Links & Quotes

Instead of trying to get out of the difficult place quickly, try to learn what you can get out of the difficult place.

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Fight The New Drug shares, “Young people don’t have to go looking for harmful content online anymore—it can find them through social media, gaming platforms, algorithms, or even someone they trust. And sometimes, what begins as an ordinary online interaction can escalate into something much more serious.”

“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.” —C.S. Lewis, in A Grief Observed 

“Temptation feeds on curiosity. It tells me what I don’t have and what I should have by giving me comparisons. … Sin is so shortsighted. It only lives in the moment. It never bothers to ask if it’s worth it. Sin doesn’t think that far ahead. It makes you think only as far as forgiveness. Sin says, ‘Go ahead, God will forgive you,’ but it leaves out some very important facts: You can be forgiven and still pay the consequences of breaking trust, losing your marriage, and even devastating your children. You can be forgiven of sin, but not free of the consequences.” —Tim Dilena, in Chapter by Chapter on 2 Samuel 11 

Wow, is this a powerful and important message for anyone struggling with temptation. Succinctly put: we never sin alone. In this post, T.M. Moore writes, “The first step along the way of escape is to remember that we never sin alone. We might think we can ‘get away’ with some little secret sin, but we are part of a community of the faithful; we are members of the Body of Christ. If I introduce infection to one of my fingers, or poison to my tongue, sooner or later my whole body is going to feel the consequences. It’s the same thing with sin. Any time we rebel against the Lord we plant a seed of disobedience and corruption in our own souls. Like dandelions, the seeds of rebellion can waft through all our thoughts, feelings, priorities, words, and deeds and take root in ways we cannot predict, and may not be able to control. Sooner or later, someone will feel the impact of our sinfulness, whether by some sin of commission or omission on our part.”

“The nearer your communion with Christ is, the more will you be permitted to know of Him. Our perceptions of Christ, if they are true, will be spiritual; and in proportion as our spiritual life is in a right condition, shall we be able to know more and more of Him.” —Charles Spurgeon 

John Piper writes, “All of you have been wronged at one time or another. Most of you, probably, have been wronged seriously by someone who has never apologized or done anything sufficient to make it right.” Then he shares the encouraging truth in this posts: Justice will be done.

Links & Quotes

Psalm 99 lists four different ways saints come to worship before God’s throne. The Old English spelling is “worthship” because God is worth all of the praise we can lift to Him—especially when we think about the sins He has forgiven 🙌🏻

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“True love hates that which is unlovely. It is inevitable that a man, who is full of love, should feel intense indignation against that which is contrary to love. Hence the apostle says, ‘If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.’” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on 1 John 4:18-20 

Christians aren’t supposed to be “lone rangers” but in community with other saints. T.M. Moore wrote, “Our Christian friends can be a very helpful resource for improving our conversational skills, if we will take the time to talk about spiritual things. As iron sharpens iron, we may expect that, by engaging often in conversations with other believers, over matters of the highest moment, our conversational skills will improve steadily over time. We might even have some fun.”

The social conditions that led up to the Prayer Revival of 1857, in many ways, mirror those in America today. Check out a short history lesson about spiritual revivals. 

“And, in yet another sense, handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity 

A young man in the middle school where I serve asked to read a copy of my book When Sheep Bite. Nearly every day on his lunch break, Nick would come into talk with me about what he read, and share some insights he had gleaned. He wrote the most sincere and straightforward endorsement that I have ever received.

Links & Quotes

The terms used in the New Testament for followers of Jesus aren’t typically the same terms we use today. As Christians, we need to ask ourselves, “Is my life showing the biblical definition of what it means to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior?”

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“The trouble is that what we call ‘asking God’s forgiveness’ very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some ‘extenuating circumstances.’ We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses.” —C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory 

“There is a place for anger. Without it, we would become passive against injustice. Anger helps us turn away from accepting blame that does not belong to us. It allows us to gain needed emotional distance from the one who hurt us. But anger requires safeguards. In this psalm, David had two: (1) He told his anger to God. … (2) He let God handle the execution of anger.” —Dr. George O. Wood, in A Psalm in my Heart

T.M. Moore speaks to the church in this post called Equipped For Good Works. A couple of comments that especially caught my attention: “A local church grows as it increases in the likeness of Jesus Christ” and “Churches grow as individual church members grow in zeal for good works, and do good to others at every opportunity, beginning within the household of faith.”

“I believe that the prophesies in the Revelation, and in the books of Daniel and Ezekiel are very much of this character, and that, while it is quite right to watch for and expect the coming of the Lord, we shall spend our time more profitably in preaching the doctrines of the gospel than in meditating upon the mysterious prophecies of the Word. They will be understood when they are fulfilled, but we do not think they will be fully understood before that time.” —Charles Spurgeon 

The name of God is an important topic. Dr. Kaspars Ozolins writes, “What, then, is the actual name of Israel’s God? In biblical Hebrew it is represented by a sequence of four consonants, the famous tetragrammaton: YHWH. This name occurs a total of 6,828 times in the Old Testament.” Learn more about this name in this post.

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the printing of the Tyndale Bible. This is an important event in Christian and world history. Check out this short overview of how this Bible came to be, and its impact that is still being felt today.

Links & Quotes

For Christians, there is no sacred-secular divide. We need the mind of Christ for literally everything that we do! Spirit-baptized Christians receive extraordinary insight from the Holy Spirit.

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“Our prayers can go where we cannot. There are no borders, no prison walls, no doors that are closed to us when we pray.” —Brother Andrew

The historicity of the Bible is well documented. Here is another archeological biography from The Bible Archeology Report, this one of Ben-Hadad III. 

“I do not want the walls of separation between different orders of Christians to be destroyed, but only lowered, that we may shake hands a little easier over them.” —Rowland Hill (1744-1833) 

“Those who are seriously attempting chastity are more conscious, and soon know a great deal more about their own sexuality than anyone else. They come to know their desires as Wellington knew Napoleon, or as Sherlock Holmes knew Moriarty; as a rat-catcher knows rats or a plumber knows about leaky pipes. Virtue—even attempted virtue—brings light; indulgence brings fog.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity 

Marvin Olasky begins this informative article, “The war against abortion did not begin with the now-overturned 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.” He then gives us a comprehensive history of women of science who have stood on the front lines of the  pro-life movement. Check out The Women Who Guarded the Womb.

J. Warner Wallace debunks that myth that Christianity is anti-science. Wallace actually makes that case the Christianity is the reason behind science’s remarkable growth.

Links & Quotes

Greg and I both have confessions to make about areas we fell short in our earlier careers. But we have learned that those stumbling points can be launching points for greater growth.

I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

“Without God, there could be no American form of Government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first—the most basic—expression of Americanism.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower 

Greg Morse calls out the way pornography addictions are hamstringing the church. “My intention is simply to kindle the abhorrence that every saint should have for this sin. I hate pornography. I hate what it does to young men; I hate what it does to marriages; I hate what it does to older men and even older ministers who trip while crossing the finish line. I hate its accessibility; I hate its covertness; I hate how it is designed by satan to disable the men and women who were made for so much more.”

“But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what [God] intended us to be when He made us. He is the inventor, we are only the machine. He is the painter, we are only the picture. How should we know what He means us to be like? … We may be content to remain what we call ‘ordinary people’: but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility: it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity 

“Leadership development is synonymous with personal development. As leaders grow personally, they increase their ability to lead. As they increase their capability to lead, they enlarge the capacity of their organization to grow. Therefore, the most crucial objective for any leader is personal growth. … The most important thing spiritual leaders do is cultivate their relationship with God (John 15:5; Jeremiah 7:13).” —Richard and Henry Blackaby, in Spiritual Leadership 

C.M. Ward’s interview of the governor of Florida during a time of political distrust is a great example of integrity for us still today. 

Links & Quotes

Here’s a quote from John Piper that got me thinking: “God loves His people. He loves for them to get good food, rich food. He knows how to put His shepherds in the vice of affliction and squeeze out of us authentic, prayer-soaked, desperation-flavored insight—the unsearchable riches of Christ for the joy of His people.” Pastor, God wants to use you to shepherd the flock He’s placed under your care. So trust Him to give you what you need. And check out my book When Sheep Bite to help you along through this journey.

I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

“Do more than go to church; be the church. Find a place to serve in the promises of your pastor and fight for that vision like it was your own. Do more than give what’s left; give what’s right. Do more than show up as a consumer; show up as a partner, knowing the day will come when you will need partnership to see your dream come to pass. If your promise is concerning business, then be the best employee of the people for whom you work. If your promise will need generous people involved to make it happen, then be generous in the promises of others. If your promise is about your family, be a blessing to the families of those who are around you. Make their dreams come to pass and you will plant the seeds that will, in time, become the fruit of your God-given why.” —Jim Wiegand, in Why is Greater Than What 

“You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, ‘Take up your Cross’—in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden light.’ He means both.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity 

T.M. Moore is beginning a new series of posts on the importance of the spiritual life for the Christian. He writes, “We may thus define the spiritual life in terms of Christ exalted as our focus, Christ indwelling as our sustaining power, Christ at work in and through us as the outcome of our discipleship, and Christ returning as the hope which sustains us through the tests we encounter every day. True spiritual life, in other words, is all about Jesus Christ.”

“The truths of eternity have an infinite power. They are often powerless because we do not give them time to reveal themselves. Taking time to be alone with God is the only remedy. … The Word that we get from the mouth of God brings the power to know it and to do it. Let us learn this lesson: personal fellowship with God alone in secret can make the Word alive and powerful.” —Andrew Murray 

Dr. Thaddeus Williams unpacks what Charles Darwin meant when he wrote to a friend, “The horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.” Check out Dr. Williams’ post, which he opens with, “If our minds came from a capital “M” Mind—God—gifted to us as truth-knowing mechanisms, we have a reason to reason. But if our minds came from a non-mind, a literally dumb process of random mutations and natural selection, then our minds are not fundamentally truth-knowing mechanisms, but mere survival mechanisms.”

“Our first birth brought us into sin and sorrow, but our second birth brings us into purity and joy. We were born to die; now are we born never to die, ‘begotten again’ unto a life that shall remain in us for evermore, a life which shall even penetrate these mortal bodies, and make them immortal, ‘by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.’” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on 1 Peter 1:3-4 

Links & Quotes

Patience is a leadership builder, just as surely as impatience is a leadership killer. When leaders repeatedly make poor choices because of their impatience, there is only one way to fix this leadership killer—lengthen the fuse.

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“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” —Henry David Thoreau 

“Christian sorrow leads to repentance; repentance leads to forgiveness; and forgiveness leads to true joy over one’s reconciliation with God.” —Henry Halley, commenting on James 4:9-10; c.f. Psalm 32:1 

“People who were not Christians themselves helped me to Christianity. But usually it is those who know Him that bring Him to others. That is why the Church, the whole body of Christians showing Him to one another, is so important. You might say that when two Christians are following Christ together there is not twice as much Christianity as when they are apart, but sixteen times as much.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity 

“And so I labored hard to be a man of full integrity in all my dealings, being careful not to fall into temptation, lest the pagan should some pretext have to denigrate my good episcopate and to disparage me.” —Patrick of Ireland 

With all the activity inside even the tiniest of cells, how do the cells keep their proper shape? Scientists have discovered a process called CorMR. “Researchers found that CorM, a protein inside the system, forms thin strands just under the inner cell membrane. CorR, another bacterial protein, helps place those strands in the right area. An additional system, MinC, helps keep them away from the cell ends and the division site.” This is just another example of the precise details our Creator superintends in all He has made!

Thomas S. Kidd writes, “Given the mixed personal record of the American Founders, what accounts for our nation’s impressive history of Christian devotion? The most important factor was the Lord’s providence working through thousands of churches to spread the gospel. A second essential factor in America’s robust religious history was the unusual freedom that churches and Christians enjoyed due to religious liberty.” Check out this thoughtful post about the story of Christianity in America. 

Do We Need A Pulpit?

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here. 

Nearly every church has a pulpit where the pastor stands to deliver the weekly sermon. And almost every evangelical church gathering has the same order of service. Where did these things originate? 

I talk more about biblical and non-biblical issues in this video, and in my blog post and video called “Use the right term.” 

The full sermon from which this clip came is here. 

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It’s A Sign!

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

I was asked to share one of the funniest things I’ve seen in church. I didn’t exactly “see” this one, but it still ranks as one of the funniest things I have ever experienced! 

My wife has shared this story herself (so I don’t think I’ll get myself in trouble for sharing it again). Feel free to check her version of this comical experience. 

This clip is a part of an interview I did with Karl Vaters on his Church Lobby podcast. Check out more clips from this interview.

In all seriousness, we often are looking for “a sign” to help us confirm the direction God may be leading us. I would invite you to check out my post and video Knowing God’s Will, especially if you are contemplating God’s direction for you. 

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The Visible Church

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

Fifty-eight years ago this weekend, on April 4, 1968, just after 6pm on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was cut down by an assassin’s bullet. A powerful voice in the struggle for civil rights for African Americans was silenced, and yet his legacy still lives on more than a half-century later. 

A couple of days ago, we remembered another historic death: the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. But unlike Dr. King, today we also celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead! 

Does it matter that Jesus was raised back to life? If Dr. King’s legacy can still live on in the life of his followers, even though his body is in the grave, couldn’t the same thing happen for the followers of Jesus of Nazareth? The answer, quite simply, is “No!” This is because Jesus claimed that His kingdom was an eternal Kingdom, and that He came to bring people eternal life (John 3:16). If the Founder of this Kingdom could be held in the grave, what would His followers have to look forward to? Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19. 

(I’m not going to take the time to go through all the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus here, but I would encourage you to check out our series A.L.I.V.E. 

We have named this series after a statement from Jesus, “I will build My Church.” He made this statement before His death and before His resurrection, which tells us that He knew the outcome before those events even occurred. 

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)

Look how Paul concludes that the resurrection of Jesus is what gives meaning to the terms “saints” and “Church” in Ephesians 1:15-23. Our faith in what Jesus did for us on the Cross—namely, paying the penalty for our sins—is what justifies us, allowing us to be called saints (2:4-5). Notice how saints are to now live (2:6-10). 

Look at those two phrases: “saved…not by works” and “created…to do good works.” As my friend T.M. Moore noted, “We are not saved by good works, but we’re not truly saved without them.” Good works is what characterized the earthly ministry of Jesus (Acts 10:38), and good works are what His saints are now freed and empowered to do (Romans 7:4; 1 Peter 2:12). 

Paul goes on to say that saints are who make up the Church of Jesus (Ephesians 2:14-22). The Church is not a building, but saints following the example of Jesus to make the Kingdom of God known in the world (Acts 4:32-35). 

A hundred years later, Aristides wrote a letter to Emperor Hadrian about these saints (who were now known as Christians): 

     “They help those who offend them, making friends of them; do good to their enemies. They don’t adore idols; they are kind, good, modest, sincere, they love one another; don’t despise widows; protect the orphans; those who have much give without grumbling, to those in need. When they meet strangers, they invite them to their homes with joy, for they recognize them as true brothers, not natural but spiritual. When a poor man dies, if they become aware, they contribute according to their means for his funeral; if they come to know that some people are persecuted or sent to prison or condemned for the sake of Christ’s name, they put their alms together and send them to those in need. If they can do it, they try to obtain their release. When a slave or a beggar is in need of help, they fast two or three days, and give him the food they had prepared for themselves, because they think that he too should be joyful, as he has been called to be joyful like themselves.” 

Jesus is the eternally-living Founder of His Church, and those who have had their sins forgiven by their faith in His death and resurrection are the living stones of His Church (1 Peter 2:5). 

Coming to the Cross makes us saints. Making the Savior known by the way we live makes us the Church. 

We can’t do this unless Jesus is alive and actively empowering us (Matthew 28:18-20). 

Let me reiterate what my friend wrote, because this is how saints should live: “We are not saved by good works, but we’re not truly saved without them.” 

The resurrection of Jesus makes it possible for us to not only be delivered from trying to earn our salvation by doing good works, but to be empowered to do good works so that we compel others want to know Jesus for themselves. 

As the saints go, so goes the Church. 

Check out all of the messages in this series “I will build My Church” by clicking here. 

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