• Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Be a Christian in 2023. Joe Carter writes “The 2023 World Watch Listreveals persecution is extremely high in many countries, but nowhere as severe as North Korea, which has moved back to the top of the list of the most dangerous countries to be a Christian.”

• The Crushing Obligation to Keep Doing More and More. Kevin DeYoung writes “Surely there are many Christians who are terribly busy because they sincerely want to be obedient to God.”
• Leave the Throne of Guilt: Three Better Reasons to Pray. Scotty Smith writes “Moving on from guilt and fear, I now focus on three callings that have radically transformed how I engage in prayer.” Subscribe to receive Scotty’s daily Heavenward prayers each morning.
• 5 Keys to a Great Marriage. Thankful that one of my articles was published in Christian Grandfather Magazine.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:

• More interesting article links
• Favorite Quotes of the Week

• How Can I Have a Good Conscience? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “How can I live with a good conscience?” 
• How Can I Talk About the Existence of God with Someone who Refuses to Listen to the Bible? Is there a way that Christians can talk about the existence of God with people who shut down the conversation every time we mention the Bible? From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Stephen Nichols shows how classical apologetics can help us here.
• What are Some of the Greatest Challenges Facing the Church Today? From one of Ligonier’s live events, Steven Lawson, Burk Parsons, and Stephen Nichols discuss the creeping influence of worldliness and issue a call to hold fast to God’s Word.
• What Does it Mean to Present our Bodies as a Living Sacrifice to God? In Romans 12:1, Paul instructs Christians to glorify God with their bodies. From Ligonier’s 2022 National Conference, Harry Reeder teaches on the scriptural context of this passage and its application for our lives.
• Can I Really Trust My Interpretation of the Bible? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Paul tells us ‘the law is good, if one uses it lawfully.’ That’s 1 Timothy 1:8. So the Bible is good if one uses the Bible biblically. So how can I know if I’m using my Bible biblically or using the law rightly?”
• What Was God Doing Before Creation? Can we know what God was doing before He created the world? From Ligonier’s 2022 National Conference, Michael Reeves explores Scripture’s remarkable answer to this question.
• Can We Add to God’s Word? John MacArthur writes “The truth is there is no fresher or more intimate revelation than Scripture. God doesn’t need to give us private revelation to help us in our walk with Him.”

• Ask Anything Tour with Albert Mohler. Albert Mohler’s Ask Anything Tour recently visited First Baptist Church Jacksonville.
• Ask Ligonier Live with Sinclair Ferguson. On January 19, Sinclair Ferguson joined Nathan Bingham on Ask Ligonier Live to answer biblical and theological questions.
• Introducing The Reactivity Podcast with Paul Tripp. In the new Reactivitypodcast, Paul Tripp instructs believers to view digital media and technology through the lens of the gospel and points them toward a biblical framework for communication. Explaining how God wants the church to engage with culture and each other, Tripp encourages Christians to think wisely about their interactions and be a beacon of light in an age of toxicity.

• Sports Spectrum Podcast with Tommy Edman. On this episode of the Sports Spectrum Podcast, Jason Romano visits with St. Louis Cardinal Tommy Edman about his journey with Christ, the impact teammates in St. Louis have had on his faith, being a switch-hitter, and how he approaches the highs and lows of a long major league baseball season.
• Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast: Tim Keller. On this episode of the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast, Carey talks to Tim Keller about the decline of the mainline and evangelical church, how forgiveness and justice get mishandled during pastoral moral failures, the threat to liberal democracy, civil dialogue and how nominal Christianity created consensus.
• Villainous Christianity in ‘The Whale,’ ‘The Wonder,’ and ‘Women Talking’. Brett McCracken looks at three 2022 films – The Whale, The Wonder and Women Talking – that wrestle with faith and depict Christians largely negatively. Though their emphases are slightly different, the three films share an overall view that institutional Christianity is an oppressive system from which victims must be liberated.

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• We are righteous by virtue of God’s imputing to us the righteousness of Christ. R.C. Sproul
• We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. C.S. Lewis
• One man with God on his side is in the majority. Charles Spurgeon
• He who has Christ has all he needs and needs no more. Jonathan Edwards
• When our lives are united to Christ through faith, we have the assurance that our best days are always ahead of us and never behind us. Scott Sauls
• Christ went more readily to the cross than we do to the throne of grace. Thomas Watson
• Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God. Martin Luther
• The more you trust him, the better you will love him. John Newton
• Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. C.S. Lewis