- The Life of Telling Your Truth. Rosaria Butterfield writes “Days such as ours call for bold proclamations of the truth in both the church and the public sphere. We must be willing to risk our reputations with our unsaved neighbors for the sake of their souls.”
- 4 Right Responses to Suffering. Randy Alcorn writes “When suffering and evil come our way, they’ll exert a force that either pushes us away from God or pulls us toward Him.”
- Let’s Uncomplicate What Spiritual Formation Looks Like. In this video, Matthew Bingham, author of A Heart Aflame for God, states “I think sometimes we overcomplicate the spiritual formation question. I think some of the literature that’s out there today perhaps does this with good intentions.”
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- Favorite Quotes of the Week
- Defeating Daily Anxiety. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the questions summarized as “As a woman in my mid-twenties, I feel the constant weight of anxiety. How can someone like me cultivate peace, sanity, and spiritual steadiness in a world that seems to be driving me into a state of relentless hyper-anxiety? What practical steps minimize the nerves I feel every day in order to live like how a daughter of the sovereign King should?”
- Preaching Outrage. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question that can be summarized “How do I expose the darkness of the world without letting it contaminate my own soul or turning my church into just another conservative grievance club?”
- Zeal for God Gone Wrong. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “How do we guard ourselves against the self-deception of believing we are serving God passionately — even doing big things for him — when in reality our zeal is just performative, half-hearted, or driven by something other than true love for him?”
- If God is Sovereign, Why Should I Pray? Kevin DeYoung responds to a question about God’s sovereignty and the purpose of prayer.
- Why God’s Protection Still Hurts. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the questions “Can you explain Psalm 121 to me? It boldly declares to us that we have God’s protective care: ‘He who keeps you will not slumber. . . . The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.’ That’s in verses 3 and 7. Yet many believers still experience suffering, danger, and hardships. Does ‘The Lord is your keeper. . . . The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night’ in verses 5 and 6 mean we will never face harm or loss? Or does this psalm offer deeper assurances?”
- Sovereignty and My Murdered Friend. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the questions “I’m a high school student. A girl who was my close teammate and her mother were recently brutally murdered. People say this was ‘her time’ or ‘God’s will,’ but I don’t understand how this can be true. The murderer’s actions were obviously sinful, violating God’s commands like ‘You shall not murder’ (Exodus 20:13). If their choices were evil, how could this tragedy be God’s plan? How does God’s sovereign will operate alongside human sin, especially when it leads to such profound suffering? How can I reconcile this and turn to the Lord for comfort and understanding in my grief?”
- Let the Psalms Teach You to Pray. In this message recorded at the 2016 Gospel Coalition Women’s Conference, Tim Keller explores the concept of friendship with God as taught in the psalms. He highlights five ways Scripture teach us to cultivate God’s friendship. No other religion offers friendship with God or the chance to be truly human through knowing the ultimate friend, Jesus.
- TGC 27’ Church Conference. The 2027 Gospel Coalition Church Conference (formerly known as their National Conference) will be held April 5-7 in Indianapolis. This is an excellent conference that we have attended and enjoyed a few times. Indianapolis is a great location for a conference, with many hotels and restaurants within walking distance of the convention center. Featured keynote and breakout speakers will include John Piper, Kevin DeYoung, Ligon Duncan. Wes Huff, H.B. Charles, Jr., Jen Wilkin, and many more. The theme will be “The Power to Persevere: Revelation’s Letters to the 7 Churches”.
- Five Points in My Pain: How God’s Sovereignty Comforts Me. Joni Eareckson Tada writes “How is it that I am consoled by the doctrine of God’s absolute dominion over every moment of my pain and paralysis? Why would I even encourage Christians to view God’s providence as the ultimate source of great comfort? The answers are found in the doctrines of grace, those treasured canons of our faith that extol God’s sovereignty in our salvation past, present, and future.”
- 1 Christianity Expert: If You DON’T Believe In a God You NEED to Hear This! “Bible sales are soaring, and the world’s leading thinkers are quietly returning to faith. Oxford mathematician and Christian apologist John Lennox explains why the race to “solve death” is 2,000 years too late, why no machine can ever replicate human consciousness, what AI reveals about God, and what it truly means to be human in a world where artificial intelligence can do almost everything we can.”
- No man preaches that sermon well to others, who doth not first preach it to his own heart. John Owen
- The gospel, because it is a true story, means all the best stories will be proved, in the ultimate sense, true. Tim Keller
- We know our best days are all ahead of us. We know that death isn’t the end of the best time of our life; it’s the start of it. Alistair Begg
- Two of the rarest sights are a young man who is humble and an old man who is content. J.C. Ryle
- Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. John Wooden
- The visible church is where you will find Christ’s kingdom on earth, and to disregard the kingdom is to disregard its King. Michael Horton
- The true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. Tim Keller
- Knowing God is your single greatest privilege as a Christian. Sinclair Ferguson
- We may never know the treacherous journey people have taken to land in the pew next to us. Rosaria Butterfield
