• Is it Wrong to Have Sex Before Marriage? Kevin DeYoung writes “Sex before marriage, even for many Christians, has lost any sense of stigma.”
• Luther’s Advice for the Christian Life. Sinclair Ferguson writes “For Luther, the Christian life is a gospel-grounded, gospel-built, gospel-magnifying life that exhibits the free and sovereign grace of God and is lived out in gratitude to the Savior who died for us, yoked to Him in cross-bearing until death is swallowed up in victory and faith becomes sight.”
• Unpacking “Love is Love”. Rosaria Butterfield writes “Because the visible church is apparently slumbering, the slogan “Love is love” has allowed Satan to drag us to Babylon by the nose. It’s high time for a wake-up call.”

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:

• More interesting article links
• Favorite Quotes of the Week

• Is it Sinful to be Unhappy? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “I have greatly appreciated your emphasis on joy in the Christian life. Indeed, the psalmist tells us to ‘rejoice always.’ Paul describes himself as ‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.’ Since the Bible commands us to have joy in God, are we in sin to the degree that we lack joy? Or could our lack of joy sometimes be the result of sin, but not a sin in itself?”
• How Does Reformed Theology View the Future of Israel Compared to Dispensationalism? How does Reformed theology understand the future of Israel? And how does this view compare to the theology of dispensationalism? From one of Ligonier’s live events, Derek Thomas and Stephen Nichols discuss God’s great plan of salvation.
• Should Christians be Afraid of Passages like Matthew 24:13? Matthew 24:13 says that “the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Should Christians be afraid of this passage? From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Sinclair Ferguson helps us understand the purpose of such verses.
• Can Pro-Life Advocates Lie to Save Lives? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Is it permissible to intentionally scare and manipulate mothers with untrue doctrine if it increases the likelihood that a baby will live?”
• Why Do We Celebrate on Reformation Day? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to a question summarized as “As you honor the enduring legacy of the Reformation, what’s your primary cause for celebration?”
• What Advice Would You Give to a Newly Married Couple? From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Sinclair Ferguson shares wisdom and encouragement for newlyweds.
• Is My Painting Hobby a Wartime Waste? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “What guidelines can you offer us wartime Christians to discern when hobbies are God-glorifying and when they become life-wasting?”

• Download the Free Ligonier App. My favorite app is from Ligonier. It is filled with thousands of discipleship resources that you can read, watch, and listen to anytime. Updates to the app include a search feature and all of Ligonier’s podcasts.
• Now Available: 50+ Hours of TGC23 Conference Sessions. My wife Tammy and I enjoyed the recent 2023 Gospel Coalition National Conference in Indianapolis. The theme of the conference was “Hope in the Wilderness”. You can now stream the eight keynote sessions and more than thirty microevents.
• Ask Ligonier with Stephen Nichols. Recently, Stephen Nichols joined Nathan Bingham to answer biblical and theological questions. You can watch that event again or for the first time.

• Vertical Victory Art. Check out the website of my friend Kirk Billiter’s art – Vertical Victory Art. Kirk writes “Creating art is my passion and my calling, one that I owe entirely to the transformative power of God’s love.”

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• One of the main reasons that we trust God too little is because we trust our own wisdom too much. We think we know far better than God how our lives should go and what will make us happy. Tim Keller
• Nothing could more delight the Lord Jesus than that we should give our sins and ourselves to him. Sinclair Ferguson
• Prayer is the daily surrender of our perceived control over lives. Burk Parsons
• Our robes will be white because his robes were red. Charles Spurgeon
• When the church is found to be faithful, it is always found praying. Albert Mohler
• The glory of the gospel is the great exchange at the cross. All our sins were transferred to Christ, and His righteousness was credited to us. Steven Lawson
• Weekly, normative, ordinary means of grace gathered worship is one of the more extraordinary and radical things in the world. Burk Parsons
• Culture is never so bad that it can’t be redeemed, nor so good that it can’t be critiqued. Tim Keller
• The most crucial mark of a Christian is humility. Humility is the foundation of all other virtues. Burk Parsons