• You Are Not the Author of Your Story. Paul Tripp writes “Better than anything impressive that you could accomplish in this life, your life story is a biography of wisdom and grace written by Another.”
• The Great Reward in Thankless Service. Betsy Childs Howard writes “Once we know we’re serving the Lord rather than men and women; we can stop worrying about whether we are under-appreciated. We can stop focusing on whether our efforts enhance our image and start concentrating on how we can best meet the needs of our neighbors.”
• Bearing One Another’s Burdens. John MacArthur writes “Do you want to fulfill the moral requirements of the Law? Love your neighbor. How do you love him? By bearing his burdens.”
• Why Joni Eareckson Tada Praises God for Not Healing Her. Joni Eareckson Tada writes “For the last 50 years in my wheelchair, I’ve been daily dying to self and rising with Jesus, dying to self and rising with Jesus, dying to self and rising with Jesus. My goal is to mortify my fleshly desires, so I might find myself in Christ. God has been answering my prayer, exposing dark things in my heart, things from which I need to be healed.”

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• More interesting article links
• Cartoon of the Week
• Favorite Quotes of the Week

• Why You Should Believe in Jesus. In this short video, Ligon Duncan claims that we can believe in Jesus because he alone knows all the dark secrets we keep to ourselves and loves us anyways. Here is Kevin DeYoung on why you should believe in Jesus.
• Common Christian Myths About Happiness. Randy Alcorn writes “Let’s redeem the word happinessin light of both Scripture and church history. Our message to the world should not be “Don’t seek happiness,” but “You’ll find in Jesus the happiness you have always been seeking.”
• We’re Called to Make Disciples, Not Simply Converts. R.C. Sproul writes “When we’re involved in discipleship, we do not graduate until we get to heaven. Discipleship is a lifelong experience of learning the mind of Christ and following the will of Christ, submitting ourselves in complete obedience to His lordship.”
• The Essence of the Calvinistic Life. Sinclair Ferguson writes “The essence of the Calvinistic life is living in such a way as to glorify God.”
• How Can We Encourage Our Leaders in the Church? Elders and deacons need encouragement, too. From one of the Ask Ligonier events, Burk Parsons sets forth several practical ways we can actively support and pray for our leaders in the church.

Worldview Issues

• Would You Attend a Gay Wedding? On this episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, John Piper responds to the question “If one of your family members invited you to their so-called same-sex marriage ceremony, would you attend it?”
• From Gay to Gospel: The Fascinating Story of Becket Cook. Brett McCracken interviews Becket Cook, author of A Change of Affection: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Redemption.
• On Becoming More Christian, Not Less, In Our Politics. Scott Sauls writes “Will we be disciples of a partisan platform, or will we be disciples of Jesus, who is King of kings and whose kingdom is not of this world? I pray it will be the latter, not the former.”

Theology

• Hell Is Not Separation from God. Michael Horton writes “Hell is not ultimately about fire, but about God. Whatever the exact nature of the physical punishments, the real terror awaiting the unrepentant is God himself and his inescapable presence forever with his face turned against them.”
• Does Prayer Change God’s Mind?C. Sproul writes “All that God does is for His glory first and for our benefit second. We pray because God commands us to pray, because it glorifies Him, and because it benefits us.”
• Why John Piper Abominates the Prosperity Gospel. In this six-minute video, John Piper offers five reasons why the prosperity gospel does great damage to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Deep Theology. Sinclair Ferguson writes “To be united to Christ is to share in a union created by the indwelling of the Spirit of the incarnate Son who Himself is “in” the Father as the Father is “in” Him. Union with Christ means nothing less than fellowship with all three persons of the Trinity.”
• What is the Lord’s Supper? Keith Mathison writes “It is not possible to fully grasp the Reformed doctrine of the Lord’s Supper without some understanding of the doctrines of God, Scripture, sin, salvation, the incarnation, the church, and more.”
• What Sermons Changed John Piper’s and H. B. Charles’s Lives? Both H. B. Charles and John Piper are skilled and experienced preachers, but they trust in the sharpness of God’s Word rather than their own swordsmanship. That fact comes through in this seven-minute video as they discuss the sermons that have shaped their lives.
• Romans in 40 Minutes. At the 2019 Shepherd’s Conference, the Banner of Truth met with divinity students with the goal of encouraging them in their studies for the ministry. Sinclair Ferguson spoke on “Romans in 40 Minutes”, and the students enjoyed some fellowship.

• Does the Bible Have Errors?   R.C. Sproul writes “The idea that God errs in any way, in any place, or in any endeavor is repugnant to the mind as well as the soul. Here, biblical criticism reaches the nadir of biblical vandalism.”
• Were the Old Testament Saints Indwelt with the Holy Spirit? Did the Holy Spirit indwell the saints prior to Pentecost? Watch this short video from one of Ligonier’s Ask C.events, R.C. Sproul surveys the Scriptures to show how the Spirit has influenced the hearts of God’s people from the beginning.
• Is It True That God “Loves the Sinner but Hates the Sin”? We don’t do people any favors when we downplay the wrath of God. From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Stephen Nichols explains that people must understand the seriousness of sin in order to understand their need for the Savior.
• What Is the Best Way to Describe Repentance to an Unbeliever? From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Sinclair Ferguson helps us explain the concept of repentance to our unbelieving friends.
• Can Loved Ones in Heaven Look Down on Me? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper addresses the question “Can people who are in heaven look down and see us (their loved ones) on earth?”
• How Do I Cultivate a Renewed Mind? From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Burk Parsons urges us to attend to the ordinary means of grace in our pursuit of spiritual maturity.
• Can You Disagree with Infant Baptism and Still Be Reformed? From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Stephen Nichols discusses the doctrines that unite Reformed Baptists and Reformed Presbyterians.

Apostasy

• 9 Steps Toward Apostasy. George Alvarado shares these 9 progressive steps from John Bunyan’s novel Pilgrim’s Progress of what it looks like someone is falling away from the faith.
• Apostasy and How it Happens. Sinclair Ferguson writes “Yes, apostasy happens. Sometimes the catalyst is flagrant sin. The pain of conviction and repentance is refused, and the only alternative to it is wholesale rejection of Christ. But sometimes the catalyst is a thorn growing quietly in the heart, an indifference to the way of the cross, a drifting that is not reversed by the knowledge of biblical warnings.”

• Drive a fresh nail into your choice sin every day. Rosaria Butterfield
• No sin in the history of the world will go unpunished. It will either be punished in Christ or punished in hell. Steven Lawson
• Prayer gives us relief from the melancholy burden of self-absorption. Tim Keller
• You can tell your faith is real if when the Holy Spirit pricks your conscience you bleed repentance. Burk Parsons
• In the culture of pluralism, the chief virtue is tolerance. The only thing that cannot be tolerated is a claim to exclusivity. R.C. Sproul
• We don’t want a King. We want a consultant in the person of Jesus to advise us as we order our lives. Tim Keller
• Redemption is not Jesus trying to win from a reluctant Father a love that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Derek Thomas
• Not one drop of rain falls without God’s sure command. John Calvin
• Abortion is government approved murder for those inconvenienced by their children. Burk Parsons