CHRISTIAN LIVING:

• More than Money: Tim Keller on How to Live Generously.  Matt Smetthurst interviews Tim Keller about tithing, common misconceptions, whether pastors should know how much individual members give, and more.
• When Your Limp Becomes Your Strength. Scott Sauls writes “Joni, Lynn, and others who draw near to God through their disabilities give me hope for the day when my own mental, emotional, and physical decline arrives.”
• When We Wake Up Feeling a Bit Blah. Here’s our prayer of the week from Scotty Smith, who I enjoyed two wonderful courses with at Covenant Seminary.
• 5 Methods for Fighting Half-Hearted Prayer. Joel Beeke writes “The Puritans were prone to give five methods for fighting our natural tendency to lapse into half-hearted prayer.”
• 25 Comforting Verses about Death and Dying in Christ. Our friend Kevin Halloran shares these verses that will be helpful to those who have lost loved ones who are believers. Kevin recently having lost his mother after a brave three-year battle with cancer.

• How Do the Sacraments Help Us?C. Sproul writes “When joined to the Word of God, the sacraments strengthen our faith, further our sanctification, and assure us of the Lord’s unwavering faithfulness to us—His forgetful and often unfaithful people.”
• Why Culture Matters. People of faith differ on how much concern we should pay to the culture at hand, questioning what good can we really do engaging in a broken world. Can we really make a significant difference? Watch this just under twenty-minute talk on why culture matters from Tim Keller.
• One Way Nominal Christians Are Worse Than Non-Christians. Eric Metaxas writes “Like the people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s time, nominal believers today don’t even live up to the standards of their unbelieving neighbors. And now, as then, that’s an embarrassment and a tragedy.”
• Having a Jesus Heart for Children. Kelly Needham writes “In every season of life, all of us encounter children—whether our own, or a friend’s, or nieces and nephews, or neighborhood kids. It’s important we have a Biblically-informed view of them.”
• Six Biblical Methods for Handling Stress. Elizabeth Moyer writes “These biblical practices help recalibrate our spiritual response to stressors that disrupt equilibrium in our lives.”
• Homophobia Has No Place in the Church. Nick Roen writes “Simply put, homophobia means a fear of homosexuality and, more specifically, homosexual people. And while it is not the same as loving, biblical opposition to certain behaviors or beliefs, this fear-based attitude often leads to unhelpful stereotypes, prejudice, and even cruel mistreatment. So let’s call a spade a spade. Homophobia exists, and it has no place in the church.”
• What is True Love? John MacArthur writes that the love we are called to walk in is first pure and then peaceable.

GREAT RESOURCES:

• Islam: Download April’s Tabletalk for Free. Tabletalk Magazine from Ligonier Ministries has been my daily companion for many years. Ligonier is making the April issue, focusing on Islam, a free download.
• Chosen in Christ: God’s Eternal Plan of Redemption. I’ve been enjoying re-listening to the messages from the recent 2016 Ligonier National Conference. Watch this wonderful message from Ian Hamilton.
• The Hope of Heaven: A Conversation with John Piper, Scott Swain and Randy Alcorn. Watch this ten-minute discussion with John Piper, Scott Swain, and Randy Alcorn as they discuss the topic of Heaven in the hopes of providing a more biblically-informed picture of our future home.
• Keller, Piper, and Carson on Seeking Reformation. In this less than ten-minute video, Tim Keller, John Piper and D.A. Carson discuss what it will look like for the Gospel Coalition to continue seeking reformation according to Scripture.
• A Biblical Theology of Revival. Listen to this one-hour address from Tim Keller at a workshop at the Gospel Coalition 2013 National Conference.
• Michael Card Chapel Message. Watch Michael Card minister in music and message in chapel at Union University on March 30.
• The Story. Watch this six-minute video from Spread Truth – “When we know God’s story, it changes everything: who we are, what we want, and how we live. The Story is a resource designed to serve the local church as it seeks to fulfill the Great Commission.”
• What Does “Inspiration” Mean in 2 Timothy 3:16? In this short video excerpt from his series on systematic theology, C. Sproul explains what Paul meant by “inspiration” in 2 Timothy 3:16.

 IN THE NEWS:

• Transgenderism of Children is Child Abuse, American College of Pediatricians Rules. The American College of Pediatricians recently released a statement declaring that gender reclassification of children, also known as transgenderism, constitutes child abuse.
• The Religion of Ted Cruz. John Fea writes “In short, there have been few presidential candidates in United States history with such bona fide God-and-country credentials.”

• God’s sense of timing will always confound ours. His grace rarely operates according to our schedule. Tim Keller
• When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God. Martin Luther
• We are not reborn because we believe. We believe because we are reborn. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Unless Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you here, you must hereafter be satisfying the divine justice in hell. George Whitefield
• There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence. John Calvin
• One ray from the throne of God is better than the noonday splendour of created wisdom. Charles Spurgeon
• The thing about a democracy is that a nation usually gets the leaders it deserves. Kevin DeYoung
• Where the gospel advances, the devil will rage. Michael Reeves

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