“Jude had a preference: ‘Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). He wanted to agree, celebrating God’s grace in their ‘common salvation.’ But he needed to confront” - 9 Marks

“Southern Baptists initiated the work of sexual abuse reform not in response to criminal inquiries or threats of lawsuits but due to an increasing burden and awareness that vulnerable people were suffering harm in many of our churches and institutions, which were vastly under resourced to care for and protect them.” - BPNews

“All of us are interviewers. We also can’t escape being interviewed, either formally or informally. Good questions and answers are some of the building blocks of God-honoring conversation.” - Ref21

“As we move toward the general election, the pressure from partisan cheerleaders to line up behind one of these two unfit men will only grow louder…. Look where the ‘lesser-of-two-evils’ mindset and the ‘traditional GOP way’ have gotten us: a contest between the most unpopular presidential nominees in the history of polling.” - The Dispatch

“The Gospel Coalition and Together For the Gospel…. In both cases, baptismal differences are not regarded as barriers to participation, whereas differences over manhood and womanhood are. What might account for this difference (and others like it)?” - Christ Over All

The Chafer Theological Seminary Pastors’ Conference met for the 19^th time at West Houston Bible Church this past Monday through Wednesday, March 4 to 6. In the aftermath of Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the conference focused on “Israel: Past, Present, and Future.”

Roughly 250 attendees came together on site, with 1,600 unique viewers observing online during the three days. They had the rare opportunity to hear from representatives of three leading Israel-focused ministries, along with connecting with many others who love and serve the Jewish people in various ways.

“No matter where you work, fallenness is all around you. Other peoples’ unkindness, though, does not negate our call to live at peace with them, and is certainly not a reason to visit their unkindness right back to them (Rom 12:17-18, 21).” - Common Good

“Skepticism is defined as having ‘great doubt’ regarding the truthfulness or trustworthiness of a claim….Cynicism, on the other hand, describes situations where we’re ‘contemptuously distrustful’ of someone’s action or motives.” - Daily Citizen

“While 14 percent said they were ‘less confident’ in 2022, just 9 percent now say the same. Notably, these numbers are strong among both men (51%) and women (53%), as well as pastors over 45 (52%) and under 45 (50%).” - Barna

Executive Committee: “While we are grateful for closure on this particular matter, we recognize that sexual abuse reform efforts must continue to be implemented across the Convention” - The Baptist Paper

“Liberty University has agreed to pay an unprecedented $14 million fine for the Christian school’s failure to disclose information about crimes on its campus and for its treatment of sexual assault survivors” - BPNews

In preaching, teaching and writing, our good intentions are often defeated by an avoidable poor choice of words. Sometimes these inapt wordings gain popularity among Christians and become proverbial. Without thinking, we repeat them for the amens.

One example is the popular habit of speaking of duty and love as though they’re two competing and incompatible dynamics in the Christian life.

I can’t be the only one who has heard this, over and over, and wondered, over and over, what Bible people are reading. Consider Jesus’ state of mind and heart as He approached the cross.

“God’s plan all along has been to use ordinary leaders to accomplish extraordinary things. His plan has been to use people of average ability to accomplish matters of eternal significance.” - Challies

“The IAC also recognized MBU’s eligibility for the HLC’s Open Pathway, a designation reserved for institutions with a well-established record of strong operational practices and a commitment to continuous improvement.” - MBU

“Globally, the median score on our 10-point Government Restrictions Index rose from 2.8 in 2020 to 3.0 in 2021 – the highest level recorded since we began tracking this in 2007.” - Pew

“U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor in Bismarck ruled that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cannot make the Christian Employers Alliance (CEA) comply with rules requiring that coverage.” - Reuters

“EC chairman and search team member Philip Robertson of Louisiana called Iorg ‘a leader that all Southern Baptists can unite around.’” - The Baptist Paper

“There are many different groups with various interests. Sometimes those interests coincide but not for the same reasons.” - P&D

“what if someone knows they’ve wronged you, yet doesn’t ask your forgiveness. Surely that justifies holding a grudge! Doesn’t their refusal to repent legitimize my bitterness?” - BJU Seminary

“most church members aren’t listening so that they can offer critiques but so that they can be edified. For this I am grateful! Yet also, most members are hesitant to voice negative feelings about preaching.” - 9 Marks

“I cannot know the hearts of men and women. But is it fair to make an estimate? … Can we really provide the number of CHRINOs in America, even if it’s not precise? I think the answer to all of those questions is ‘yes.’” - Thom Rainer

“it is not enough just to describe what intellectual friendship might look like: robust conversation, charitable questioning, and civil disagreement among friends who are committed to truth-seeking. We also need to explain why it matters” - Public Discourse

Read the series.

At the dawn of the millennial kingdom on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ will reveal Himself in bodily form to all glorified and non-glorified believers. Just as He revealed Himself and His true identity to His astonished disciples for 40 days after His resurrection, often at mealtimes, so also will be His self-revelation at the inaugural kingdom banquet.

“The doctrine of limited atonement, in reality, is helpful in evangelism. The Calvinist knows that not everyone will respond to the gospel message, but he also knows with certainty that some will respond to it.” - R.C. Sproul

“Today’s announcement establishes uniform policies to safeguard Americans from religious discrimination in social services.” - RNS

“Although imperfect and at times reflective of his culture, Chrysostom’s advice on marriage reminds us that marriage is permanent and, therefore, it must be entered with great care and sustained by mutual love and respect.” - DBTS Blog

“our ignorance shouldn’t make us feel threatened. We can rest in the fact that God understands everything and marvel at his glory while saying, ‘I don’t know.’” - TGC

“The Kingdom of God is not of this world. Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight.’ His Kingdom is not of this world. The kingdom of this world is a separate world. They’re not linked together.” - CPost

Written in 2018; read the series.

Number 6: Responsibility. You can and should control your reactions. You should resist being manipulated.

When Adam sinned, God confronted him. And in a really remarkable display of chutzpah (was the first language Yiddish?), Adam blamed his wife. And then, in the same breath, he blamed God himself: “the woman, whom YOU gave to me … “ (Gen 3.12).

From the very beginning, we’ve been blame-shifters. When we can be cajoled into reluctantly admitting that we’ve done something wrong, our natural reaction is to blame the whole thing on somebody else. Our children do it. And so do we.

“For too many Zoomers, religion has come to mean any spiritual movement that seeks to oppress. Not only are kids taught in schools that religion was a tool of white colonizers to subdue and enslave indigenous populations, but their popular media are saturated with this narrative.” - Acton