PRAYER
Unburden your soul to God (Justin Huffman): Prayer is the way we take our cares to God, the means God himself has given us for unburdening our souls. Coming to God with our cares means coming to God before our cares are no longer cares, before we have solved the problem ourselves, before we have cleaned up the mess, before the crisis has passed. Casting our burdens on the Lord means going to God while we are burdened, with the very things that are causing us to doubt Him, to get discouraged in prayer, to feel weighed down in real life.
MINISTRY
Realistic expectations from a life of ministry (Matthew Santhosh Thomas at The Gospel Coalition India): So, what can you expect from a life of ministry? You can expect personal life transformation. God will change your perspectives, plans, and your understanding of ministry and its outcomes. Any ministry without the transforming power of the Chief Minister is not worth pursuing.
CHRISTIAN LIFE
Heaven is coming (Jacob Crouch): One day I will be in heaven, and the glory of heaven will outshine all of my earthly cares and concerns so that even suffering will seem as “light, momentary afflictions” (2 Cor 4:17). I long for that day, but I need a view of heaven now. Jonathan Edwards prayed that God would stamp eternity on his eyes, but I want to modify that slightly; “God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs in this situation.” I don’t need just a general view of eternity. I need a view of heaven in every situation.
PREACHING
10 characteristics of the best preachers I’ve known (Chuck Lawless): First, a caveat: determining what constitutes an effective preacher is subjective, so you and I might differ here a bit—but, I also suspect that we can agree that we know good preaching when we hear it. Based on my interactions with pastors for almost 30 years, here are characteristics of the best preachers I’ve known:
How to prepare a sermon: From complexity to clarity (Jonathan Nason at Sola Ecclesia): I recently had the privilege to observe a couple dozen sermons in a preaching class. I was encouraged by their faithfulness to God’s Word, but as I listened, I began to realize that my feedback was the same for each preacher. They needed to focus their sermon on one main idea and then build their entire sermon around that main idea.1 In other words, these aspiring preachers needed to work on preaching clear and focused sermons.
EVANGELISM
A more spontaneous and genuine evangelism (Jim Eliff at Christian Communicators Worldwide): In my view, much of our fear comes because we’ve made evangelism too difficult and confusing.
BIBLICAL INSIGHT
What is hell like? (David Kaywood at Gospel Relevance): I don’t particularly like writing or thinking about hell. It’s been said if you preach on hell, you should do so with a tear in your eye. The topic of hell must be treated with biblical fidelity but also with compassion for neighbor. Nevertheless, we regularly need biblical resources on hell since there are constant attacks to undermine it.
How was circumcision a sign of the covenant? (Nick Batzig at Ligonier): Misunderstandings about circumcision should come as no surprise to us. After all, even many in old covenant Israel failed to rightly understand the nature of the covenant sign of circumcision. Instead of trusting in the Christ to whom it pointed, they trusted in it as a badge of ethnic superiority. Instead of seeing it as the divinely appointed gospel sign of God’s covenant, they viewed it as a fleshly mark of merit. Several factors contribute to this ongoing misunderstanding of the nature of circumcision as a covenant sign in our day.
CULTURE
Why I no longer support the death penalty (Matthew T. Martens at Crossway): You may disagree with the author’s reasons, but his arguments are something to at least consider when it comes to the death penalty in the present judicial system in the US.