CHRISTIAN LIVING:

• Some Things You Should Know About Christians Who Struggle With Anxiety. Adam Ford, who makes us laugh at The Babylon Bee, writes “For 7 years I have lived with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Social Anxiety. It has completely changed my life.”
• Recovering the Lost Art of Encouragement. Scott Sauls writes “Sometimes love calls us to be courageous, because it takes courage to offer a redemptive critique.”
• What Would What God Say to Your Anxiety? Dave Radford writes “Look back to your life now. See your current set of troubles through past and future lenses, and add these other promises to the mix. This is what Scripture says is true of you now. “
• Lay Aside the Weight of Moodiness. Jon Bloom writes “The quickest way to lay aside the weight of manipulative moodiness is to wield our mood in the way God designed it: as a gauge of our belief. We must query our mood. What is fueling it?”
• He Came to Save Sinners. Richard Phillips writes “Do you realize that this is what the world truly needs—to have its sins taken away and to be reconciled to God? Do you realize that this is your great need?”
• The Exhausting Task of Finding Yourself and Your Best Life Now. Trevin Wax writes “Christianity has a fresh message for an exhausted generation pursuing happiness: salvation doesn’t come from mustering up your willpower and making your mark on the world, but in recognizing your dependence on God and receiving the mark He made on the world in the person of Jesus Christ.”
• Five Natural Ways to Get to the Gospel. Jimmy Needham writes “Consider these common categories or starting places for the next time you’re in conversation with a not-yet-believing friend or stranger.”
• Secret Wisdom in the Wake of Suffering. Marshall Segal writes “In the face of devastating news, our gut reaction and temptation might be to doubt God or run from him. But heart-wrenching wisdom and understanding are not found anywhere deep inside ourselves or somewhere far from God, but woven into his wise and sovereign love for us.”
• Plan Now to Die Well. John Piper writes “As a minister of the word of God, I have always thought that part of my calling is to help people die well.”
• Your First Breath After Death.  Marshall Segal writes “The best thing about that first breath will be that we are finally breathing face to face with our God.”
• Vanity Fair and Worldliness. In this less than five-minute video exercept from his excellent series The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Guided Tour, Derek Thomas explains worldliness and the temptations of Vanity Fair.
• Time to Refuel. St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainright writes “When we find ourselves in a dry spell in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we need to persevere and train ourselves to get back into the swing of things.”
• Knowing When It’s Time for a Personal Retreat with Jesus. Scotty Smith prays “Lord Jesus, fortunately I’m not totally “toast,” yet; but it’s definitely time for me to spend some unrushed, uncluttered time away with you.”
• John MacArthur’s Tips on Self-Discipline. Jordan Standridge writes “Even though we may not be as busy as John Macarthur we should all strive to live disciplined lives. I believe these 8 tips will help us in our mission to please Christ with our time.”
• 10 Practical Ways to Boost Your Energy Level. Michael Hyatt writes “Your energy level doesn’t have to remain low. You have more control than you think. But you have to be deliberate in managing it.”
• If You Don’t Fight Lust. John Piper writes “Jesus said, if you don’t fight lust, you won’t go to heaven. Not that saints always succeed. The issue is that we resolve to fight, not that we succeed flawlessly.”
• Blessed are the Peacemakers. R.C. Sproul writes “The making of peace is one of the most important motifs of all of Scripture.”

PROBING QUESTIONS: 

• Is Spending Money on Entertainment and Leisure OK with God? Randy Alcorn writes “So how do we find the right balance between how much we give, and how much we keep to use for our family’s needs, as well as for God-honoring recreation and enjoyment? I believe the tension reflected in that question is healthy.”
• Do You Pray Like a Nonbeliever? John Piper writes “Something is amiss when Christians pray the way unbelievers pray. Of course, unbelievers do pray. They pray by the millions. Countless nominal Christians in all the nations of the world pray almost every day.”
• Why Does Everyone Want to Be Happy? Randy Alcorn writes “Separating God from happiness and our longing for happiness undermines the attractiveness of God and the appeal of the Christian worldview.”
• Can Salvation Be Lost Because of Sin?C. Sproul writes “The question of losing one’s salvation is one that is a matter of great controversy within the household of Christian faith.”
• Should Christians Save for Retirement? Randy Alcorn writes “I’m not saying we can’t use or shouldn’t have a retirement plan. I do. But as God’s children, we need to think differently about them.”
• Can You Vote for Donald Trump with a Clear Conscience? Andy Naselli writes “But if I had to vote today, I could not vote for Donald Trump with a clear conscience. Perhaps others will persuade me to calibrate my conscience on this issue, but I doubt it.”

PUT YOUR THINKING CAPS ON:

• Sanctification and the Christian Life: A Google Hangout with Sinclair Ferguson and Burk Parsons. Watch this August 24^th Ligonier Ministries Google Hangout event with Dr. Sinclair Ferguson Rev. Burk Parsons. They discussed sanctification and the Christian life as they sought to think biblically about law, grace, and Christian liberty.
• Six Practical Reasons “Free Will” Matters. John Piper writes “I simply want to draw out some of the practical implications of believing that the human will is in bondage to preferring other things above God.”
• Revelation and Christian Ethics. R.C. Sproul writes “Ethics involves the question of authority. The Christian lives under the sovereignty of God, who alone may claim lordship over us.”
• Wisdom and Sabbath Rest. Tim Keller writes “The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it the pursuit of pleasure. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through his help, and the freedom you have in the gospel—the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation.”
• What Became of Christian Intellectuals: There is More to the Story. Albert Mohler responds to Alan Jacobs’ recent article on Christian intellectuals. He writes “I deeply appreciate Professor Jacobs’s essay and I share his concern in general terms, but I see the situation somewhat differently.”
• How to Fight Chronological Snobbery. Check out this article on C.S. Lewis, which is adapted from Theologians You Should Know: An Introduction: From the Apostolic Fathers to the 21st Century by Michael Reeves.
• Our Faith Is Historically Verifiable—Or It’s Nothing. Kathy Keller writes “So ask your questions, raise your doubts. Christians have nothing to fear from questions, however searching, or doubts, however scathing. History is on our side. It really happened. That changes everything.”
• The Surprising Truth about False Teachers. David Mathis writes “The question is not whether you ever hear the voice of false teachers. You do — probably every day. The question is whether you can discern which messages are false.”
• Doxological Calvinism. Sinclair Ferguson writes “The terms Calvinism and doxology are not ordinarily associated with each other, even by Christians. Yet it is the overall contention that Calvinism is always doxological—otherwise it cannot be either truly biblical or truly Calvinistic, and therefore, at the end of the day, cannot be true theology. For true theology always leads to doxology.”
• Why Doctrine Still Matters. Scott Sauls writes “Rather than relegate the pursuit of sound doctrine to the cemetery, I believe that we must instead redeem and restore the term to its original intent.”

RESOURCES AND UPCOMING EVENTS

• 2017 Ligonier National Conference: The Next 500 Years. Check out the schedule and outstanding list of speakers for the 2017 Ligonier National Conference, to be held in Orlando March 9-11. Among the speakers are John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, Albert Mohler, Derek Thomas, Michael Horton, Sinclair Ferguson, R.C. Sproul and many others.
• Frederick Buechner at 90: The Road Goes On. Frederick Buechner is a theologian, ordained Presbyterian minister and writer. He’s also an unlikely social media sensation, with more than 1.5 million followers. On July 11, 2016, he turned 90, an occasion marked by the publication of Buechner 101: Essays and Sermons by Frederick Buechner.    
• The Book of Job – A New Teaching Series from Derek Thomas. Nathan W. Bingham writes “In this twelve-message series, The Book of Job, Dr. Derek Thomas walks us through the book of Job and considers what the Bible says about our darkest moments. He addresses the difficult question of the relationship between God’s sovereignty and the existence of evil, sin, and suffering. In the end, as Dr. Thomas shows, it’s in our trials that we learn to trust God and say with Job, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”” You can watch the first message, “Job, Satan & God” free.
• Help Me Teach the Bible with Rosaria Butterfield. Nancy Guthrie continues her excellent “Help Me Teach the Bible” series, this time with author Rosaria Butterfield.
• My Amazon Reviews. Check out more than 180 of my book, music, and a few DVD movie reviews, that have been posted on Amazon the past three years.  They are always available on the right-hand side of the blog home page.

MEN AND WOMEN OF FAITH: 

• The Christian Faith of Jane Austen. This article is adapted from Eight Women of Faith by Michael A. G. Haykin.
• “God Made Me for China” – Eric Liddell Beyond Olympic Glory. Albert Mohler, in writing about Olympic hero Eric Liddell, states “The most important part of his story came long after his gold medal arrived by mail.”
• Rosaria Butterfield: No Free Passes. Marvin Olasky of World Magazine about her life in the 3 ½ years since The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert was published

CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE:

• Keller, Moore, DeYoung on How to Speak to Our Culture About Sex. Watch this eleven-minute video discussion with Tim Keller, Russell Moore and Kevin DeYoung.
• John MacArthur’s Response to California’s SB 1146 Bill. Watch this four-minute response from Master’s College President John MacArthur on California’s SB 1146 bill.
• What Does Cultural Engagement in a Secular Age Look Like? Russell Moore writes “If we ever were a moral majority, we are no longer. As the secularizing and sexualizing revolutions whir on, it is no longer possible to pretend that we represent the “real America,” a majority of God-loving, hard-working, salt-of-the-earth cultural conservatives like us.”
• America’s Lost Boys. Samuel D. James writes “Where have America’s young men gone? According to Erik Hurst, an economist from the University of Chicago, they haven’t gone anywhere—they’re just plugged in.”
• All of Us Sinners, None of Us Freaks. Tony Reinke shares five baseline convictions for Christians in the pro-transgender age.
• Christian Exiles. John Piper writes “The greatness of Christian exiles is not success but service. Whether we win or lose, we witness to the way of truth, beauty, and joy. We don’t own culture, and we don’t rule it. We serve it with brokenhearted joy and longsuffering mercy, for the good of man and the glory of Jesus Christ.”
• One of the Most Important Lessons John Piper Learned in the Pursuit of Racial and Ethnic Harmony and Diversity. Justin Taylor shares a passage from John Piper’s book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian.
• A Sober Warning About “The Transgender Contagion”. Denny Burk writes “This is not alarmism. This is just where we are. And unless people open their eyes to what is happening, David French’s prediction will not be a warning but a reality.”

IN THE NEWS:

• Faith at the Olympics. Eric Metaxas writes “Well, this summer in Rio de Janeiro, there’s been a whole lot of running, jumping, swimming, and competing by athletes seeking to honor Jesus Christ. Not that you’ve heard much about it from the “mainstream” media.”
• Tim Kaine and the Bridge to Hillary Clinton’s Past on Abortion. Trevin Wax writes “On abortion, Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine, have flown to different wings within the “pro-choice” camp.”
• Target Bathroom Boycott: Will Retailer Keep Flushing Profits Down the Toilet? Todd Starnes writes “There are two indisputable facts surrounding Target’s decision to allow men to use the same bathrooms and changing rooms as women and little girls. First, Target’s stock has taken pounding since April. Second quarter earnings fell to $680 million, according to Market Watch. And revenue fell 7.2 percent. Second, more than 1.4 million consumers have joined American Family Association’s nationwide boycott of the nation’s second-largest discount retailer.”
• On David Gushee’s Dishonesty. Jake Meador writes “Earlier this week David Gushee continued his sad decline with a cowardly piecefor Religion News Service. It’s all par for the course for progressive evangelicals like Gushee, of course, which is why I’m generally not too bothered by what they say. But even so the dishonesty in this particular piece is jarring and merits further comment.”
• Eric Metaxas Thug Life. Watch this attempted slam of Eric Metaxas as he speaks against Hillary Clinton’s choice of Tim Kaine as her Vice Presidential running mate in his interview with Don Lemon on CNN.
• Why We Should Be Grateful for Flourishing Evangelical Seminaries. Joe Carter writes “New data reveal that the largest seminaries in America are the most orthodox and evangelical.”
• Tony Dungy Elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame. Congratulations to Tony Dungy on his election to the Pro Football Hall of fame.
• For TV’s Gaffigans, Church Is a ‘Miracle’ On-Screen and Off. Wade Bearden interviews Jeannie Gaffigan, wife of comedian Jim.

TO MAKE YOU SMILE:

• Barbara Steisand’s Duet with “Donald Trump”. Did you see Streisand duet with Donald Trump (as portrayed by Jimmy Fallon) recently on The Tonight Show?
• Scandal Erupts As Ligonier Staffer Spotted Without Double-Breasted Blazer. The Babylon Bee (Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire) reports “At the annual Ligonier Ministries summer kick-off party, staffers are encouraged to let their hair down and cut loose for “a fun, wild time of fellowship and festivities.” But a young staff member named Noah Edwards went just a little too far, removing his double-breasted blazer shortly after the caviar hors d’oeuvres were served.”

• Hell will be filled with people who were avidly committed to Christian values. Albert Mohler
• Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong. Tim Keller
• A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, and no wrath is an idol. R. C. Sproul
• The gospel doesn’t create a spirit of triumphalism, but a spirit of humility. Jesus has conquered us by grace and made us his loving servants. Scotty Smith
• At the very heart of the Christian life is union with Christ. Sinclair Ferguson
• One day America and all its presidents will be a footnote in history, but the kingdom of Jesus will never end. John Piper
• For every one look at your sins, take five looks at your Savior. Tim Keller
• Our prayers reveal a lot about us. Our requests show us what we treasure. Francis Chan
• For all who reject Christ, it will be death and condemnation. So this is the hour of salvation. Michael Horton