• A Reason to Be Vaccinated: Freedom. John Piper writes “My aim in this article is to encourage Christians to be vaccinated, if they can do so with a good conscience and judicious medical warrant.”
• Why Your Employer Can Deny Your ‘Religious’ Vaccine Exemption. John Melcon writes “I’m not arguing Christians should be vaccinated, or that Christians should necessarily acquiesce to employer vaccine mandates. I’m only arguing Christians shouldn’t demand religious exemptions if they choose not to be vaccinated.”

• Why You Must Leverage Your Self-Despair. Dane Ortlund writes “Repentance is turning from Self. Faith is turning to Jesus. You can’t have one without the other.”
• When You’re Overwhelmed with Prayer Needs. Kevin Halloran shares six suggestions on how we can persevere as intercessors and not let the weight of the world’s problems crush us.
• Grief Is Not an Enemy of Faith. Trevin Wax writes “You can cry, to the glory of God. You should never feel guilty for doing something Jesus did. Grief is an appropriate response to loss.”
• How Gentleness Raises Us Above Cancel Culture. Listen to Scott Sauls’ session at the 2021 The Gospel Coalition National Conference titled “Rising Above Cancel Culture with the Fruit of Gentleness.”

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:

• More interesting article links
• Favorite Quotes of the Week

• Reckoning With the Message of Job. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper answers a question from a father who writes in part, “My 14-year-old daughter read through the book of Job for the first time this year, and she is really struggling with how God is portrayed in that book.”
• Is Church Membership Necessary? Active participation in a local church is not a luxury for Christians; it’s a necessity. From one of the Ask Ligonier events, Stephen Nichols speaks on the importance of church membership.
• Would I Trust Christ More If I Had Seen Him? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Wouldn’t it have been better to have lived in a generation that could have seen Christ with our own eyes — to know him face to face?”
• What Would You Say to Someone Who is Not a Christian? If you had only a few moments to share the truth with someone who is not a Christian, what would you say? From one of the Ask Ligonier events, Steven Lawson presents the gospel, calling listeners to trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
• Is Stress Making Me More Holy or More Sinful? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Since becoming a mom, I have found myself battling sin like never before. New sins that I never recall struggling with are popping up, seemingly out of nowhere, especially in this season with a 2-year-old and a newborn. My desire is to be a wife and mother to the glory of God, but I feel I have never been further away from this goal. Are these new pressures of motherhood sanctifying me or making me more unholy? And how can I tell the difference? Because I often feel as though I am becoming more unholy by them.”
• Since Abraham Was Circumcised After Having Faith, Why Do We Baptize Infants Before They Show Faith? Since Abraham received the covenant sign of circumcision after having faith, why do infants receive the sign of baptism before they show faith? From one of the Ask Ligonier events, Sinclair Ferguson explains how baptism relates to God’s promise and our faith.

• Our Most Destructive Assumption About Heaven. Randy Alcorn writes “If I could eliminate one belief about Heaven, it would be the heresy that the physical world is an enemy of God’s redemptive plan rather than a central part of it.”
• Luther’s Advice for the Christian Life. Sinclair Ferguson shares Martin Luther’s four implications for living the Christian life for the doctrines of the sovereignty of God, salvation by grace, justification by faith, and new life in union with Christ.
• The Decline and Renewal of the American Church: Part 1 – The Decline of the Mainline. In the first of a four-part series, Tim Keller writes about how the American church came to be in decline and what a way forward could look like.

• Providence, Power, and Destiny: Winston Churchill and Christian Belief — A Conversation with Gary Scott Smith. Gary Scott Smith is the retired chair of the history department at Grove City College. He currently serves as a research fellow for the Institute for Faith and Freedom. His most recent book, Duty and Destiny: The Life and Faith of Winston Churchill, is the topic of this episode of the Thinking in Public podcast with Albert Mohler.
• Oliver Marmol Named Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Organization He Joined Years Ago After Trusting God. Cole Claybourn writes “His journey with the Cardinals started all the way back in 2007, and it was a decision to put his faith and trust in God that led him there.”

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• Whatever circumstance you are in, the one who called you there is there with you, controlling, guiding, protecting, comforting, convicting, encouraging and providing. Paul Tripp
• Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can. Jonathan Edwards
• The chief purpose of prayer is not to bend God‘s will to ours, but to bend our will to his. Scott Sauls
• We have no idea of our legacy until the Lord says ‘well done.’ Os Guinness 
• The heart of prayer is not communicating your needs, but rather submitting your soul to the wisdom, power, love and rule of your Heavenly Father. Paul Tripp
• In the end, we love people into belief. We do not argue them into belief. Tim Keller
• In mundane everyday moments we should remind ourselves that God is with us even in the smallest, seemingly unimportant moments, fulfilling his promises and advancing his work of grace. Paul Tripp
• The older I get, the more I want to sing my faith and get others singing with me. Theology is for doxology. Theologies that cannot be sung (or prayed for that matter), are certainly wrong at a deep level. I. Packer
• At the cross, Jesus wore our filthy rags of sin so that we could be dressed in His spotless robes of righteousness. Steven Lawson