PROBING QUESTIONS:

• Will You Wrestle with God? Jon Bloom writes “What do you really need from God right now? What blessing do you want from him? How badly do you want it? There are times when God only releases his blessings on us after a season of prolonged and even painful wrestling with him.”
• Is Jesus Arrogant? Musings on Exclusivity. Zack Eswine writes “Jesus sounds narrow minded and arrogant. He suggests that we locate God through no other way but His. This kind of exclusive claim disgusts many of us.”
• May I Split My Giving Between My Church and Another Ministry? In this episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, John Piper states “I think it is a good rule of thumb to start your giving by tithing to the local church and then giving over and above elsewhere. But that is not a rule or a mandate.”

 

CHRISTIAN LIVING:

• God Wants Our Hearts, Brokenness and Sin. Here’s our prayer of the week from friend Scotty Smith.
• Heavenly Mindedness. Randy Alcorn write “What’s your attitude toward Heaven? Does it fill you with excitement? How often do you, your church, and your family talk about it?”
• The Character of the Christian: Hospitable. Tim Challies continues his series on the character of the Christian.
• Speaking Truth to a Secular Age: A Google Hangout with Albert Mohler. On February 12, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Dr. Stephen Nichols, president of Reformation Bible College discussed some of the issues surrounding the church’s urgent need to boldly and clearly speak the truth to a secular age.
• Chris Tomlin and Tim Tebow Team Up. Watch this short humorous video about the worship leader and Heisman Trophy winner partnering with CURE International.

• You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true. R.C. Sproul

• The first object of the Christian is to glorify God, and the next object is to make other people happy. Charles Spurgeon

• The purpose of prayer is not to get God aligned with us but to get us aligned with God. Scott Sauls

• Always be killing sin or it will be killing you. John Owen

• Let the Lord Jesus but enter your souls, and you shall find peace which the world can neither give nor take away. George Whitefield

• God is Father to the Christian. He is not Father to anybody else. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

• Genuine and earnest prayer proceeds first from a sense of our need, and next, from faith in the promises of God. John Calvin

• Sin is not just doing bad things. It is taking good things and making them ultimate in your life. Tim Keller

• The gospel never was, isn’t, and never will be about the “victorious Christian life.” It’s about the victorious Christ. Scotty Smith