“The church court stripped the Rev. Thomas Jay Oord, of Nampa, Idaho, of his preaching credentials and expelled him from membership in the 2.5 million-member global denomination.” - RNS

“Such daily showing up, Dyck argues, may not look like much at first glance, but it is quietly revolutionary. It is the key for healthy marriage and family life, for building friendships, and for growing spiritually.” - Mere Orthodoxy

I recently wrote a brief defense of the importance of personal effort (or “trying harder”) in God’s gracious design to transform His saints. My central claim was that we put ourselves at odds with the NT if we understand or teach the dynamic of sanctification in a way that devalues or strongly cautions against hard work.

But that doesn’t mean emphasizing hard work has no attendant hazards.

Bob Hayton wrote of one of these pitfalls in a post: Particular Pitfalls of Independent Baptists: Performance-Based Sanctification.

Work hard, feel good; blow it and feel terrible. Where is the confidence in God’s grace in this model? The secret to living victoriously for Christ is gritting your teeth, doing more, and not doing the things you shouldn’t do. Try, try, try. Harder, harder, harder! Don’t quit. Keep going. We say that salvation is by grace, but growing in Christ is about the will power, the commitment and the determination.

This can lead to despair or a terrible form of pride.

The solution Bob advocates (citing Terry Rayburn and Tim Kellar, in part) is to reject trying harder, and focus exclusively on faith. Several Reformed leaders have emphasized a similar perspective in recent years (with a burst of back and forth on the Web beginning in the summer of 2011, see the table posting tomorrow), Tullian Tchividjian and Sean Lucas among them.

My purpose here is to explore the problem Bob and others have described. Perhaps we can come to more fully understand it.

“With the Japanese invasion pressing further into China in 1944, [Liddell’s] wife and their two daughters (and another on the way) were sent overseas to avoid danger…. Liddell was convinced he should stay.” - TGC

“Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered a remnant of a massive ancient moat in Jerusalem that fortified the city during the time of the First Jewish Temple and the Kingdom of Judah” - RNS

“The National Conservative perspective today may be abandoned tomorrow. For tariffs one day, against them the next. For raising corporate tax rates one day, for lowering them the next. Pro-Life one day, Pro-Choice the next. National Libertarian or National Populist, as long as it’s national.” - Religion & Liberty

“We cannot tell whether God means to bless America and the world by preserving Donald Trump, or to judge it. Time will tell. The same is true (although most likely on a smaller scale) for the Comperatore family. Surely, God’s providence allowed their loss.” - Don Johnson

“The first category is books to read slowly….The third category is books to read for fun….The second category sits between them: books to read quickly.” - Challies

I believe that the biblical data strongly shows that stringed instruments are far more important in the worship of God than are either wind instruments or percussion instruments. My saying this does not stem in any way from my hating either wind instruments or percussion instruments.

Nor does it show that I have any personal biases against or "racist" hatred of "modern" music or the people(s) who have produced or who favor that music, etc. Rather, I am fully convinced from the biblical data alone that God has emphatically set forth the primacy of stringed instruments in corporate worship that He accepts.

It has often been noted that—tempted as we as preachers might be—we can never preach to the crowd that is not present. This column might be a bit unusual, then, as one might say that it is presented for the person who will never read it. At least in the case of the written word, however, it can be posted for all to see—and share.

Let me also preface my remarks by stating up front that many of the best responses we have seen in our service with The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry have been in small churches—sometimes to such an extent that it is almost beyond comprehension.

The word “Christian” has many meanings. Thus, asking the question, “Were you raised in a Christian home?” can be ambiguous. Does one mean a home that professed evangelical religion? Or does it mean any sort of Christianity?

People change as well. Perhaps you were not raised in a Christian home, but your parents came to the Lord when you were 12? Were you then raised in a Christian home? We cannot cover all the possibilities, so try to choose the answer that fits you best.

The folks who participate in SI tend to be people who are very involved in the Kingdom, so wondering what kinds of background you have.

“The first question battery was focused on the family circumstances of those who were currently nonreligious. I wanted to break this down by age to see if younger nones were more likely to be raised in a nonreligious household compared to older nones.” - Religion Unplugged

“The survey findings revealed that many pastors struggle with their level of financial knowledge. Fewer than half said they were somewhat or very well prepared for financial matters by their college, seminary or first employer in ministry, while 48% said they put off thinking about financial matters because they don’t feel knowledgeable in that area.” - The Baptist Paper

“I wonder if we’ve made it a little too abstract, a little too inactive, and perhaps a little too solitary. What is meditation? Meditation is pondering the words of the Bible with the goal of better understanding and sharper application.” - Challies

“I have often been surprised at the mercy of God to myself. Poor sermons of mine, that I could cry over when I get home, have led scores to the cross; and, more wonderful still, words that I have spoken in ordinary conversation…” - Chuck Lawless

“It’s not that Hollywood had a moral awakening. As producer and film industry analyst Stephen Follows pointed out, drugs, violence, and profanity have remained roughly constant in movies during the same period.” - Breakpoint

Read the series.

I’ve suggested in the earlier posts in this series that you ought to be part of a local church, an assembly of (admittedly broken) believers—that reasons for not doing that are invalid, and that those same reasons actually call for serious commitment, for becoming an active, registered member.

OK, now that you’re a member, what’s next? What’s the point of belonging to a church?

“Regardless of our circumstances, we must rejoice in the Lord: ‘Though the fig tree should not blossom … yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. (Hab. 3:17–18)’” - Ligonier

“Even among people who have graduate degrees, they are still three times more likely to say that they have no doubt of God’s existence than to express an atheist or agnostic view of God. Certain religious belief is still incredibly robust in the United States, even if it has declined somewhat over the last 35 years.” - Ryan Burge

“Following headlines in national newspapers about Gen Z’s growing interest in church and the unapologetically Christian members of England men’s football team, Pat Finlow says the evidence is mounting that secular thinking is on its way out” - Premier Christianity

“A Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant churchgoers finds 3 in 5 (60 percent) say they have extended at least one invitation in the past six months for someone to attend their church, including … 21 percent with two invitations and 20 percent with three or more invitations.” - Lifeway

“The vast majority of women who choose to have an abortion do so because they feel it is their only option. Whether these women lack financial resources, community support, or face pressure from those around them, the Church must continue to step in and meet these women in their time of need.” - Juicy Ecumenism

Read Part 1.

“Bob [Newheart] suffered the absurdities of modern life and made the middle-class man into a dignified figure, not despite but because he was put upon. Playing his own straight man, he invented stories that would show us our own conceited ways.” - L&L

“Ministry is hard and ministers are flawed…. Ministers give in to doubts and distractions, cynicism and cowardice, gossip and glory-hunting. While gathered with fellow ministers we may pretend otherwise, but sitting alone in our studies, we know it’s true.” - TGC

“In a head-scratching turn of events, the executive board of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm now says its leader has not been fired.” - RNS

“As of 2022, unauthorized immigrants represented 3.3% of the total U.S. population and 23% of the foreign-born population. These shares were lower than the peak values in 2007 but slightly higher than in 2019.” - Pew

“In accordance with our bylaws, the executive committee has removed Brent Leatherwood as president. Further details, as well as plans for the transition, will be provided at our September board meeting.” - The Baptist Paper

Related: Brent Leatherwood, ERLC president, fired a day after praising Biden - RNS

“Does God exist in time or independently of it? Is he timelessly eternal, or does his life pass through an everlasting succession of moments? Most Christians agree that God transcends time in some fashion, but how, exactly?” - Credo

“The Baptist Network Northwest partnered with Corban University to host the fellowship’s Refine Conference. Nearly 100 ministry workers attended the two-day event.” - RBM