Weekend A La Carte (May 25)
My gratitude goes to Moody Publishers for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about a new book by Steve DeWitt titled Loneliness. It’s one you may want to check out!
Today’s Kindle deals include a few books that should be of interest.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Summertime Family Update (And Guess Who’s Going To Be a Grandfather!))
Though we do many regrettable things, we do not need to live our lives in regret. God has something better for us to do, as Curtis Solomon explains here.
“Christian parents are called to raise our children ‘in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4). Our children, in other words, should be able to look to us to see what a life submitted to Christ looks like. We should live in a manner that makes the gospel more intelligible to our children. I wonder, however, if our angry partisanship models the way of the flesh more than the way of Christ.” That’s well worth considering.
“I know people who, if they come to Christ, will lose everything.” As do you and I, I’m sure.
Aaron Sironi offers counsel on one of those situations that seems all too common in marriage.
This is a good passage to understand correctly!
Stephen Kneale writes about some of the ways older and younger generations can fail to be gracious and loving toward one another.
Rome has a gospel but not the gospel and, in reality, their gospel damns not saves because it explicitly denies that justification comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Christ refuses none for weakness, but accepts none for greatness.
—Richard Sibbes
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Free Stuff Fridays (TMAI)
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by The Master’s Academy International (TMAI). They are giving away the 42-volume Essential MacArthur Library set.
The Master’s Academy International (TMAI) is a worldwide network of pastoral training centers that equip indigenous church leaders to preach the word and shepherd their people. They have 19 Training Centers around the world, with dozens currently in development.
Giveaway: The Essential MacArthur Library
The Master’s Academy International (TMAI) is giving away a 42-volume Essential MacArthur Library. This set includes key resources designed to help believers better understand the Bible, the most important resource for anyone. The Essential MacArthur Library remains one of the top translation projects for TMAI as they seek to resource the global church with God-honoring books.
The Essential MacArthur Library includes:The MacArthur New Testament Commentary series (33 vols.)
The MacArthur Study Bible
The MacArthur Bible Commentary
Biblical Doctrine
Essential Christian Doctrine
The Master’s Plan for the Church
The MacArthur Pastoral Library—4 vols. (Preaching, Pastoral Ministry, Counseling, Evangelism)To win the Essential MacArthur Library (in English), please enter below. One winner will be selected.
TO ENTER:
Giveaway Rules: Entries are limited to 1 per person. U.S. and Canadian addresses only. By submitting your information, you agree to receive regular updates about the ministry of The Master’s Academy International. The winner will be notified by email. The giveaway closes at midnight on Friday, July 19th, 2023. Enter your information into the form below or HERE. -
It Comes with a Personal Tutor
The Bible is unique among all books in that it is living and active. “You received the word of God, which you heard from us…” says Paul to one of his churches, “not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The Bible is living and working within believers because of the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Before his ascension, Jesus promised that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). In fact, what the Spirit would bring is so good and so important that Jesus could actually say, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you” (John 16:7).
The promised Spirit has come, and one of the great helps this Helper performs is a kind of tutoring. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says it well: “Unlike any other book that has ever been written, the Bible is alive; and it comes with a personal tutor—the Holy Spirit, who lives in us.” After taking up residence within us, the Spirit illumines the truths of the Bible to our minds and hearts so we can know them, so we can understand them, and so we can joyfully do them. -
A La Carte (February 21)
I am on my way home today after a wonderful and profitable trip to Poland.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few books (though far fewer than yesterday).
(Yesterday on the blog: Daddy, I Need You)
Church History Isn’t Boring (You’re Just Doing it Wrong)
“I have always enjoyed studying history, but I understand why many don’t. Most were taught by well-meaning (but horribly-misguided) teachers who think of history as a catalog of names and dates. But if we approach history like Microsoft Excel, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that the only people who love history look a good deal like those who love spreadsheets.”
Was God at Work in My Pre-Conversion Life?
“God was at work in my life when he saved me. Amen! But was God at work in my life before I came to Christ? And if so, how should we talk about God’s work in our lives before conversion?” Piper answers a good one here. (Also see this interview with Piper.)
So Typical
Mitch Chase has a good introduction to typology in this article.
Behold Your God
“I love open air preaching; and the reason I love it so much is that by going out to the public, we can take the good news of salvation to people who will never darken a church door.”
The Danger of Pursuing a Perfect Church
Trevin Wax: “Some of us fail to recognize our lingering sins and selfishness—we think we’re farther along than we really are in our journey toward holiness. Others face the temptation to despair over our remaining imperfections—perpetually frustrated by the slowness of our progress, perhaps because we lack a sense of the magnitude of God’s love for us in Christ.”
The Safest Place
“There is a narrow existence many choose, living in the tight bubble of Christianity. Circumscribed by fear or disdain for what lies outside. We can settle there, sharp boundaries chafing against the edges of our dreams. Or we can taste the freedom of walking with Him into the world’s darkness, as was His habit, and in the wild adventure of joining the vast palette of humanity, as is our future.”
Flashback: None of Us Will Ever Forget What You Did
“Go. Get out of here. You’re lost—don’t come back until you’ve found yourself.”Scripture speaks most often of faithfulness, not fulfillment, in labor. —Dan Doriani
