- Christians Must Resist Assisted Suicide. Local pastor Andy Huette writes “Yet in the fog of sorrow and difficult decisions, Christians should resist the cultural tide of euthanasia that undermines the value of human life. Instead, we should value God’s gift of life even amid suffering.”
- If God Is Sovereign, Why Bother to Share Your Faith? Timothy Witmer writes “God has ordained not only the end but the means to that end. He has ordained not only whowill be saved but how they will be saved.”
- Find Sabbath Rest as a Family. Steve Eatmon writes “So how can families create space for rest? From one busy parent to another, here are four tips to create margin for rest in this wild season of life.”
- I Don’t Have an LGBTQ Neighbor – And Neither Do You. Rosaria Butterfield writes “If we think we have gay neighbors, we are making the kind of category mistake that weakens our prayers, discourages our hope, and tacitly condemns our loved ones to slavery to sin. Without intending such harm, we replace the power of God’s justifying work in the lives of His people and our participation in God’s sanctifying power with the man-made category of personhood called “Sexual Orientation.” It’s one or the other.”
- Comfort for Those Grieving a Pet or Preparing to Say Goodbye to One. Randy Alcorn writes “Sometimes the best stewardship is relieving our pets’ suffering. It helps me knowing they have a Master in Heaven who loves them. When an animal is clearly suffering with no hope, we need to do the hard but necessary thing. Our pets trust us to act in their best interest. We should trust God the same way.”
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- Favorite Quotes of the Week
- How Should We Respond to People Who Claim That They Have Received Direct Special Revelation? How should we respond when someone claims that God has spoken to them directly? Joel Kim considers the nature of special revelation and how Christians can test such claims against God’s Word.
- How Should a Christian Deal With Depression? How can Christians deal with depression? Michael Reeves looks to the lives of Martin Luther and Charles Spurgeon to help us understand how the Lord uses suffering to shape us into Christ’s likeness.
- How Can I Stay Spiritually Healthy in Seminary? In this video, Michael Reeves explains how seminary students can cultivate both a mind and affections for God.
- Life Guidance for Sinners. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Considering David’s confession of sin throughout Psalm 25, how does acknowledging our ongoing sinfulness help us find God’s guidance more effectively, rather than making us feel more disqualified for it?”
- The Hardest Heart God Can Save. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “I’ve been wrestling with something in my Bible-study group that’s got me confused. We were going through Romans 1:24–28, where Paul talks about God giving ‘them up to dishonorable passions’ and to debased minds. My question is about the timing here. Did God harden their hearts first as some kind of judgment, and then abandon them to their sin? Or were these people already rebellious and hard-hearted, and God just removed his restraining hand from them? I’m trying to understand whether God’s ‘giving up’ is what causes the spiritual hardness, or if it’s more like him stepping back from people who were already choosing rebellion.”
- Are the Ten Commandments Still Relevant for Christians? In this video, J.V. Fesko describes how the Ten Commandments are still relevant for the Christian today.
- How to Share Your Faith Even If You’re Uncomfortable with Making People Uncomfortable. Rosaria Butterfield writes “For the people who tend to be more timid or maybe uncomfortable with the thought of making other people uncomfortable, how do you share the gospel? Here are a couple of things I would strongly recommend.”
- Aging With Joy. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “What would you say to someone who is terrified of aging and who feels increasingly useless as their strength fades, or panicked about death, even though they believe in heaven? That is my struggle. How can an older Christian finish their life not with fear or bitterness, but with joy, dignity, and hope in Christ?”
- Regretting the Day I Was Born. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Chronic illness often makes me question God’s love to me. In Jeremiah 20:14, the prophet himself cries out, ‘Cursed be the day on which I was born!’ Is such raw lament even permissible for the believer, or is this blasphemous? I’ve felt this same thought bubble up in my mind and heart, but I’m afraid to voice it. It seems greatly dishonoring to the Creator to wish to have never existed. How can I honestly express deep sorrow without doubting his goodness? Does lament deepen faith, or does it risk leading me into unbelief? I long to grieve faithfully but feel lost in the tension between pain and trust.”
- What Does It Mean for Christians to Fear the Lord? What does it mean for Christians to fear the Lord? In this video, Michael Reeves offers a biblical definition of the fear of the Lord.
- The Gospel of Gorgeous. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “What would you say to a young man or woman who feels embarrassed by biblical roles, like submission in marriage or male leadership in the church? I love Jesus, but I also feel a lot of pressure from other Christians in my life to ‘outgrow’ these ideas about roles. But I see them in the Bible. And although I see them, I don’t feel them as good things. Does that make sense? So, how can I learn to not only accept, but happily embrace, the goodness of being made female?”
- Morality may keep you out of jail but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell. Charles Spurgeon
- Suffering is not an obstacle to God’s purpose but a means to achieving it. Sinclair Ferguson
- The future is a series of small decisions to live the new life and not to fall back into the old. Sinclair Ferguson
- Prayer must not be our intermittent work but our daily business, our habit and vocation. Charles Spurgeon
- Christian faith is not a negotiation but a surrender…[And] our greatest motive for surrendering to him cannot be for what he will do in us. It must be to love him for what he did for us. Tim Keller
- Since I know Jesus bled for little sins, I cannot wound his heart by indulging in them. Charles Spurgeon
- It is not essential in this life that we know how to explain the way God’s sovereignty and our responsibility fit together. It is enough to know that they do. John Piper
- It is the most powerful form of prayer, just to set our case before God, just to lay bare all our sorrow and all our needs and then say, “Lord, there it is.” Charles Spurgeon
- The next time you are approaching a conversation you anticipate being difficult, take time to pray for the person with whom you disagree. Get your heart into a place where you genuinely wish them well. Pray earnest blessings on them. Gavin Ortlund
