Blogs

3 lessons about mental illness for the sufferer and caregiver
“Loving someone with mental illness has taught me to show grace, compassion, empathy, and patience, giving me the opportunity to be a reflection of the character of Christ in the midst of difficult life circumstances.”

Theology for the Teen Years
“Despite the fact that my generation is the least religious generation in US history, God is at work among my peers. He is using faithful churches, pastors, and parents to give us clarity in the midst of a blindingly confusing culture. All throughout history, some of the biggest explosions of conversions and gospel work have happened among students. That could happen again today.”

Seven Questions to Ask Your Daughter’s Boyfriend
“I do not have a daughter, but I do have a sister. A sister who recently got engaged. Before she got engaged, her then-boyfriend and I had a conversation. My latent CIA interrogation skills, like my now-father-in-law’s almost two years ago, kicked into gear. I wanted to protect my sister, and to get to know and encourage the man who was already contemplating proposing. I wanted her best in the Lord, and his. By no means are the questions I came up with exhaustive. And some might be better suited at different times throughout the relationship (before the first date, or as the relationship becomes more serious, or before engagement, or after). I asked these questions before the proposal, and I pray they serve as a good starting place for other brothers (and even fathers) as they sit down to talk with a young man pursuing one of our treasured women.”

An Open Letter to the Parent of a Strong-Willed Child
“”I’ve heard parents say things like, “I feel like I’ve exhausted all my options. No approach seems to work. I’ve tried praying with him. I’ve tried appealing to his conscience. I’ve tried time-outs, and various consequences. . . and it just seems like things don’t get better, but worse. I’m very weary and discouraged. And weary. Did I mention weary?”"

Self-Control, the Leader’s Make-or-Break Virtue
“I’m convinced that the vast majority of leaders whose ministries implode because of a moral failing started on their path by neglecting their relationship with God. Estranged from God’s Spirit, the fruit of self-control eventually withered in their lives. One of the cruel ironies of ministry is that it’s easy to nurture other people’s souls while neglecting your own. If you’re not careful you can get to the place where you only talk to God when you’re praying in public and only open God’s Word to prepare to teach. Don’t be that leader. Make intimacy with the Father your number-one concern. Your life—and the lives of those you lead—depends on it.”

Preaching in a Mild State of Panic
“As one who has been teaching preaching to seminary students for over a decade I know that many (most?) approach using their preaching notes in a way that is detrimental to their preaching.”

Redemption Accomplished & Applied
PCRT conferences in Grand Rapids and Philadelphia.

Puritan Documentary

Books

I want to highly recommend Broken Pieces and the God who Mends Them: Schizophrenia Through the Eyes of a Mother which Westminster books has for sale at $9.00. My endorsement:

“The most honest and deeply moving Christian book I’ve read in a long time. Simonetta opens up her broken heart to show us the painful darkness and agonizing tragedy of serious mental illness. But she also opens the door of hope and help for other families by sharing the hard-won knowledge and resources she discovered both in the common grace of God and in the church of God. May this book transform her beloved son Jonathan’s death into life for many others.”

Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End  by David Gibson $2.99.

Taking God At His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me by Kevin DeYoung

Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God by Joe Thorn $1.59.

Blogs

3 Reasons We Don’t Preach Gospel-Centered Sermons
“It’s just a theory, but perhaps the reason so many preachers who read all the gospelly books and blogs, listen to all the gospelly podcasts, and follow all the gospelly Twitter accounts still struggle to preach gospelly sermons is because they are not in regular communion with the Christ who is the center.”

Has Your Child Been Looking at Bad Stuff Online?
Tim guides us through these painful discoveries.

How to Teach Your Teen to Study the Bible
“Most teens are missing basic tools to help them read and learn the Bible on their own. By guiding them in some basic study methods, you can position them to use devotional and topical material with far better discernment and far greater benefit, as those types of resources assume a firsthand knowledge of the Bible many teens have not yet developed.”

Better Late than Never – Thoughts on Deathbed Conversions
“In the last couple of weeks I have come across two men who professed faith just before their deaths, which has prompted me to think about the subject. Here are some thoughts, in no particular order.”

How to Form a Christian Mind in a Digital World
Greg Bailey reviews a book containing much common grace wisdom.

How Anxiety Can Feed Anger, Irritability, and Frustration
“Physical or medical considerations notwithstanding, there is always something going on in our heart in relation to God at the time we experience anxiety. We are never fully passive, but our heart (the control center) is always active. It’s always choosing between the lesser and the greater. Martha chose her to do list over Jesus. When your anxiety is provoked, what do you chose?”

Announcing: A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible
Very much looking forward to this. Sign up to pre-order and receive bonus material.

3 Ways Churches Coddle KidZ and StudentZ
“They lament the unintended consequences of an over-protective culture that shields people from reality, ideas, diverse thinking, and risk. They wisely conclude that coddling hampers growth and development. Reading the book made me think about parenting, kid’s and student ministry, and the temptation to coddle. Here are three common ways churches can coddle the next generation – either unintentionally or intentionally.”

Kindle Books

Too Good to Be True: Finding Hope in a World of Hype by Michael S. Horton $2.99.

Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney $2.99.

18 Words: The most important words you will ever know by J I Packer $2.99.

Here’s a list of all the posts so far about James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. And there are more to come!

The Big Power of Multiple Littles

Breakthrough Moments in the Christian Life

Forget Life Goals?

Beating Bad Habits with a New Identity

Where does our identity come from?

The Freedom of Daily Devotions

Four Steps to Good Habits (and breaking bad ones)

Ten Triggers of Godliness

A Plan for Habit Change

Habit Stacking

Identifying Bad Habits

How to Fill your Body with Light

My Personal Devotions Chair

The Secret to Self-Control

Desiring God and Dopamine

Four Powerful Influences in our Lives

Discovering the Deeper Roots of our Habits

Depression and Decision Making

“We get to lift weights tonight!”

Practice Makes Patience

Add Oil and Squeaks

The Four Most Important Decisions in Your Day

The Two-Minute Rule

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

You started last year with a tankful of gas — overflowing with energy, motivation, joy, and optimism. Twelve months on, you were empty, running on fumes, joyless, and dreading the new year. You wonder if you can even go another day, far less another year. Three questions are on your mind:

What went wrong?
How can I get refueled for this year?
How do I make this year different than last year?

You may have had no control over some of the life events that drained you dry last year. Your gas tank was punctured by holes not of your own making: the loss of health, of a loved one, of a job, of your marriage, of a friendship, or of a dream. For many of us, though, our emptiness is of our own making. Either we forgot to keep refueling with God’s word and grace, thinking we can live by our own wisdom and strength, or we put multiple holes in our own tanks through our own choices.

What Went Wrong?

What choices puncture the gas tanks of our souls? Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to counsel many Christians whose gas tanks looked more like sieves. They had holed themselves repeatedly by their own lifestyle choices. These were not caused by life events they had no control over, but were the result of their own free decisions. The most common decisions that caused the most damage were sinful habits (especially pornography), excessive working hours, sleep deprivation, refusal of God’s gift of a weekly Sabbath, and technology addiction. Often they came as a package.

Whether you were drained by holes that resulted from events outside your control or by those you made yourself, the question is the same, How can I refuel, and regain the joy I lost? Before we try to refuel, we must at least attempt to repair the holes we made ourselves. There’s no point in putting premium joy-fuel into our tanks if it’s just going to run out unrepaired holes.

We can’t deny the laws of gravity or of our humanity. We cannot flourish if we continue in sinful habits, or if we fail to wisely steward our bodies, minds, emotions, and relationships for God’s glory. Start welding these self-inflicted gashes with repentance for sin, with reduced working hours, with increased sleep, with a weekly Sabbath, and with a digital detox.

How Can I Refuel?

Assuming that repair work has begun, let’s now focus on the joy-fuel that God has provided to reenergize us for the new year.

Read the rest of this article at the Desiring God website.

Did you know that the human body has about eleven million sensory receptors and that about ten million of them are dedicated to sight? That gives a whole new meaning to Jesus’s teaching that, “The light of the body is the eye” (Matt. 6:22). By some estimates, half of the brain’s resources are dedicated to vision.

What we see, therefore, is a huge influencer of what we do and what we are. That’s why James Clear devotes so much time in his book, Atomic Habits, to the importance of filling our environment with productive cues and removing unproductive ones. He urges conscious attention to redesigning our environment for our good:

“Environment design is powerful not only because it influences how we engage with the world but also because we rarely do it. Most people live in a world others have created for them. But you can alter the spaces where you live and work to increase your exposure to positive cues and reduce your exposure to negative ones. Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.” (87)

Clear is primarily concerned with behavior. As Christians, we also want to focus on thoughts and desires. We want to redesign our environment and control what we see in order to maximize good thoughts and desires and minimize evil ones. That may even require us to flee from certain environments and find newer healthier ones.

This isn’t an argument for Pharisaical separation—the Lord can keep us and our eyes even in the midst of multiple tempting visual cues. However, it is a warning to recognize the power of our environment and the influence of our eyes.

And, if we are unavoidably in environments which contain multiple cues to sin, this must prompt us to pray for the Lord to intervene between our eyes and our minds/hearts; to place an obstacle between what we see and what we desire. Otherwise our minds and hearts will be overwhelmed with fighting for purity and peace, and we will inevitably and eventually cave.

But let’s think about this more positively as well. It’s not just, “If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness,” it’s also, “If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light” (Matt. 6:22-23).

That should encourage us to feed our 10 million visual receptors with all that is true, and beautiful, and good. That may be the true, beautiful, and good words of God. Or it may be the true, beautiful, and good people of God. Or it may be the true, beautiful, and good worship of God. Or it may be the true, beautiful, and good creation of God.

Let’s change or re-design our environment and flood our eyes with light. Then our whole bodies will be full of light!

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Blogs

3 Reasons to Study the Biblical Geography of Israel
Having visited Israel for the first time last year, I can Amen this article

“When we don’t know the land, we don’t really know the whole story. It’s like watching a play without a backdrop or props. Geography drops you right in the middle of the setting of God’s grand narrative and brings it to life. Here are three specific benefits of studying biblical geography.”

5 Leadership Practices Churches Should Adopt From Chick-fil-A
Mark Miller, vice president of high performance leadership for Chick-fil-A, recently addressed a group of pastors and denominational leaders at LifeWay’s Church Partners Summit. Based on his decades-long career at the successful franchise, here are five pieces of advice he gave on how to create an environment where existing and emerging leaders can flourish.

Shelter in the Shame Storm
“Helen Andrews’s essay on online shaming, featuring in the forthcoming January issue of First Things, is the kind of piece that can genuinely change readers. It is a stunningly powerful meditation that is simultaneously personal and sweeping. I can’t even choose a passage to excerpt without feeling like I’m under-representing the quality of writing, so please; if you haven’t read it, stop reading this blog and go read Helen’s essay.”

Church Planter, Redefine Success and Seek Emotional Health
“”Can you brothers pray for me? I’m mentally, physically, and emotionally depleted from pushing all week despite being sick. I’m so discouraged I don’t even want to go to our gathering today, let alone preach.” This was a text I sent a few dear brothers several weeks ago. Gripped by anxiety and physically zapped, I sat in my car and sobbed uncontrollably an hour before our worship gathering began. I’d hit a wall. Most church-planting training doesn’t prepare you for these moments.”

The Art of Dying
I love the moving story at the heart of this article.

A Sympathy for Empathy
Good to see Reformed writers exploring the emotions more:

“May we who know the Lord Jesus mature in our faith such that we are willing to draw close to the heart of the one who’s come so close to us.  May we take advantage of the means God has given us toward that end.  May we have open eyes and hearts to every image-bearer bearing the pains of life in a fallen world, and understand and experience with greater empathy the healing, life-saving work uniquely accomplished in this world by the Word incarnate, the only begotten son of God.      ”

An Open Letter to the Student at the Start of a New Semester
“How do we faithfully approach a new semester as Christian students? How do we steward our studies well and honor Christ without idolizing this vocation?”

But also this: Let’s quit brainwashing kids that it’s a college degree or nothing

Let’s quit brainwashing kids that it’s a college degree or nothing | Chicago Sun-Times“I’ve recently read through a few books to study the topic of stewardship. In the process of reading about the use of time, I was helped by a few resources. I’ll share them below with a brief explanation.”

Is Marijuana as Safe as We Think?
When liberals start warning about pot use, it’s time to be really worried. And here’s another at Mother Jones: This Reporter Took a Deep Look Into the Science of Smoking Pot. What He Found Is Scary.

The Strength of Waiting
“2019 just might be another year of waiting for you. As you ride in the passenger’s seat of life, practice the secret of strength and rehearse the promises of God.  You will not be ashamed. God will renew your weary soul with an enduring strength you thought impossible. He will show you more of Himself. And He will powerfully act on your behalf in the perfect time and with the perfect means.”

Improving Sleep Quality: How is Sleep Quality Calculated?
“It’s no surprise that the amount of sleep you get plays a role in determining your overall health. However, it’s not as simple as assuming that if you were in bed for 8 hours, your sleep is having a positive impact. The quality of that shut-eye also plays a role in a person’s wellbeing; in fact, sleep quality relates more strongly to overall health than sleep quantity. To measure your sleep quality , consider these questions related to the way you fall asleep and how often you wake up during the night. ”

How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation
Long but important article that helps to explain the epidemic of anxiety and depression among younger people.

Kindle Books

Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes by Nancy Pearcey $0.79.

The Privilege, Promise, Power & Peril of Doctrinal Preaching by Thomas J. Nettles $1.99

Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer