• By the Way Conference. The Lexington Community Church, located in central Illinois, will hold the By the Way conference, a whole family conference and worship time, Thursday, July 6 – Saturday, July 8. I’ll be speaking on the topic of “Disciples at Work” on Thursday, July 6 at 6:15 pm. Please stop by if you are in the area.

• Diagnosing & Mortifying the Sin of Complaining. Geoffrey Kirkland writes “Complaining isn’t, however, the real issue. Complaining is the outward manifestation of other heart-sins taking place in that moment.”
• Selfaholism or Servaholism.David Murray writes “You have a problem. It’s yourself. To be blunt, you are addicted to yourself.”
• 6 Things To Do With Your Anxiety. Justin Taylor shares wisdom from counselor David Powlison on dealing with every day, garden-variety anxiety.
• Owning Our Fears, Choosing Our Treasure, Loving Our Savior. Scotty Smith prays “Melt our fears with your peace; strengthen our hearts with your grace; and send us forth into kingdom service with your measureless love.”
• Victory over Porn Is Closer Than You Think. Jimmy Needham writes “Are you living like victory over besetting sin is impossible? Your God is too small, friend.”
• Fake Love, Fake War. Russell Moore writes “The answer to both addictions is to fight arousal with arousal. Set forth the gospel vision of a Christ who loves his bride and who fights to save her.”
• We All Need Adversity and Affliction. Jon Bloom writes “I would not exchange any of my discipline-afflictions for anything. In fact, I have made it a habit to keep asking God to discipline me. This isn’t because I love affliction, but because the hope in God I’ve tasted in the promises of God I’ve trusted in the darkest days are the sweetest things my soul has ever known.”
• Trusting God: When It’s Easy To Do So, And When It’s Not. Scotty Smith prays “Because of Jesus’ finished work, we don’t have to be afraid to die, or live. May your beauty, grace, and peace keep us centered, in everyseason of life–including this season.”
• Redeem Your Time. Tim Challies writes “Whether life plods by or speeds by, you are responsible for each moment. If you are going to run to win, you must redeem your time.”
• Help Me Teach the Bible: Tony Reinke on How Our Phones Are Changing Us as Teachers. In this episode of the “Help Me Teach the Bible” Nancy Guthrie talks to Tony Reinke author of 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You. She writes “Even though Reinke doesn’t call himself a Bible teacher, it is clear from our conversation that he brings knowledge and love for the Scriptures to the topic of technology. Reinke explains the difference in how we read digital text as opposed to printed text, and he sets before us a desirable goal: the undistracted life.”

NOW THAT’S A GOOD QUESTION:

• Jesus Said He Would Return, So Where Is He? In this episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, John Piper responds to a question which reads in part “I am a bit uneasy that at some stage our kids will tell us that Paul was wrong about 1 Corinthians 15:51 and so he’s not to be taken seriously. Do you have any suggestions as to how to deal with this tension?”  
• Where Did Evil Come From? Listen to Tim Keller’s answer to this question in this four-minute audio clip.
• Will All People Be Equal in Heaven?Randy Alcorn writes “Scripture is clear that we’ll have different rewards and positions in Heaven, according to our faithful service in this life.”
• How Have Your Found the Life You Wanted? Kristen Wetherell writes “God knows we need him, that our longings will only be fulfilled in knowing and walking closely with him. He is our ultimate end and eternal reward. But we’ve rejected him in sin, so we ask life of the wrong things.”
• Preacher’s Toolkit: Should I Always Call for Repentance? Steven Lawson writes “Calling for the decision is an essential and necessary part of gospel preaching. Christ demonstrated this practice in his teaching, and it was also present in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost.”

TO MAKE YOU SMILE:

• CNN To Launch Real News Spinoff Site. The Babylon Bee reports “After years of publishing distorted headlines, slanted news articles, and heavily biased news coverage, media giant CNN announced Friday that it has decided to launch a spinoff site that focuses on real news comprised of objective facts.”
• Google Celebrates Noahic Covenant.The Babylon Bee reports “Tech behemoth Google, known to change the logo on its eponymous search engine in honor of special people and events, announced Friday that the company was celebrating the Noahic Covenant God made with mankind after the Flood. The website’s logo was changed to a rainbow-themed design for 24 hours in honor of God’s promise never to flood the world again.”
• Local Church Adds Pew Back Entertainment Consoles.The Babylon Bee reports “The consoles include hundreds of the latest Hollywood movies for instant viewing during Sunday services, along with thousands of pop, rock, and hip-hop albums, and even a countdown that lets audience members know when the service is expected to be over.”

THINKING DEEPLY:

• God Ordains Whatsoever Comes to Pass. In this less than four-minute video clip from his from his teaching series Chosen By God, R.C. Sproul explains how this question distinguishes between atheists and theists.
• Suffering: A Divine Vocation. In this message from R.C. Sproul, he states that a part of the Christian’s calling is to suffer. How do we praise the Lord and find Christ as our treasure in the midst of it?
• How the Reformation Rediscovered Happiness. Tim Chester writes “The righteousness of Christ, credited to us through faith, promised God’s children heaven — no need for purgatory or fear of hell. The gospel moved Luther from fear to faith, from despair to joy.”
• Ecumenical vs. Evangelical.Mike Riccardi writes “There can be no partnership in ministry between the body of Christ who has been saved by the Gospel, and the enemies of that Gospel. No matter how many other good things they agree on, if you don’t have the Gospel, you don’t have Jesus. And if you don’t have Jesus, you simply cannot be united to those who do.”
• 2018 Ligonier National Conference. We have been attending the Ligonier National Conference almost every year since 1997. The 2018 will have the theme of “Awakening”. Speakers will include Albert Mohler, Kevin DeYoung, Joni Eareckson Tada, Rosaria Butterfield, Sinclair Ferguson, R.C. Sproul and many others.

IN THE NEWS:

• Mocking Tim Tebow’s Faith. In our culture, it seems that one of the things people still feel comfortable to mock is Christianity. Read about what theCharleston RiverDogs minor league baseball team did recently.
• When it Comes to Saying Grace, Americans are Still United.Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Julie Zauzmer and Emily Guskin write “A new poll by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that saying grace is a widespread practice in the United States. About half of all Americans take a minute to say a prayer over their food at least a few times a week, the poll reveals, making grace an unusual commonality in a politically divided nation.”
• J.D. Vance Interview with Megyn Kelly. Watch Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance’s 13-minute interview with Megyn Kelly on Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. Read my review of Hillbilly Elegy.

 

• A Christian is one whose time is taken up with the happy task of daily applying the gospel to every realm of life. Burk Parsons
• Let’s not judge anyone’s story by the chapter we happen to walk into. Scotty Smith
• We cannot be doctrinally orthodox unless we renounce doctrinal heresy. Burk Parsons
• It must not content us to take our bodies to church if we leave our hearts at home. C. Ryle
• Live as if Christ died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back tomorrow. Martin Luther 
• The sin that is killing you the most right now is the one you are most defensive about or just completely unaware of. Tim Keller
• America will truly be great again if we return our roots of calling and covenant. Os Guinness
• The character of God encompasses three basic realities: the true, the good, and the beautiful. C. Sproul
• What if instead of waiting for good enough things to happen to us, we could be the good thing to happen to someone else who’s waiting? Ann Voskamp