Blogs

America’s Reading Crisis Is Much Worse Than You Think | Sara Kay Mooney at Christianity Today
Sara, a teacher at a Title I middle school, answers the question: “What do you wish the local church knew?”

Open Letter to Right-Wing Evangelical Christians | Ariel Bovat at RAAN
Staggering statistics to consider as she talks about the root causes of abortion.

15 Ways to Fight Lust With the Sword of the Spirit | Kevin DeYoung
“So how in the world, in this world we live in, and with our sex-saturated hearts, can we obey the seventh commandment?”

Good Works and the Christian Life | John Tweeddale at Ligonier
“Just because we are not saved according to our works doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be concerned about pursuing a life of joyful obedience to God’s Word.”

Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ | Book review by Kelsey Hency at The Gospel Coalition
“Once a tenured English professor, [Butterfield] approaches the issue of sexuality with notable scholastic rigor; her theology is profound. Once a committed lesbian, she empathizes with those in the grips of same-sex attraction; her compassion abounds. In her new book Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ, we benefit from both.”

Cotton Mather’s Advice for Seminary Students | Ryan Hoselton at The Gospel Coalition

Fasting for Beginners | David Mathis at Desiring God
Why to fast and how to start, with the reminder that Jesus gave us instructions for “when” we fast, not “if.”

Kindle Deals

What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer ($3.99)

Viper Pilot: A Memoir of Air Combat by Dan Hampton ($5.99)

The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God  by Lee Strobel ($4.99)

When to Speak Up and When To Shut Up by Dr. Michael D. Sedler ($3.99)

New Books

Preaching Made Practical by O. Palmer Roberson ($16.99)

Bible Names by Alison Brown ($8.00)

Videos

Heartbreaking Video Shows How Technology Addiction Is Changing Childhood

Highland Hymn: Glory to the Holy One Concert (Saint Andrew’s Chapel)

Lyrics:

Above the mists of Highland hills
E’en far above the clear blue skies
The end of pain and earthly ills
When we shall see His eyes

Refrain

Lutes will sing
Pipers play
When we see Him face to face
On that day

His face now hidden from our sight
Concealed from ev’ry hidden gaze
In hearts made pure from sinful f light
Is the bliss that will amaze

Refrain

We know not yet what we will be
In heaven’s final blessed state
But know we now that we shall see
Our Lord at heaven’s gate

The beatific glory view
That now our souls still long to see
Will make us all at once anew
And like Him forever be

Refrain

A demon has possessed your young son, tearing and torturing him so that he is, at times, throwing himself into fires; at other times, he is throwing himself on the ground and wallowing in his own spittle.

What is your greatest need?

Well, it’s obvious isn’t it? You need deliverance and healing of your son.

It wasn’t so obvious to Jesus.

When he saw a man with such a son, He saw that the man’s greatest need was faith (Mark 9:17-25). Sure, He went on to deal with the needs of his son, but only secondarily. First of all, He addressed the man’s need of faith.

No matter how great our needs are in any situation, our greatest need is always faith.

Jesus’s challenge to the man to believe resulted in the cry that still resonates in every honest person’s heart: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” We are all, Christians and non-Christians, a mixture of belief and unbelief, of faith and doubt. We believe and we don’t believe. Why not then take up this cry in your heart and on your lips.

If you’re a God believer who believes in God but doesn’t believe in Jesus, cry “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a head believer who believes with your head but not your heart, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you have a historical faith but not an influential faith, cry “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a word-only believer, believing with your lips but not with your life, cry “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you believe in salvation by grace but not in salvation by grace alone, cry “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a majority believer, believing most of the Bible but not all of it, cry “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a mere Bible-believer, believing in the written Word but not in the living Word, cry “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a general believer, believing that Christ is the Savior but not that He is your personal Savior, cry “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re an easy believer, believing in Christ as Savior but not as Lord, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a slow believer, believing that salvation is vital but not that it’s urgent, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a just-enough believer, believing just enough to satisfy your conscience, or your parents, or your church, but not enough to satisfy God, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a Church-believer, believing enough to come to Church but not enough to come to Christ, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a secret believer, believing in private but not enough to go public, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a declining believer, believing the truth today but not as much as you did yesterday or many yesterdays ago, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you’re a doubting believer, doubting Christ’s power or willingness to save, cry ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Whatever mixture of faith and doubt, belief and unbelief, presently swirls in your life, do what this man did. Confess your unbelief, weep over your doubts, and take them to Jesus for pardon, removal, and replacement with faith.

That’s our greatest need and He can supply that greatest of needs.

Blogs

Don’t Read Sermons | Paul Levy
I posted Rick’s piece, so here’s Paul’s rejoinder. “There is a huge difference between verbal communication and reading and so you have outstanding preachers whose written sermons actually aren’t that great. I’ll never forget reading Whitefield’s sermons, published by the Banner, and suddenly thinking ‘Hey, my preaching isn’t that bad.”’

Twelve Helps for a Hardened Heart | Mike Leake
Mike takes us through what Richard Baxter has to say about softening a hardened heart.

Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint | Andrew Dlugan
Spoiler: Be brief.

How to Manage 8 Tough Personas in a Group Discussion | Andrew Dlugan
How many of these have you encountered? How many of these have you been?

Wilberforce Didn’t Quit.  Neither Will We. | Aaron Armstrong
Looking forward through the lens of history.

The Shrug that Scares Me to Death | Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition
Now is not the time for complacency.

Let the Children Come to Jesus | Credo Magazine
The new issue is out!

The Verse on My Door | Paul Tautges
Paul’s testimony from his recent installation service.

Planting Churches in Japan: An Interview with Dan Iverson | Nathan W. Bingham at Ligonier
Excerpted from the new edition of Tabletalk.

The 8th Planned Parenthood Video + A Prayer at the Protest, and Counsel for Healing from an Abortion | Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition

Kindle Books

Read the Bible for Life: Your Guide to Understanding and Living God’s Word by George H. Guthrie ($2.99)

Conversation Peace by Mary Kassian ($2.99)

Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp ($4.99)

Building a Godly Home, Volume 1: A Holy Vision for Family Life by William Gouge ($2.99)

Building a Godly Home, Volume 3: A Holy Vision for Raising Children by William Gouge ($2.99)

Video

More horror. The 9th Planned Parenthood Video

One of the six eBooks included in A Bundle of Joy: Six Books on Christian Happiness is entitled The Happy Student. With students returning to various schools and colleges in the next few days and weeks, I thought you may want to read the foreword of the book to see if it might be suitable for you or for someone else in your family or church:

Perhaps you looked at the title of this book, The Happy Student, and thought, “Oh good, a guide to the best parties on campus.” If you did, I’m going to disappoint you. I tried that, and I can tell you that whatever else such a lifestyle produces, it doesn’t produce happy students or student happiness. Quite the reverse. It’s a different and much better kind of happiness that this book is concerned about, a happiness that is substantial, real, and lasting.

Before I started writing this book, I looked back at 30+ years of of studying, pastoring, and now professoring. I thought about my own experience of student life both at High School and then in University and Seminary. I reflected on about 20 years of pastoring students, and 12 years of teaching them in two seminaries. I also reviewed my own children’s educational experiences at homeschool, Christian school, and now community college. All the time I was asking, “What makes for happy students? What made me a happy student? What made my students happy?”

The fruit is this compact book gathered around eight topics.

• HAPPY STUDIES
• HAPPY ORGANIZATION
• HAPPY TIME
• HAPPY HEALTH
• HAPPY TECHNOLOGY
• HAPPY MONEY
• HAPPY RELATIONSHIPS
• HAPPY DECISIONS

Knowing that students are short on time and patience, I’ve tried to keep it as practical as possible and as short as possible. I’ve reduced  mere “theory” to a minimum and I’ve limited the word count by using bullet points and lists.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).

A Bundle of Joy: Six Books on Christian Happiness by David Murray ($2.99).

Blogs

No, You Don’t Need To Work 24/7 To Succeed | Michael Hyatt
See also A Biblical Perspective on Time by C J Williams.

How To Avoid Getting Caught in Adultery | Clint Archer
The Bible gives us practical wisdom on how to avoid committing adultery. Here are six suggestions from God’s word. And in a related article Barry York writes about the place of God’s Law in the Church’s Message.

Bonhoeffer’s Seminary Vision | David Schrock
A review of a new book that makes a “compelling critique of modern theological education and a case for pastoral training that’s best described as life together.”

Can I be sure I’m saved? | R C Sproul
When R C Sproul is asked this question, he responds with three questions.

Praying Psalms of Destruction Against Planned Parenthood | Stephen Altrogge
A good use of the imprecatory Psalms.

Why Same-sex Marriage Will Never Measure Up to the Real Thing | The Federalist
Some very useful statistics in this article.

Kindle Books

To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain by Matt Chandler (FREE!)

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Foreword by David Limbaugh) by Norman Geisler $5.99.

Heaven $3.99. I haven’t read this but the description is appealing.

An team of evangelical scholars explore the doctrine of heaven from a variety of angles. Among other contributors, Ray Ortlund examines the concept of heaven in the Old Testament, Gerald Bray explores the history of theological reflection about heaven, and Ajith Fernando looks at persecuted saints’ special relationship to heaven in the New Testament.

I’ve been enthralled and inspired by the remarkable heroism of the three American men who, using nothing more than their hands and hearts, overwhelmed a heavily-armed Islamic terrorist on a French train, preventing a certain bloodbath. I loved the BBC’s analysis of the French’s outpouring of gratitude to them:

The French are enthralled by the three Americans who acted so swiftly to stop the Thalys gunman. In their news conference Sunday afternoon at the US embassy in Paris, they came over as archetypes of American masculine virtue: handsome, strong, modest.

Deep in the French gene, there is something that responds positively to this. It is the same spirit that is so grateful – 70 years on – for the American sacrifice in the Normandy landings: a recognition of the American capacity to join moral clarity with swift, decisive action.

Yes, believe it or not, these words were on the BBC website, words of deserved and unstinting praise for American masculinity, American moral clarity, and American courage. I hope many young men will see such virtue and aspire to it in every walk of life.

The more I hear about what these men did, the more I marvel at them, and also thank God that He is still giving such brave and selfless men to the human race.

I’ve had similar feelings as I’ve been reading through The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau. Although it’s a painful read at times, it’s also a story of astonishing and inspirational courage in the face of seemingly impossible odds. What mercy that God gave such men at such a time for such a task. And what mercy that He gave us Spencer Stone, Alex Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler.

It’s also occasion to remember that since 9/11 thousands of American men and women have given their lives (and are still doing so) to protect and free others. The fact that their stories rarely make the front pages in no way diminishes their beautiful valor.

To all the men and women working to protect and free this nation and others, I salute you, admire you, thank you, and worship God for what He has made you and enabled you to do.