• Alabama’s Freshman Backup QB Came Off the Bench to Win a Title — and Gave Jesus the Credit After. Aaron Colen writes “It was a miraculous overtime comeback victory, and Tagovailoa knew exactly where to give the credit after the game.”
• Andy Savage’s Standing Ovation Was Heard Round the World. Because It Was Wrong. Ed Stetzer writes “So, not only do we have a questionable standing ovation after a problematic apology, but also accusations that church leadership were and continue to be involved in marginalizing the victim.”

• The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus. Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra writes “For decades, North Korea has clearly been the world’s worst persecutor of Christians. But now, another nation nearly matches it.”
• Fact checking ‘The Crown’: Queen Elizabeth’s faith and her close relationship with preacher Billy Graham. Sarah Pulliam Bailey writes “Several writers have pointed out how “The Crown” took more liberties with historical fact and chronology in its second season. So, did the show take some liberties in depicting the queen’s faith and her relationship with the evangelist?”
• Moody Bible President and COO Both Resign, Provost Retires. Kate Shellnutt writes about a lot of changes taking place at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
• “Do Not Be Discouraged”: YouVersion Bible App Tops 300 Million Downloads. Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra writes “Last year, Bible app users shared verses 222 million times and highlighted, bookmarked, or noted them 1.4 billion times. In other words, every second an average of 10.8 verses were shared, 42.3 were highlighted, and 2.8 were bookmarked.”
• The 100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. Tim Challies writes “Newsmax recently released their picks for the “100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America”. I’m sure it was no small project to sift through the thousands of possibilities among the millions of Evangelicals to arrive at a mere 100. Their top-ten are Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, Mike Huckabee, Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, Jerry Falwell Jr., Joyce Meyer, Mike Pence, and the combination of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. It’s quite a list and has generated no small amount of response.”

• What’s Wrong with Dressing Immodestly for Attention?In this episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, John Piper answers the question “Can you help me know how to cultivate beauty in my heart and in my faith in God alone?”
• Lay Aside the Weight of Irritability. Jon Bloom writes “Our irritability never has its roots in the soils of righteousness. It springs out of the soil of selfishness and springs up fast, like the sin-weed that it is. We get irritated or easily provoked, not when God’s righteousness or justice is scorned, but when something we want is being denied, delayed, or disrupted.”

• How to Evaluate Your Life for “Fillers” and “Drainers”.David and Shona Murray write “Managing our energy consumption is as important as managing our money and our time.”
• How to Help Your Children Read the Bible.David Murray writes “Earnest Christian parents want to help their children learn to read, understand, trust, and love the Bible. But most of us find this to be a significant, even daunting, challenge. The Bible is big and complex enough to intimidate adults. How do we help our children get to know the most important book ever assembled and begin to develop habits of enjoying it daily?”
• Themes (or Challenges) for Reformed Christians in 2018. Tim Challies shares three themes that he predicts will prove important for Reformed Christians in 2018.
• Tim Keller on a Biblical View of Friendship. Randy Alcorn shares this messages from Tim Keller on Proverbs 17:17.
• The Mistake Both Rich and Poor Make. On this episode of the Gospel Coalition Word of the Week, listen to this sermon from Dan Doriani on Luke 12: 13-21.
• Is Suicide the Unforgiveable Sin? Nicholas Davis writes “Suicide is certainly a sin—because it robs a person of the sanctity of life and the full time given to them by God alone. Family and friends of a believer who has committed suicide should never worry about whether their loved one is in heaven. Thankfully, even suicide is not greater than the body and blood of Jesus—broken and shed for the forgiveness of all our sins.”
• Why Falling Out of Love Never Justifies Divorce. In this episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, John Piper responds to the question “What would you say to someone who has ‘fallen out of love’ with their spouse, and why that’s no grounds for divorce?”

• Ask Ligonier: A Place for Answers. Nathan Bingham introduces “Ask Ligonier” where you can ask your questions online as they arise, confident that our team will work quickly to provide clear, concise, and trustworthy answers.
• Faith and Repentance. Sinclair Ferguson writes “Repentance and faith are two essential elements in conversion. They constitute twin graces that can never be separated. As John Calvin well reminds us, this is true not only of the beginning but of the whole of our Christian lives. We are believing penitents and penitent believers all the way to glory.”
• What is the Gospel? Robert Godfrey writes “The church needs to preach the gospel in both its broad and narrow senses. The Greek word for gospel has given the English-speaking world the word evangelism.
• The Dangers of an Oversimplified Gospel. John MacArthur writes “But the gospel is not a message that can be capsulated, abridged, shrink-wrapped, and then offered as a generic remedy for every kind of sinner.”
• The Doctrines of Grace: By His Grace and for His Glory. Steven Lawson writes “This is why the doctrines of grace are so desperately needed in our churches. They give glory to God alone. They define salvation as being all of God. When salvation is correctly perceived in this way, then—and onlythen—God receives all the glory for it. Only sola gratia produces soli Deo gloria.”
• Theocracies are Terrible. Russell Moore writes “Theocracies are terrible, because the god behind them is the root of all the horrors of the present age: a depraved humanity pretending to be divine.”
• The Intelligence of Christian Faith. Scott Sauls writes “Saturating our minds with the Bible’s truths and promises makes us wiser and builds up our ability to see God, people, the world, and ourselves with accurate clarity. As the Psalmist writes, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation” (Psalm 119:99).”
• Russell Moore on How to Teach About the Kingdom of God. In this episode of Nancy Guthrie’s helpful “Help Me Teach the Bible” podcast, she visits with Russell Moore. In their discussion, Mooreexplains what the kingdom is, how teachers often teach it wrongly, and what it may cost us to confront the comfortable with the Bible’s teaching about God’s kingdom.
• Moralism is not the Gospel (But Many Christians Think It Is).Albert Mohler writes “Far too many believers and their churches succumb to the logic of moralism and reduce the Gospel to a message of moral improvement. In other words, we communicate to lost persons the message that what God desires for them and demands of them is to get their lives straight.”

TO MAKE YOU SMILE:

• Christian Alexa: The Believer’s Alternative to the Amazon Echo.Love your echo but concerned about the unchristian media content it could be encouraging in your life? Introducing Christian Alexa: The Believer’s Alternative to the Amazon Echo!

• There is nothing more foolish than to think you have life under control when it is not controllable. Tim Keller
• It is God’s purpose that guarantees the final perseverance of the saints, the final glorification of His people. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. Charles Spurgeon
• The essential secret of godliness is Christ. Sin is precisely Christlessness; all attempts at self-improvement and moral reformation without him are sin. Only through knowing and relying on him can we become like the living God and share his vitality. Michael Reeves
• More
• America needs its next Abraham Lincoln and the closest I’ve seen in 15 years is Ben Sasse. Os Guinness
• Most heretics try to mask their heresy by using orthodox language to convey it. C. Sproul
• Real friendship happens when we move toward the people we are most tempted to avoid. Scott Sauls
• When I am afraid (not if), I put my trust in you.” Psalm 56:3. Scotty Smith
• Trials are God’s unannounced exams to see how we are doing in the school of faith. Steven Lawson