- 5 Foundations That Lead to Compromise on Sexual Ethics. Brett McCracken writes “In the landscape of contemporary Western Christianity, most roads away from orthodox faith travel through an increasingly populous pit stop called “LGBTQ+ affirming.” It’s a stop that doesn’t just change the route; it reconfigures the whole map.”
- Identity Politics and the Death of Christian Unity. Jonathan Leeman spoke on this topic at the 2020 Together for the Gospel Conference. Watch his breakout session. You can also follow along with his outline, or read his manuscript.
- Dogma Drives the Christian Life. Carl Trueman writes “One thing, though, is certain: The days when Christians could be both respected by their society and faithful to their beliefs are drawing rapidly to a close.”
- Netflix’s ‘Pray Away’ Seethes with Contempt for Christianity. Becket Cook writes “Netflix’s latest original documentary, Pray Away—about the reparative therapy organization Exodus International—is yet another thinly veiled attack on Christianity by Hollywood.”
- The FAQs: What You Should Know About COVID Variants. Joe Carter writes “New variants of COVID are leading to some of the worst outbreaks since the start of the pandemic. Countries in Southeast Asia are seeing rapid rises in case numbers and deaths. The Delta variant is also causing outbreaks throughout the United States, especially in states such as Arkansas, Missouri, and Nevada, which have low vaccination rates.”
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
- More interesting article links
- Favorite Quotes of the Week
- We Read the Bible to Commune with God. John Piper writes “Communion with God is the end for which we were created.”
- Fighting Fear and Anxiety. Keith Mathison writes “Those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, however, have nothing to fear from man, or from anything else for that matter. Those who trust Christ have nothing to fear from hurricanes, diseases, economic collapse, war, famine, or even death.”
- Before You Share Your Faith! How to Be ‘Evangelism Ready’. Are you ready to tell someone about Jesus? How can you be prepared? In this highly practical short talk, Matt Smethurst outlines seven tips for becoming “evangelism ready.”
- What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord? Scripture teaches that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” ( 9:10). But what does it mean to fear God? From one of the Ask Ligonier events, John MacArthur addresses the centrality of this fear in the life of a Christian.
- If We Read Our Bibles, Why Do We Need Sermons? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Why listen to sermons if we all have the Bible to read on our own now?”
- Can People Affect When They or Others are Regenerated? We are just as unable to change the timing of our spiritual birth as we were in affecting our physical birth. From the 2021 Ligonier National Conference, Steven Lawson observes that regeneration is a sovereign work of God, and all glory belongs to Him in our conversion.
- How Do We Pray in the Spirit? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Can you teach me to ‘pray in the Spirit’? Paul and Jude call us to this. So, what does that look like? Can you distinguish what it looks like to pray in the Spirit from what it would mean to pray out of the Spirit?”
- What Advice Do You Have for Interpreting Scripture Correctly? What is one step we can take to help us interpret the Bible correctly? From one of the Ask Ligonier events, Robert Godfrey advises Christians to be mindful of the context that surrounds a passage of Scripture.
- Are Legalism and Antinomianism Opposites? How are legalism and antinomianism similar? What is the solution to both errors? In this video, Sinclair Ferguson explains the origin of these errors and the solution.
- Putting Together a Christ-Centered Bible Talk. In this workshop session, recorded live at The Gospel Coalition’s 2021 National Conference, Nancy Guthrie takes listeners through the process of preparing to teach the Bible—including prayer, looking at the context, determining the structure of the passage, composing an aim, creating an outline, getting to the gospel, developing applications, and coming up with an introduction and conclusion. She then applies each of these tasks to putting together a talk on Numbers 6:22–27.
- The Now-and-Forever Kingdom of God. Watch “Kingdom Matters”, a session taught by Paige Benton Brown at The Gospel Coalition’s 2021 Women’s Conference.
Other Links of Interest
- Every Moment Holy App. An iPhone app, featuring liturgies for daily moments from Douglas McKelvey’s excellent Every Moment Holy book was recently made available. It’s available in an iOS version only for now, and hopefully Android sometime next year.
- They lose nothing who gain Christ. Samuel Rutherford
- Weekly, normative, ordinary means of grace gathered worship is one of the more extraordinary things in the world. Burk Parsons
- Remember this in the face of the failure of others. The cross levels the playing field. We are all the same, sinners in desperate need of forgiveness. Paul Tripp
- Christians need to be neither quick to criticize nor afraid to confront. Tim Keller
- If Christ is the solid rock on which you stand, you don’t have to be constantly worrying about sinking sand. Paul Tripp
- Generally speaking, those areas in our character about which we become most defensive are also the areas that need the most work. Scott Sauls
- The most crucial mark of a Christian is humility. Burk Parsons
- I want people to love the Lord, not just for what He does for them, but for who He is. R.C. Sproul
- Relationships are costly. Whatever it will cost you to be with God is nothing compared to what it cost Him to be with you. Tim Keller
