Goal for Weekly Once-Over Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we have seen this past week that have been helpful and our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. So every Thursday of each week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

Weekly Once-Over (5.22.13)

Jacob Chen - An Adoption Story: Drawing on Gospel parallels and the extent of God's pursuit, this film follows one couple as they meet their newly adopted son for the first time.

Christian Adoption: Disavowals and Affirmations: "Here is my effort to express the kind of commitments that would, I think, guard us from the kinds of abuses that have marred this otherwise beautiful movement of compassion and conviction in our day. I believe that the vast majority of Christian adoption advocates would agree with these disavowals and affirmations. These should be understood within the biblical and theological framework for adoption I have developed elsewhere on this site."

The Litmus Test of Genuine Christianity: "In our pluralistic culture, churches have become so varied that they spread confusion about what it really means to be a follower of Christ. When it comes to hot-button issues like gun rights, abortion, and homosexuality, professing Christians line up on opposite ends. Can Christianity legitimately be so divided? Or, to put it another way, can anyone discern the "real deal"? Is it possible to know what functional, practical Christianity truly looks like?"

Free E-Book Alert: Ligonier Ministries has announced that R.C. Sproul’s Crucial Questions series will now be free for Kindle and other e-readers. So have at it! Can I Be Sure I'm Saved?; Can I Have Joy in My Life?; Can I Know God's Will?; Can I Trust the Bible?; Does God Control Everything?; Does Prayer Change Things?; How Should I Live in this World?; What Can I Do with My Guilt?; What Does It Mean to be Born Again?; What Is Baptism?; What Is Faith?; What Is the Trinity?; Who Is Jesus?; Who Is the Holy Spirit?

By Christ's purchasing redemption, two things are intended: his satisfaction and his merit; the one pays our debt, and so satisfies; the other procures our title, and so merits. The satisfaction of Christ is to free us from misery; the merit of Christ is to purchase happiness for us. - Jonathan Edwards

Goal for Weekly Once-Over Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we have seen this past week that have been helpful and our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. So every Thursday of each week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

 Weekly Once-Over (5.16.13)

Pastor J.D. Greear has a great post about How To Navigate Conflict Well. In Ephesians 4:29, Paul mentions two kinds of speech: that which builds up and that which pulls down. This verse and the surrounding passage show us ten ways that we can handle conflict well—10 ways to fight like a Christian...

The Plastic Fruit of Online Living is a great and convicting blog post about living two lives (online and offline). How can our online life look different from our offline life and how do we navigate well when this is true.

Prayerlessness is Selfishness  "The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own." This is a great post on prayerless points to selfishness.

Acts 29 Pastor from Austin Stone (Matt Carter) shows us how to catch a bird. This is funny and crazy at the same time. This is How You Catch a Bird

Are You Too Scared To Lead Thom Rainer has a great post about being too scared to lead. "I don't know any leader who isn't scared.  The question is are you TOO scared and WHY?"

When Dying Is Gain The art of living well comes from knowing that dying is gain.

photo credit: Broo_am (Andy B) via photopin cc

The Following Blog Post is by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church helping Fathers on how to practically lead a family: "As men, we bear a greater burden before God for the well-being of our families and our church. Our wives and children should flourish under our loving leadership.

By the grace of God, you can be who God has called you to be, do what God has called you to do, and love as God has loved you.

As men, we will never in this life experience perfection, but by the grace of God we can experience progress every day until we enter perfection in the life to come. So don’t sulk, don’t sin, and don’t settle, but instead strive."

Here Are 11 Practical Tips for Husbands to lead their Family Well

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Community, Mission and Summertime

Blog Post by Todd Engstrom of Austin Stone Church.

For everyone summer time is coming up soon and Gospel Communities seem to take breaks for the summer or rhythms get messed up and all that momentum that was gained over the year dies off, well here is a great blog on how to continue to keep rhythms through the summer even if they change but communities can continue to be on mission together in our city even through this summer. If your in a Gospel Community at Redeemer Church you should read this blog by Todd Engstrom cause it is truly helpful.

Community, Mission and Summertime

photo credit: Яick Harris via photopin cc

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Picture Storyline Here is a picture blog of the process that some talented artists went through to get our typography mural up on our wall in our space. Nice work Shiloh and Quintin, we really appreciate all the hard work.

By: Kati Berreth

What would your summer look like if as you made plans for yourself, your family, with your friends, you did so with missional intentionality? Would it look any different than the plans you are making now? Would it place the Gospel first and have everything else line up in accordance with that? Would it give purpose to the conversations you have, the camps you sign your kids up for, the vacations you aspire to have, and the time in the sun you so desperately are hoping for after our rainy winter?

Join me this spring in making our summer vacations, our plans for our kids to be home, and even where and how our Gospel Community are going to meet intentionally missional.

Jonathon Dodson, a lead a29 pastor and author of the article “8 Easy Ways to be Missional” defines being missional in this way:

“Missional is not an event we tack onto our already busy lives. It is our life. Mission should be the way we live, not something we add onto life: “As you go, make disciples….”

So how can you, your family, your roommates, your Gospel Community, your kids be missionally intentional with your time this summer?

Over the next few weeks, I will highlight some specifics and ideas for doing just that, being missional this summer in Bellingham and Whatcom County, but to start let’s pray together.

“Father, You are a good and gracious God. You are mighty and just. We praise You alone for speaking this world, this universe, into existence as well as knowing even the smallest details of our lives as the number of hairs on our heads.

Even as we pray this prayer, we confess that our motives for making plans and pursuing ideas can be selfish, seeking worldly comfort, safety and peace, as well as worldly excitement. We confess that we often love the gifts of this world more than the Giver of those gifts – You.

Please God, change our hearts and our minds to put You and Your mission, “To make disciples of all nations” first in all we do, especially as we think about this summer. Please remind us of the good news of Your Gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, taking on our punishment, the Your wrath, then rising from the grave, defeating sin, satan, and death, so that we might be in relationship with You, the eternal and everlasting God. And please ignite us to share this amazing news with those around us…intentionally this summer.

Father, we thank you for what Jesus has done for us. We thank You that we live in a time and a place where we have the ability to even ponder what our summer plans will look like. And we thank You for loving us even when and if we don’t do this right.

God be with us as we seek to be intentionally missional this summer.

In Jesus precious name we pray.

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