The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you today.

Westminster Books is offering discounts on the new The Biggest Story Curriculum. It looks amazing!
Stopping to Pray
“There’s a resistance natural to our flesh that keeps us from stopping and praying when we should. Have you ever wondered why it seems so instinctive to cease to pray rather than to pray without ceasing?”
Two Sexes, Created to Be Distinct
Certain things shouldn’t really have to be said. Yet here we are in 2023…
Join Costi Hinn @ TRC23 Speaking On “The One True Gospel Throughout The World”
In missions, the propagation of false gospels usually has little to do with the sincerity or the heart of the gospel messenger, and everything to do with outcomes sought. This session will speak to the true gospel and how to protect and cherish it across time and culture. (Sponsored Link)
How Did Animals Recolonize the World After the Flood?
Wes has been preaching through the biblical account of the flood, and “that led a parishioner to ask me about the redistribution of animals around the world after the Flood. For instance, how do we account for kangaroos in Australia? If they were on the Ark, how did they get to Australia after the Flood?”
Tagless
Kristin tells a fun little story that offers a good lesson to learn.
The Basics — Election
If you need a primer on the doctrine of election, or could use a refresher, Kim Riddelbarger has you covered.
Find Your Way to Help the Hurting
“Recently, our family was staying with a family we love when they suffered a miscarriage. The wife had just finished her first trimester. The baby would have been number six for them, their second son, a boy they all loved deeply without meeting him. The family wept for hours.”
Flashback: Renew Your Mind
Will you allow the world to conform your mind, or will you invite God to transform your mind? To not choose is to make a choice—the world is so immersive, so powerful, and so present that unless you actively resist it, you will inevitably be conformed to it and consumed by it.

Let everything be a means to this end: the treasuring of Christ and the enjoying of his glory. —Jared C. Wilson

One key element of our worship at Grace Fellowship Church is a pastoral prayer, in which one of the elders prays for the church and on behalf of the church. Every now and again I like to share one of those prayers. This prayer was prayed last Sunday by Tristan, one of the elders.

O God, most high and glorious, who planned to bring salvation through Christ to unworthy sinners like us. We marvel that Christ Jesus so closely identifies and loves the church, that the church is called the body of Christ. Through him, you have united and equipped people from diverse backgrounds to carry out your purpose. We marvel that you use the imperfect church as a means and instrument to accomplish your good purposes.
We know that you are Almighty, so you don’t need our help. Yet, we praise you for displaying your power through feeble people. Our finite and faulty minds struggle to comprehend your infinite greatness. It’s true your thoughts are not our thoughts, and your ways are not our ways. So certainly, we need your help to know you.
We praise you for graciously revealing yourself to us in your Word and sending your Holy Spirit to empower us to understand with greater clarity your steadfast love. You have told us through your Word that “blessed are those who seek you with their whole heart”. Help us to do this today. Help every Christian here to continuously seek to know you better. As we do this, renew our minds with your Word. We want our minds to be filled with more of your Word and less of the world. That our minds would more closely reflect yours. That we might not sin against you.
O God, we want our lives to reflect our new identity in Christ. We want our lips to be a beacon of grace to others. We want to use our words to encourage and to build up others. We want to use our voices to worship and praise your Great name. We want to use our words to bless. We want our words to speak the truth.
We confess that this week, some of us used our lips to lie, gossip, and slander. Some of us used your great name in vain. Some of us used words to communicate wrath and bitterness. Some of us used our words for filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking. We acknowledge that these grievous sins do not reflect the new life we have in Christ. Please forgive us. Help us to put these sins far from us. O God, transform us by renewing our minds. We don’t want to use our lips in the same way we did before we became Christians. We want our speech to be instruments of righteousness to your glory. O God, how much more would our church be marked by love if every Christian here used their speech only in ways that brought glory to you! How much more would our church be united if we every Christian worked hard by your grace to put bitter jealousy and selfish ambition far from them! Make this so we pray.
As we think about our church, we thank you for blessing our church with elders. Thank you for saving, equipping, and calling each elder to this role. Grant to each elder the spiritual wisdom needed to fulfill their duties. Grant to each elder joy in their work. Protect each elder from the schemes of the enemy. And give to each elder grace to fight the good fight of faith. And bless this church with more faithful and qualified men to serve in this role for your glory.
We also remember our dear sister [M], who has been in debilitating pain for four weeks. O God, heal her back and reduce her pain. We know that you are near to your people. We pray that she would know your nearness and comfort in this time. Call to her mind your Word that she has been storing in her heart over many years. We know that your grace is sufficient for your people in any season. So we pray that you would powerfully demonstrate your gracious power in [M’s] circumstance and in her home.
As we prepare to hear your Word preached, help us to focus and listen. O God, reprove us in the areas we need to be reproved, rebuke us in the areas we need to be rebuked, and encourage us in the areas we need to be encouraged. Do this all for your glory.
In the name of Jesus, Amen

I have been meaning to write a review of the latest book by my friend Leonardo De Chirico: Same Words, Different Worlds: Do Roman Catholics and Evangelicals Believe the Same Gospel? Leonardo is a pastor and scholar in Rome whose primary area of expertise is a Protestant perspective on Roman Catholicism. In this review, written by missionary Glenn Ainsley, you will learn why this book is interesting, informative, and helpful.

Like most evangelical Christians who were raised under the influence of the American “Bible Belt,” Catholicism has always been near, but never influential. It has always been known, but never understood. To me, and many other American evangelicals, the idea of Catholic doctrine has always been limited to a fuzzy concept of confessional booths, prayers to the saints, transubstantiation, purgatory, and some sort of global connection to a man in white on the other side of the world. This “segmented” understanding of Catholic theology fosters an indifferent and unprepared approach towards sharing the gospel with our Roman Catholic friends. In the unlikely event that we do arrive at the gospel in conversation, it will likely avoid all of the assumed “secondary” doctrines mentioned above to focus on our friend’s most self-damning belief of salvation by works. Unfortunately, our poor understanding of Catholicism will render our witness ineffective when we learn that our friend does, in fact, profess “salvation by grace”. At best, we walk away confused. At worst, we will never engage our Catholic friends again.
In Same Words, Different Worlds, Leonardo De Chirico addresses the underlying misconceptions that cripple so many American evangelicals’ understanding of and interaction with Catholic theology. The book shows “why the Roman Catholic words are similar to those of the gospel and yet the Roman Catholic language is different from the gospel’s language” (2). To rephrase the purpose, this book will help evangelical believers to understand why their Catholic friends confess the same gospel as us in words, but live it so differently in practice. We are using the same words to describe dramatically different worldviews. De Chirico demonstrates that a correct understanding of Catholic theology, and therefore an effective gospel conversation with our Catholic friends, requires a “holistic” understanding of Catholic doctrine based on a clear definition of the words they use to build that doctrine. The author effectively does this in the following ways:
The first chapter of this book is dedicated to an honest evaluation and response to many common arguments meant to minimize the differences between evangelicals and Catholics. These arguments are propagated in the name of ecumenical unity based on a common history and / or future. As the reader will see, however, much of the assumed history only looks the same on paper and does not reflect a common theology in practice.
The second chapter begins a thorough investigation into the definitions of many common theological words used by both evangelicals and catholics. It is not enough to base ecumenical unity on the fact that both traditions use phrases like “the word of God” or “the sacrifice of Christ.” Salvation, justification, grace, and mission are all words embraced by both traditions, but they express and invoke totally different meanings of theological importance between the two. If one wishes to communicate clearly with his or her Roman Catholic friends, it is of utmost importance to understand how our common vocabulary has been twisted into unbiblical mutations by the Catholic church.
Most evangelical Americans will find the third chapter extremely helpful as De Chirico helps to remove the ambiguity behind distinctly Catholic concepts like the papacy, mariology, and indulgences. These terms, while mysterious to the majority of evangelical Americans, encompass a large part of the identity of Roman Catholics. In a very brief but efficient manner, De Chirico offers a historical and biblical assessment of these distinctly Catholic traditions and how they influence the church’s understanding of key doctrines.
Although moving beyond the definition of ambiguous words, I found chapter four to be the most enlightening section of the book. After establishing the historical and theological differences hidden under shared vocabulary, De Chirico introduces two different axes that hold together the unity of Roman Catholic theology. It is in this chapter that one begins to truly understand how all the ambiguous and fringe practices we recognize as distinctly Catholic, along with the distorted meanings of shared vocabulary, work together holistically within the Catholic worldview.
These two axes, defined as 1) a nature-grace interdependence and 2) as a Christ-church interconnection help to frame where and how the extra-biblical doctrines and devotions that seem so foreign to evangelicals have developed over time. Once one comprehends the Catholic understanding of grace existing within nature, rather than as something that comes to us from outside our nature, their salvific doctrines and their devotion to the sacraments begin to make sense to us. Once we understand the intrinsic relations Catholics have made between the physical presence of Christ in the church, practices such as their veneration of the Eucharist and their confessions and prayers become better understood. Both of these axes are built on biblical terms that have either been redefined or misinterpreted in a way that liberates Catholic theologians from the orthodox confines of the authority of Scripture. If the evangelical church fails to recognize this, it runs a grave risk of seeing unity where discord exists. It runs a great risk of affirming orthodoxy in Catholic theology that is intrinsically unorthodox.
As an American, now living in a distinctly Roman Catholic and southern European context, this book has been instrumental in helping me to form a mental framework for the culture and the worldview around me. This book represents 10 years of research and discussion around vast and complex amounts of theological material. It has been organized and presented in a manner that delivers clarity to scholars, pastors, and laypeople alike. Regardless of the reader’s current interest in, interaction with, or proximity to the Roman Catholic church, this book should be highly recommended as a means to better understand and dialogue with those who claim we are all brothers.
Same Words, Different Worlds is available for purchase at Amazon. Glenn Ainsley is a missionary with IMB and worships at Chiesa evangelica battista riformata in Ferrara, Italy.

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