear begins to creep in and all the “what-if” situations begin to consume your mind, here are seven things to remember.”
• Help My Unbelief: Questions About Faith and Doubt with Matt Perman. Here is Matt Perman’s contribution to Barnabas Piper’s forthcoming book Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not The Enemy of Faith.
• Martin Luther’s Definition of Faith. Martin Luther writes “Faith is not what some people think it is. Instead, faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God.”

To Encourage You:

• A Prayer for Growing a Heart of Contentment. Here’s a wonderful prayer from our friend Scotty Smith.
• Hymns We Should Sing More Often: Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul. Kevin DeYoung continues an intermittent series he calls “Hymns We Should Sing More Often.”
• The Nature and Wonder of Heaven. R.C. Sproul writes “Every hope and joy that we look forward to—and then some—will abound in this wonderful place. Our greatest moment will be when we walk through the door and leave this world of tears and sorrow, this valley of death, and enter into the presence of the Lamb.”
• What’s the Difference between the Present Heaven and the Future Heaven? Randy Alcorn writes “Instead of us going up to God’s place to live forever, God will come down to live with us in our place, literally bringing Heaven to Earth! God’s children are destined for life as resurrected beings on a resurrected Earth.”

Just for Fun

• Egg Russian Roulette. Did you see Ryan Reynolds (currently starring in Woman in Gold) play Egg Russian Roulette with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show recently?
• Chimps Given Human Rights. Seriously? Rachel Feltman writes “A New York judge granted two chimpanzees a writ of habeas corpus. In other words, the chimps have the right to a day in court — under a law that only applies to people.”

• The hardest part of the day is all the stuff after I open my eyes in the morning. Jim Gaffigan

• Suddenly I’m considered lazy if I hire someone to buckle my seatbelt for me. I’m busy, people! Jim Gaffigan
  

  Beyond the Ark by Doug Michael

Favorite Quotes of the Week ~ 4.26.2015

On our Culture and World…

If we are not deliberately thinking about our culture and our context, we will be conformed to it without ever knowing. Tim Keller

• We are redefining terms and rewriting laws and removing fences everywhere you turn, and we seem to think we can do that with impunity. Ravi Zacharias
•  Worldliness is that system of values, in any given age, which has at its center our fallen human perspective, which displaces God and his truth from the world, and which makes sin look normal and righteousness seem strange. It thus gives great plausibility to what is morally wrong and, for that reason, makes what is wrong seem normal. David Wells
• As the culture war rages on, Lord give us wisdom to see the difference between defending our rights and protesting our slights. Kevin DeYoung

• We have to be careful not to elevate our preferences to moral standards and judge others by them. We only do so to feel superior. Tim Keller

• The drug of choice in the modern age is levity. We want everything to be light and bubbly. We just want to feel good. Matt Chandler

• In America today, it is considered worse to judge evil than to do evil. Os Guinness

• Faith only glances at problems, but gazes upon Jesus. Steven Lawson

Our Sin and Our Gracious God and Savior…

• We have a generation of people who think they can stand before the judgment seat of God despite their sins. R.C. Sproul

• I rest solely in His righteousness and in His atonement because I know there is nothing I can do to make up for my own iniquity. R.C. Sproul

• The gospel is not for you who can save yourselves, but for those who are lost. Charles Spurgeon

• God’s grace meets us in messy places because messy places are all that there are. Tullian Tchividjian

• Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He is the Seeker; we are the ones who are running. R.C. Sproul

• You are more sinful than you could ever dare imagine and you are more loved and accepted than you could ever dare hope-at the same time. Tim Keller

• What does it mean to be human? It means we are created in the image of God for the glorious reality of being in permanent fellowship with Him. Ravi Zacharias

• True joy comes only from God and He shares this joy with those who walk in fellowship with Him. Jerry Bridges

• A holy God is both just and merciful. He is never unjust. R.C. Sproul

• The only thing that righteousness and sin have in common is that they were both imputed to the undeserving at the cross. Burk Parsons

• We have no right to come before God at all, apart from the finished work of Christ. R.C. Sproul

• Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do believe; but He died for all God’s elect, that they should believe. John Owen

• “Yes but-ing” the sufficiency of God’s grace for salvation is like “Yes but-ing” the sufficiency of water for wetness. Scotty Smith

• There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Abraham Kuyper

• God knows everything. So why not run to him and tell him all the things that he already knows? Kevin DeYoung

• If prayer actually changed God’s mind, I would stop praying. Burk Parsons

• We are all servants. The only question is whom we will serve. R.C. Sproul

• If we love God’s fame and are committed to magnifying His name above all things, we cannot be indifferent to world missions. John Piper

• We’re not called to perfection but to faithfulness. Sinlessness in this life isn’t possible, but obedience unto godliness is. Sanctification. Steve Camp