This week, the blog is sponsored by the D3 Winter Conference, hosted by Boyce College. This year’s conference is designed to help high school students answer, with biblical fidelity, life’s most essential question: “Who is Jesus?” Registration is underway now for the March 10-11, 2023 in-person event.

Who is Jesus? Your answer to that question will ultimately determine your eternity. Yet, that is a question that Christians and non-Christians have been asking for more than 2000 years. As generations come and go it is vital that each new generation of Christians be challenged and equipped to answer this age-old question. Furthermore, it is paramount that younger (or newer) Christians answer this question from a biblically informed perspective. Who is Jesus according to the Bible?
In this current cultural climate, it is not uncommon for parents and pastors to wonder, is the younger generation of Christians prepared to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3)? In other words, is the 9th grader in your church youth group ready to defend their faith? Is the high school senior ready to articulate from a biblical worldview the person and work of Jesus on a college campus? These are urgent and timely questions for the next generation.
Today, Christians young and old are faced with competing ideas and claims concerning the identity of Jesus. Was he simply a wandering teacher? Was he a mythical figure used to pass down moral and meditative thoughts? These notions and others are commonly expressed in popular culture. Furthermore, many people, when talking about Jesus are prone to emphasize and highlight the qualities that best justify their personal opinions and perspective. Some want to emphasize his love, others his forgiveness, others his willingness to stand against the religious and political rulers of the day, and some are content to merely quote the words of Jesus that best serve their agenda.
So, back to the original question, Who is Jesus? At the outset of 2023, one could argue that it has never been more important for the next generation of Christians to be able to answer that timeless question. At the D3 Winter Conference we will challenge and equip high school students from the Bible to rightly understand and confidently respond to the question: Who is Jesus? Main speakers will include Drs. R. Albert Mohler Jr., Jimmy Scroggins, Paul Akin, and Rev. Scott Long. Breakouts will be led by Drs. Jeremy Pierre, Dustin Bruce, and Curtis Solomon. Over the course of the conference we will discuss the person and work of Jesus, the significance of his birth and death, be challenged by his words and commands, and discern what it really means to follow Jesus today.
At Boyce College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, we are passionate and intentional about equipping the next generation of Christians to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. One of the ways we seek to accomplish that purpose is through the D3 Winter Conference. This conference is designed for Christian high school students to develop and mature in their faith. The D3 Winter Conference will take place in Louisville, Kentucky on March 10-11, 2023. We look forward to seeing you there!

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include some excellent books by Paul Tripp: Sunday Matters, Awe, Marriage, and others. You’ll also find deals on several interesting titles by other authors.

Vaneetha Rendall Risner shares a prayer request she heard and adopted as her own. “These became the words I whispered to God throughout the day. I needed God to either lighten the burdens I was carrying or give me strength to endure them. God had to bring change, though I didn’t know in what form. I only knew I couldn’t continue the way things were.”

With so many people telling us all that the church is doing wrong, it was a blessing to read this article about what the church is doing right. “In the church, Gen Z men like me are rejecting the false masculinities offered by the culture and finding an alternative—a cruciform masculinity. In his death, Jesus subverts the ego, dominance, and self-centeredness of toxic masculinity in a divine display of humility, sacrifice, and love. But the cross also challenges the soft, aimless version of manhood that avoids responsibility and purpose.”

Jim Elliff: “God is at work doing His perfect will, even during hurricane season. These spinning engines of destruction originate from Him as Ruler (first cause), through nature (second cause), all for His purposes. Though God owes us no explanation, one or all of the following possible objectives may help us understand ‘why’ God decrees such fear-producing events…”

On a somewhat similar note, Phil Antonecchia writes about the recent destruction. “The Christian is not a Stoic. Neither does he flee into a fantasy world that denies the reality of suffering. Paul freely admitted the pressure he experienced. The people of Southern Appalachia are being hard pressed on every side. The pain of this world is staring them right in the face. There’s no time for ‘fraudulent piety’ or ‘denying the reality’ of pain and suffering. Many are without power and clean water and are cut off from the rest of the world due to collapsed roads.”

“There are two wisdoms, Paul says: human wisdom, and divine wisdom. They are not the same. They are not even similar. They are not coming to the same conclusions about God, life, priorities, joy, fulfillment, or meaning.”

Darryl points to a crucial truth about failure: it happens slowly before it (apparently) happens suddenly. “Moral failure is rarely an event. It’s more of a slow process that can be stopped if we catch it early enough, but that will become catastrophic if we let it go.”

How is it possible to rejoice even during something as painful as persecution? Let me offer six reasons you can rejoice and be glad even when persecuted.

By permitting suffering, he tests whether Christians have any feeling. Beware, lest you be weighed in the balances and found wanting. If you can live in a sick and dying world and not feel for others, you have yet much to learn.
—J.C. Ryle

If you spend any time on social media or any time socializing at a Christian conference, if you refresh your feed on YouTube or listen while people chat after church on a Sunday morning, you may soon learn what makes people happy. People love to talk about other people! And more often than not, they love to talk negatively about other people—discussing their foibles and failures, their quirks and shortcomings.

It is for this reason that the Bible so often warns us against idleness, gossip, being busybodies, getting involved in affairs that are not our own, and so on. It is curses that more naturally spill from our lips than blessings and tittle-tattle that more naturally comes out of our mouths than encouragement. So often, a bad report of another person delights our ears more than a good report and a tale of failure than a tale of success. Many of us, most of us, or perhaps all of us need to wage a lifelong battle to simply display even moderately good character in this area, to have the inner strength to resist gossiping and the outer conviction to stop others when they begin to gossip to us.

What makes Christians happy? Sadly, it’s often gossip, uninformed opinions, unfounded rumors, and bad reports.

But what makes heaven happy? We can be certain that there are no gossips in heaven, no people who dash around the city to share news of another man’s downfall or another woman’s demise. We can be certain there is no one there who would feel joy if they received reports of another person’s sin or satisfaction if they heard of another person’s fall.

We can be certain that there are no gossips in heaven, no people who dash around the city to share news of another man’s downfall or another woman’s demise.Share

Yet heaven is abuzz with news of other people! What makes heaven happy and happiest of all is the news of another soul saved. As Jesus said, “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). In the day you put your faith in Christ, the angels broke out in song! When you shared the gospel with a friend and she believed, heaven rejoiced! Any time a sinner looks away from himself and looks instead to Jesus, heaven celebrates.

Shouldn’t we imitate heaven? Shouldn’t we behave now like we will behave then, to refuse to find the least satisfaction in sin and instead rejoice in God’s great work of salvation (and, of course, its sibling, sanctification)? Surely the church would be purified and our faith would be strengthened if only we would determine to find joy in what makes heaven joyful.

So if we talk about other people, let’s talk about their virtues. If we discuss the accomplishments of other people, let’s discuss what they’ve done for Christ. If we gossip about other people, let’s “gossip grace.” Let’s be as happy as heaven.