Check Your Investments: What we do here will have implications for generations to come.  Are we working to build that awe-inspiring, Christ-glorifying phenomenon in our own families, or are we too preoccupied investing in all of the stuff that doesn’t matter?  Today is the day to begin.

A Legacy With Leaving: The following is a letter my (Ray Ortlund's) dad wrote several years before his death, which he left in his desk, where he knew we would find it.

Faithfully Delivering The Gospel: Christians are to simply be minimum wage table servers, taking the masterpiece from the award winning chef and bringing it to the tables.

The Transgender Agenda: Rather, it might be sensible to recognise that the transgender agenda is causing us, among other things, to, as Brendan O’Neill puts it, experiment on our children in the most damaging way.

Two Wisdom's And The Good Life: Who among us is wise, living the good life of divine wisdom? Only those who God’s Spirit dwells within, those who have picked up their cross and sought to embody and proclaim its seemingly foolish message.

The No Feeling Zone: But the problem is we have been shamed into what I call “The No Feeling Zone”. In this zone, when singles express feelings about their hardship, and the desire for marriage, this automatically translates into them being discontent in their singleness, and idolizing marriage. We have cynically been shamed into a room in the corner where we are not allowed to express our struggles without being judged by those who are “content”.

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What Does It Mean To Be Gospel Centered?: John Piper explains what it means to be gospel-centered or cross-centered.

Resolve To Be A Life Long Learner: The Christian faith is not a finite course of study for the front-end of adulthood. Our mindset shouldn’t be to first do our learning and then spend the rest of our lives drawing from that original deposit of knowledge. Rather, ongoing health in the Christian life is inextricably linked to ongoing learning.

Choose Hospitality Over Entertainment: It revealed my own lack of understanding about the nature and purpose of hospitality. In my self-righteous desire to offer advice, I had confused hospitality with its evil twin, entertaining. The two ideas aren't the same. 

12 Struggles Singles Face: When we hear the word “single” we usually think of one kind of single – someone maybe 25-50 who has not married. But there are other kinds of singles: widows, single parents, divorcees, those who suffer with same-sex attraction, and even those who are in loveless marriages – perhaps the most painful singleness of all. But for all singles, there are twelve struggles that must be faced at different stages and to different degrees.

Does God Have A Purpose In My Life?: Most people want to know God’s purpose for their lives, but they simply don’t know where to look. Is it possible to even know God’s purpose for our lives? And how do we discover what it is? Psalm 57 teaches us three truths about our God-given purpose.

How Can A Mature Christian Be Fed In A Missional Community?: There is much that can be said on this, but it is best to focus on the most mature Christian that ever lived, Jesus Christ and what He has to say and even demonstrates about being fed. I’m well aware that not everyone is Jesus, and that many people far from God and new to Christianity need to be taught the bible. But we must also be careful to teach them to feed themselves, not make them dependent on someone else to teach them.

4 Dangers For Complementarian's: Of course, many people will disagree with complementarianism—often quite vehemently—no matter what we say or do. But the truth is offensive enough without our help. We don’t need to add to its offense with our own faults and foibles. I therefore list four dangers to which we should be particularly sensitive, even while we stand firm in the face of pressure from our more aggressive critics.

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Jesus Cares About Your Words: Jesus is Lord over all. And as the Cosmic Emperor, he reigns over Neptune, pinwheel galaxies, birds, blades of grass, and our words. Jesus is Lord over our sentences. The Lordship of Christ has no boundaries. There is not an area of our lives that we can rope off and tell Jesus, “Not here, bub.” Jesus cares about our speech.

A Gospeled Church: You cannot grow in holiness and holier-than-thou-ness at the same time. So a church that makes its main thing the gospel, and when faced with sin in its ranks doesn’t simply crack the whip of the law but says “remember the gospel,” should gradually be seeing grace coming to bear.

You Must Put Sin To Death: Owen says that Christians—the choicest Christians—hate sin and pursue it to its death. Could there be a conclusion that is farther from the world around us? The world, the flesh, and the devil tell us to pursue our sin, to enjoy our sin, to go deeper and deeper into our sin, to identify ourselves by our sin, to become our sin. God’s Word tells us to identify our sin, to hate our sin, to destroy our sin. And by God’s grace we can do that very thing. He can give us a revulsion toward our sin, and then empower us to kill it. Praise God!

He Must Increase; Our Churches Must Decrease: There is one thing that the churches experiencing historic revival have in common: they seemed overrun with the sense of the glory of God. They preached the gospel and the response was, as some describe, that “glory came down.”

Good News For The Poor: The church has made mistakes in the past by farming out, almost exclusively, social justice-type ministries to parachurch organizations. The church has also been guilty of paternalism and malevolent generosity when it comes to things such as soup kitchens, food pantries, and so forth. We’ve too often confused free handouts with Christian ministry. Instead, we should be evangelizing, discipling, equipping, and sending out people as they minister within local churches.

A Tale Of Two Mars Hills: A drift in doctrine, a drift from the truth, has a devastating impact. There is a massive difference in holding tightly to the “faith delivered once and for all to the saints” and continually questioning, as Satan did in the garden, “Did God really say…?” Putting on trial what the Lord has clearly declared is the antithesis of watching your doctrine. One Mars Hill, and numerous observers, has been adversely impacted by a failure to closely watch life, and one by a failure to watch doctrine.

When You Wonder Who Is Thinking Of You: The trail of tears is thinking of myself and looking for others to give to me. The trail of joy and blessing is thinking of God and others. The fight that so often happens in my heart happens because this isn't a natural response, but it is possible by the Holy Spirit who resides in me.

4 Things God Says To Singles: About 35 percent of adult church members in Britain are single, so clearly the subject of singleness has considerable personal interest to many people in our churches. Each single person will have a different experience. There are age differences. Being single at 20 is very different from being single at 30, 40, or 70. There are circumstantial differences: some have never married, while others are divorcees, widows, or widowers. And there are experiential differences: some have chosen to be single and are basically content; others long to be married and feel frustrated. What does the Bible say to all these people?

Ten Simple Ways Your Church Can Serve Foster Families: Foster care is a Church problem, not a state child welfare problem. It is a Gospel issue first, not a government issue. The Church has both the duty and privilege to speak on behalf of and stand for the sake of those who cannot speak and stand for themselves because that is exactly what God has done for us through Jesus. That's the Gospel.

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10 Surefire Ways To Make Your Kids Hate Family Devotionals: Want to make absolutely sure that your kids loathe family devotions? Here are ten easy ways to make sure they associate family worship with legalism, boredom, and drudgery.

8 Encouragements To Single Men: Over the years I have seen some men handle singleness well, but I have seen more men handle it poorly. My goal here is not to heap shame on you but to encourage you. In Christ, your sins are forgiven and you are radically loved by the Father. He wants life for you, not death; hope, not despair; sanctified optimism, not disgruntled cynicism. If you are a genuine follower of Jesus every season is an instrument of transformation in the hands of our good and gracious God, as he forms you into the image of his Son (Rom 8:29). He will help you, strengthen you and uphold you (Isa 40:10). He has given you all that you need for life and godliness (2Peter 1:3). So, I encourage you to consider the eight following areas and, moved and motivated by the love and grace of God, make adjustments as needed. These tend to be the greatest areas of weakness for single men. 

Defining Legalism: Since the charge of "legalism" is tossed around carelessly, we should define the terms and see who does and who does not deserve the label. Let me name four classes of legalists. 

5 Godly Lessons From Sports: The odds of getting a full-ride scholarship or a big pro contract are long, but in sports there is a 100% chance that your child will learn lifelong lessons about faith, effort, attitude, playing on a team, and giving God the victory regardless of the outcome. As the parent of a young athlete, here are five ways to make those lessons positive ones.

Pregnancy After Miscarriage: I need grace that results in patience. Yes, the anger and bitterness grown within a person is sin. Thankfully Jesus died to overcome and forgive sin. That's why I can read Romans 5and have hope. I am a broken sinner whom Christ died for, not some beautified warrior riding a stallion.

5 Evidences Of Complementarian Gender Roles In Genesis 1-2: But is it really true? Is that what Genesis teaches? A closer look reveals the egalitarian reading of the text is quite misleading. [ii] Before sin enters the world, Genesis 1-2 presents man and woman as equal in their essence as divine image-bearers but unequal in their social roles. The first man Adam acts as the leader in this first marriage, and Eve is called to follow his leadership. God's appointment of Adam as leader comes out in at least five ways in Genesis 2.

The Savior Who Suffers With Us: The beauty of Christ’s atonement is seen in how God is with us (in our suffering), instead of us (as our substitute), and for us (in victory over the powers of Satan, sin, and death). In today’s blog post, I want to focus on how the truth of the incarnation (in the person of Jesus Christ God is with us) is magnified by the reality of the atonement (God is with us in suffering).

When Compassion Meets Brokenness: Are you facing brokenness, condemnation, seclusion, loneliness or pain?  Are you fighting your way to get to the feet of the one who knows you and longs to heal you?  On the cross, our savior stretched out his hands in compassion and love for us.  He took on our brokenness and in return, poured out true love that redeems the brokenness.  Fight through the crowds, worship at his feet and trust him to extend the love you need to have everything wrong become right again.

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