Blogs

William Ames’ Exhortation to Students of Theology | Danny Hyde, Meet the Puritans
“Since theological seminaries have recently held graduations and a new class of students will soon enter, I thought it would be a fun exercise to write a post on ‘the learned Doctor’ William Ames’ advice to theological students. ”

The Counterintuitive Appeal of Christian Morality in a 21st-Century World | Trevin Wax, TGC
“As the Sexual Revolution wreaks havoc in the lives of people around us, we have the opportunity to proclaim the Scripture’s moral clarity–not as a barrier to the faith, but as the beacon of light in a morally chaotic world.”

Eight Time Drainers of Pastors and Staff (and Seven Solutions) | Thom S. Rainer
“What if I told you I could help you get 10 or more hours of your week back? That’s like having an extra three weeks a year. In order to make this quest a reality, let’s look at some of the greatest time drainers of pastors and staff, with suggestions about improving each of them.”

My Friend Was Like Grass | Jon Bloom, Desiring God
“A day is coming when we will know the epic story of this quiet, grass-like man has always been far more thrilling than the best novels and the greatest films. We will marvel at our former dullness, having ever considered such a thing ordinary.”

The FAQs: Supreme Court Rules on Texas Abortion Case | Joe Carter, TGC
“In one of the most significant rulings on abortion in decades, the Supreme Court ruled on Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt in a 5-3 decision to overturn state laws designed to regulate abortion clinics in a way that would protect women’s health.”

Abortion Forever | Rod Dreher, The American Conservative
“The bottom line, it seems to me, is that the Supreme Court will never let any state restriction stand meaningfully in the way of the Sexual Revolution. Ever. No federalism, no democracy, not when it comes to defending the Sexual Revolution.”

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

The Pastor and Counseling: The Basics of Shepherding Members in Need by Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju ($3.99)

Pursuing Peace: A Christian Guide to Handling Our Conflicts by Robert D. Jones ($2.99)

Love Your Enemies: Jesus’ Love Command in the Synoptic Gospels and the Early Christian Paraenesis by John Piper ($2.99)

Boundaries in Marriage by Henry Cloud and John Townsend ($1.99)

America the Strong: Conservative Ideas to Spark the Next Generation by William J. Bennett and John T. E. Cribb ($3.99)

I’m devoting the next few weeks to working on a project that’s going to demand most of my mental energy. So apart from the usual Mon-Fri Checkout which will continue, I won’t be writing an additional daily article. Instead, I’m going to post a series of daily devotionals on Hosea that I wrote a few years ago.

I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. (Hosea 2:15)

Vineyards in the wilderness? A door of hope in the desert of despair? Achor means “trouble” and was so named because Achan’s idolatrous greed there resulted in the “trouble” of defeat for Israel, and the trouble of “execution” for Achan and his family (Joshua 7:24-26).

Achan’s sin was a challenge to Israel. How would they react? Would they trace their defeat to sin? And how would they deal with it when they found it?

By searching out the sin in their midst, and by dealing with it so decisively and comprehensively, they found a door of hope to lead them out of Trouble Valley. But they only found the door because God gave them the door; their repentance was God’s gift. This is what God promises the greedy and idolatrous Israel of Hosea’s day also. In the desert darkness of foreign exile, God would give them the refreshing wine of repentance and the enlightening hope of forgiveness. What mercy and grace!

Perhaps idolatry and greed have got the better of you, and you lie defeated and despairing in Trouble Valley. The Lord is troubling your health, your family, your work, or your church. Thus the divine gauntlet is laid down, and the divine challenge is posed. What will you do? Will you trace your trouble to your sin?

And, if you have found the cause of your trouble, are you dealing with it decisively and comprehensively? Are you “stoning” it and its ungodly associates to death? If so, then God is opening a door of hope in your Trouble Valley.

Perhaps the door has only opened a little, but it is enough to encourage you to persevere in your sin-stoning work. And, as each stone of repentance strikes the evil hidden in your heart, the door of hope creaks open more and more, until the light of God’s love and favor floods in, and you begin to hope once again in His mercy. Hallelujah! God has given you the valley of Achor for a door of hope.

Praise God for Christ, the Giver of door-opening hope in the valley of Achor. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

Blogs

3 Reasons why American Evangelicals Should Care About Brexit | Bruce Ashford
This is a good brief analysis with #3 being particularly on point.

Seven Lessons from Europe | Desiring God
Turning from the politics of Europe to the Kingdom of God in Europe, John Piper reflects on spiritual lessons learned during his recent teaching tour in Poland, Switzerland, and Italy.

Singing Scripture is really good for you
Three benefits of singing Psalms.

Seven Things Google Tells Us About Evangelism in the US | Thom Rainer
The rapidly declining incidence of searches for evangelism on Google probably reveals a declining incidence of evangelism, prompting Thom Rainer to say: ”I wish we could have a rule in churches that you can’t say anything critically until you have shared the gospel with someone. It would be a great source of church unity.”

Ugly Stain, Beautiful Hope: My Response to Mika Edmondson
Al Mohler responds to Dr. Mica Edmondson’s address: “Is Black Lives Matter the New Civil Rights Movement?” 

The Cost of Saying Yes | Dr. Stephen R. Graves
Say “No” more to  keep your promises more.

Every “yes” carries a cost. We usually think that “no” carries the big cost, but a “yes” can even be more expensive than a “no.”

Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure | HBR
Rest more to produce more:

“Research has found that there is a direct correlation between lack of recovery and increased incidence of health and safety problems. And lack of recovery — whether by disrupting sleep with thoughts of work or having continuous cognitive arousal by watching our phones — is costing our companies $62 billion a year (that’s billion, not million) in lost productivity.”

Exercise Triggers Brain Cell Growth and Improves Memory | The Telegraph
Exercise more to remember more:

“For several years, researchers have noticed that aerobic exercise, of the kind which gets the heart pumping, also appears to improve memory and learning. But nobody knew how. Now researchers at the National Institute on Ageing in the US have discovered that when muscles exercise they produce a protein called cathepsin B which travels to the brain and triggers neuron growth.”

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

 Incomparable: Explorations in the Character of God by Andrew Wilson $0.99.

Bringing up Boys by James Dobson $3.77. This was a huge help to Shona and I at various points in our parenting.

Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds by Chris Brauns $2.99. Best book on forgiveness out there.

Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love by Ed Welch $3.99. Here’s my endorsement of this book:

“This book of practical spirituality will produce many more helpless Christians, but also many more helpful Christians. It made me feel both more needy and more needed. A rare double blessing!”

Video

Chloe: A Story of Infertility, Adoption, and God’s Love
Watch, weep, rejoice, and worship.

I’m devoting the next few weeks to working on a project that’s going to demand most of my mental energy. So apart from the usual Mon-Fri Checkout which will continue, I won’t be writing an additional daily article. Instead, I’m going to post a series of daily devotionals on Hosea that I wrote a few years ago.

“I will….bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her” (Hosea 2:14).

Most of us would prefer being taken to a palace with all its comforts rather than a wilderness with all its dangers. But here God promises His people a wilderness which is full of comforts — comforts that cannot be enjoyed in any palace.

God was promising Israel that they would be conquered and taken captive by foreign powers as a punishment for sin. This was to be a wilderness experience with many dangers and sufferings. The people would be hungry, harmed, far away from home, and especially far away from God and His Temple. Surely nothing good could come out of this! But wait; God says He “will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her.” He will combine the uncomfortable wilderness with comfortable words.

This was Israel’s experience in the wilderness of foreign exile. There, in the midst of their sin-caused sorrow, God spoke words of promise and hope to the repentant. How often this is the Christian’s experience. When we are in comfortable situations, we become increasingly deaf to God’s voice. We do not need to hear it, we think. So God brings us into the most uncomfortable situations in order to speak to us in a way we will hear.

You are told you have cancer. As you leave the clinic, you feel like you are in a waste-howling wilderness. You sense great danger. Fear of pain and death overwhelm you. A lonely path of surgery and chemotherapy stretches ahead of you. The world feels so bitterly cold and hostile. You get home and fall on your knees as you sob and cry out, “Lord! Lord! Help, help, help!”

And there, in the midst of that wilderness moment, God begins to draw near. Comforting verses of Scripture begin to circulate in your mind and filter down to your troubled heart. As He soothes and reassures, you sense the intimate love of your heavenly Father. And, for moments, you think that this feels more like a palace than a wilderness.

If only it wasn’t always so necessary for us to be brought into the uncomfortable wilderness to desire and delight in God’s comfortable words!

Blogs

20 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Pastor | Brandon Hilgemann, Pro Preacher
“Here are some things I wish someone would have sat down and told 20-year-old me. I have spent the last decade learning these the hard way:”

5 Reasons to Study the Biblical Languages | Nicholas Melonas, Glory Books
“Studying the biblical languages brings the Bible from black and white to full color”

In Praise of Church Meetings | Rich Holdeman, Gentle Reformation
Good word for the season of Synods and Assemblies.

Identity Theft: Losing Our Christian Self-Consciousness | Jim Elliff, For The Church
“Gideon had identity issues. He could not believe the truth about himself. A fleece or two later, he was finally fully convinced, and went on to valiantly do God’s business as the mighty man God described him to be.”

What to do and what not to do when your child dates an unbeliever | Kim Shay, Out of the Ordinary
“I have been on both sides of this matter; I was the unbelieving girl who dated someone’s son, and I’ve been the mother of a child who dated an unbeliever. The purpose of this post is not to teach about the issue of being unequally yoked. It is, rather, to offer some suggestions to moms who find themselves unexpectedly dealing with their adult child dating someone who is not a Christian.”

Gone Fishing for Hope | Lore Ferguson Wilbert, Sayable
This is one heart-wrenching piece of writing but it models honesty about personal limitations and courage in radical decisions.

If You Only Had 5 Minutes to Live: A Film by 4 Fundamentalists in the 1940s | Justin Taylor, TGC
“Between 1945 and 1946, after the end of World War II, the film company C. O. Baptista Films (operating out of Wheaton, Illinois) produced a 20-minutes film where four fundamentalist pastors and evangelists answer the question of what they would do, or counsel others to do, if they had only five minutes to live. Along the way they each discuss their own personal relationship to God through Christ.”

Battling the Physical Symptoms of Stress | Parneet Pal, Harvard Business Review
“It’s called ‘burnout’ for good reason — at the cellular level, our bodies are literally inflamed. This doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a chronic condition that’s a direct response to our 24/7 “always on” work cultures – which, combined with a climate of economic uncertainty, make for a perfect storm in our physiology.”

Commentator reacting to Iceland’s winning goal is what pure happiness sounds like | Johnny Lieu, Mashable
This should put a smile on your face: “Arnor Ingvi Traustason slid in the winning goal, which sparked the most incredible piece of elation you’ll hear from a commentator in a long, long time.”

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

The Unexpected Journey: Conversations with People Who Turned from Other Beliefs to Jesus by Thom S. Rainer ($1.99)

50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants of the Faith by Warren W. Wiersbe ($9.99)

Twenty Questions That Shaped World Christian History by Derek Cooper ($3.99)

All the Names in the Bible, Thomas Nelson’s A to Z Series ($2.99)

Video

21 Questions With Barronelle Stutzman

I’m devoting the next few weeks to working on a project that’s going to demand most of my mental energy. So apart from the usual Mon-Fri Checkout which will continue, I won’t be writing an additional daily article. Instead, I’m going to post a series of daily devotionals on Hosea that I wrote a few years ago.

“I will allure her” (Hosea 2:14).

Our “therefores” are so different from God’s “therefores.” In the previous verse, Israel’s sins are listed and then climaxed with “she went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord.” After such a litany of iniquity, we expect the Lord to say, “Therefore I will forget you.” That’s what we would say in a similar situation. However, God’s “therefores” are different from our “therefores.” Instead of using the greatness of Israel’s sins to demonstrate the greatness of His justice, He uses them to display the greatness of His mercy. “Where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). So, in response to “she forgat me,” the Lord says, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her.”

The Hebrew word behind “allure” is used in Exodus 22:16 to describe a man’s overt and obvious romantic wooing of a young lady. In Judges 14:15, the same word describes a woman’s subtle and secret attempts to entice a man to divulge confidential information. So the process of “alluring” may be either overt or covert.

The Lord allures in both senses of the word. Sometimes He will woo His people obviously and openly. He will set His charms before the believer and challenge the world to outbid Him. The believer clearly sees what God is doing, how God is powerfully and irresistibly attracting the soul, and he consciously responds to His offers of grace. Or, the Lord may work more secretly in the heart, slowly but surely turning the soul back to Him so that the believer hardly notices the work of God until it is done, when she responds with surprise and wonder that the Lord has healed her backsliding and loved her freely.

O straying sheep, forget human “therefores,” take this divine “therefore” to God, and plead this sublime heavenly logic as you seek to return to His warm embrace. Take the greatness of your sins to God and plead the greatness of your sins as a powerful argument for His mercy. “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great” (Ps. 25:11).

And, if you are conscious of the Lord’s alluring, then believe His romantic overtures are sincere and be happily seduced by His love. Or, perhaps you should examine your heart to see if God is wooing you more subtly. Let us trace all to this great and all-conquering “I will allure her.”