Links & Quotes

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“The issue is not how much a person makes. Big industry and big salaries are a fact of our times, and they are not necessarily evil. The evil is in being deceived into thinking a six-digit salary must be accompanied by a six-digit lifestyle. God has made us to be conduits of His grace. The danger is in thinking the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn’t. Copper will do. Copper can carry unbelievable riches to others.” —John Piper

“I would prefer to combat the ‘I’m special’ feeling not by the thought ‘I’m no more special than anyone else’ but by the feeling ‘Everyone is as special as me.’ In one way there is no difference, I grant, for both remove the speciality. But there is a difference in another way. The first might lead you to think, ‘I’m only one of the crowd like anyone else.’ But the second leads to the truth that there isn’t any crowd. No one is like anyone else. All are ‘members’ (organs) in the Body of Christ. All different and all necessary to the whole and to one another: each loved by God individually, as if it were the only creature in existence. Otherwise you might get the idea that God is like the government which can only deal with the people in the mass.” —C.S. Lewis

“Life will always bring challenges. But God will always give strength to face them.” Read more encouraging words from Max Lucado’s post Here’s What You Need To Know.

Seth Godin started writing about too much salt, but he took it somewhere I wasn’t expecting. Wow!

Ryan Shelton talks about the benefit of gathering together with other people at church: Godward Together On Sunday Morning. By the way, if you are looking for a “Godward together” church in West Michigan, I ♥ Calvary Assembly of God!

Glad to see my home state is trying to ban the gruesome practice of abortion by dismemberment.

[VIDEO] Ken Davis knows something cool (and unique) about Michiganders—

Links & Quotes

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“Darkness comes. In the middle of it, the future looks blank. The temptation to quit is huge. Don’t. You are in good company…. You will argue with yourself that there is no way forward. But with God, nothing is impossible. He has more ropes and ladders and tunnels out of pits than you can conceive. Wait. Pray without ceasing. Hope!” —John Piper

In another post, John Piper writes, “Christianity means change is possible. Deep, fundamental change. It is possible to become tender-hearted when once you were callous and insensitive. It is possible to stop being dominated by bitterness and anger. It is possible to become a loving person no matter what your background has been.” Read more in You Are Not Enslaved To Your Past.

“The depravity of man is on full display in the press as powerful and wicked people now openly suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Check out this post on media distortion and disinformation.

Mental illness impacts so many people! Are we in the church handling it correctly? Check out 10 misconceptions about mental illness and faith.

“Remember, the more a person uses porn, the greater the amount and explicitness required to achieve the same level of satisfaction. This means more women and children are becoming commodities in this industry—and being forced to do these things we deem now as ‘disgusting.’ Studies prove that for some regular porn users, pornographic acts they found disgusting in the past now turn them on. And as you can imagine, it’s harder for the so-called ‘legit’ porn producers to hire people to do those extreme things. It’s much easier—and less expensive—for people to be kidnapped, devalued, dehumanized, and turned into nothing more than sex slaves.” —Anne Miller

[VIDEO] Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has some challenging words for us about how we speak about others—

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The Dead Reckoning guys refute Bill Nye (the Science Guy) on his abortion claims—

Links & Quotes

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“The question, then, isn’t, ‘when am I going to get promoted?’ No, I think the question is, ‘will I grab these openings to become someone who’s already doing work at a higher level?’” Read more from Seth Godin’s post.

“Faith is not a distant view but a warm embrace of Christ.” —John Calvin

“The honest truth is that I have seen God do more in people’s lives during ten minutes of real prayer than in ten of my sermons.” Read more of Jim Cymbala’s post The Day Jesus Got Mad.

“Success is a tale of obstacles overcome, and for every obstacle overcome, an excuse not used.” —Robert Brault

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do.” —Goethe

“The good news of the Bible is that God is not at all disinclined to satisfy the hearts of those who hope in Him. Just the opposite: The very thing that can make us happiest is what God delights in with all His heart and with all His soul. With all His heart and with all His soul, God joins us in the pursuit of our everlasting joy because the consummation of that joy in Him redounds to the glory of His own infinite worth.” —John Piper

You may need to bookmark this: 15 Scriptures on starting over.

60+ eminent legal scholars call on elected officials to not recognize the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision on homosexual “marriage.”

Another place to reject culture’s language is on the issue of abortion.

Jeff Jacoby has an important look at Christopher Columbus.

 

Links & Quotes

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“Man, please thy Maker and be merry; / This whole world rate we at a penny!” —William Dunbar

“Seeking the Kingdom of God is not a matter of doing first things first. Seeking the Kingdom is not just the first thing on the Christian’s daily to-do list. Seeking the Kingdom is a first things always proposition, so that whatever is on our to-do list on any given day, seeking the Kingdom is the first things pursuit which defines and directs everything else we do.” —T.M. Moore

Some facts reported by Live Action to refute the Planned Parenthood lies:

  • “Abortion is only 3 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides”—but in reality, it accounts for over one-third of Planned Parenthood’s annual revenue.
  • “Women will be hurt if their taxpayer funding is cut off”—but more than 13,000 health clinics would be eligible for the $500,000,000 of your taxpayer dollars Planned Parenthood currently receives.  Not a single dime would be taken away from women’s healthcare!  In fact, more health clinics could offer more services with that money.

If you use YouVersion to read/study your Bible, and you enjoy apologetics, check out the 7-day reading program J. Warner Wallace developed.

Dan Reiland wrote a great post for leaders called Open-Handed Leadership. This was primarily written for church leaders, but anyone can benefit from it.

Profiting From Death

Cecile Richards president of Planned ParenthoodPlanned Parenthood’s murderous activities continue to be exposed, and they continue to lie about it. The simple facts are:

  • Planned Parenthood makes more money from performing abortions than they do any other service.
  • Planned Parenthood alters their abortion procedures (a direct violation of the law) to procure “higher quality specimens.”
  • Planned Parenthood sells fetal body parts for substantial monetary gain (also a direct violation of the law).

One of Planned Parenthood’s talking points has been that these videos are edited and unreliable. However, the Alliance Defending Freedom just reported that “a forensic analysis of undercover videos about Planned Parenthood’s abortion practices are ‘authentic and show no evidence of manipulation or editing.’” Read more about this report here.

Are you as disturbed about this illegal and murderous activity as I am? If you are, please let your voice be heard. Share these videos, write to your Representative and Senator, join a prayer vigil outside a local Planned Parenthood office, support a local pregnancy resource center … do something to end these atrocities!

Here’s something you can do right now—sign this petition to help defund Planned Parenthood from receiving millions of our taxpayer dollars.

Links & Quotes

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“Sins of the flesh are never to be reasoned or parleyed with; there is no more reasoning with them than with the winds…. We must fly. It is true valor in such a case to turn the back. ‘Resist the devil,’ says James, but Paul does not say ‘resist lust’; he puts it thus—‘Flee also youthful lusts.’ When warring with the legions of unrighteousness we shall need all the best powers of our renewed nature, for the conflict will be stern.” —Charles Spurgeon

John Piper and the Desiring God team have a new book available: The Joy Project. You can download the ebook version free of charge.

Detroit Tigers fans (especially those who know the history of the Tigers) will appreciate this article about Miguel Cabrera. I especially think that, in terms of a pure hitter, the comparison to Ty Cobb is right on.

The Democrats in the US House and Senate are making it more and more clear that they are interested in money and position, not in life and liberty. It is unconscionable that anyone could vote against a bill that says a baby born alive after a failed abortion should be allowed to live.

My friend, Pastor Dave Barringer, has some good thoughts on rest and burn-out. Pastors especially should take the time to read this one.

“Porn makes you think you are having sexual needs met, but really they are hollow and leave you feeling empty and lonelier than before.” Read more in this post: What it means to be pro-sex and anti-porn.

[VIDEO] John Maxwell says setbacks can be “set-ups” if we handle them correctly—

[VIDEO] J. Warner Wallace explains how human consciousness points to a Creator—

 

Links & Quotes

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Jackie Hill Perry on how the church can reach those who are LGBT—

Was the Constitution written in a way that was designed to protect freedom and limit the government’s size? Here is how Robert George answers that—

Voddie Baucham talks about how to fight pornography—

Re. Trent Franks makes a passionate appeal for Planned Parenthood to be defunded—

Bobby Conway talks with J. Warner Wallace, a cold case detective, about how he uses his investigative skills to examine the existence of God—

 

Links & Quotes

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At age 38, after playing 20 years for the Detroit Tigers, Ty Cobb had an amazing performance in the 1925 season.

“Everything you do is either going to raise your average or lower it. The next hire. The quality of the chickpeas you serve. The service experience on register 4. Each interaction is a choice. A choice to raise your average or lower it. Progress is almost always a series of choices, an inexorable move toward mediocrity, or its opposite.” —Seth Godin

Fight The New Drug shares 3 things that pornography doesn’t show.

“If Margaret Sanger had her way, MLK and Rosa Parks would never have been born,” said [Bishop E.W.] Jackson. “It’s an outrage the national museum would honor such a person and add insult to injury by putting her in the Struggle for Justice exhibit.” Margaret Sanger’s bust should be removed from the Smithsonian.

Married couples, have more sex to help slash the chances of prostate cancer.

Murray Vassar finds a very appropriate connection between what Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and what is happening with Planned Parenthood.

So House Speaker John Boehner wants to build a coalition by calling a member of his own party this?!

More Planned Parenthood Madness

“Sometimes we ship a whole baby to the lab and the techs sorta freak out…ha! ha! ha!” says the woman who is profiting from these murders. So that’s what you find funny?! In some ways I don’t want anyone to see these videos, but it is vital that you are aware of what is going on.

Live Action shares 4 quotes from former abortionists who have now become pro-life. One doctor said, “And as I brought out the rib cage, I looked and I saw a tiny, beating heart. And when I found the head of the baby, I looked squarely in the face of another human being—a human being that I’d just killed. I turned to the scrub nurse and said, ‘I’m sorry.’ But I just knew that I couldn’t be a part of abortion anymore.” Thank God he changed his mind.

Now let’s keep sharing this gruesome information to change other hearts and minds too! We have got to keep changing minds, before the abortionists take all our brains…

Evolution of the American progressive

Links & Quotes

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“What we long to see and know is a Person Whose power is unlimited, Whose kindness is tender, and Whose purpose is single and unflinching. Novelists and poets and movie-makers and TV writers now and then create a shadow of this Person. But they can no more fill our longing to worship than this month’s National Geographic can satisfy my longing for the Grand Canyon. We must have the real thing. We must see the Original of all power and kindness and purposefulness. We must see and worship the risen Christ.” —John Piper

“Brethren, we have no right to thrust a brother into the ministry until he has first given evidence of his own conversion, and has also given proof not only of being a good average worker but something more. If he cannot labor in the church before he pretends to be a minister, he is good for nothing. If he cannot perform all the duties of membership with zeal and energy, and if he is not evidently a consecrated man whilst he is a private Christian, certainly you do not feel the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit to bid him enter the ministry. No man has a right to aspire to come into that office until he has shown that he is really devoted to Christ by having served Him as others have done.” —Charles Spurgeon

“People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. To be entertained is a passive state, it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence and appreciation.” —Abraham Joshua Heschel

Exactly right: The “prosperity” gospel creates poor Christians.

The messed-up thinking of Margaret Sanger that is still seen in Planned Parenthood’s practices today.

A good apologetic piece: Reasons to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Once again Murray Vassar gets it right…

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Speak out about abortion: check out the #callhimemmett campaign.