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What Pentecost Means for Our Work (Part 1)

The Holy Spirit gives ordinary Christians the ability to work with a renewed mind and a higher purpose.

Written by Russell Gehrlein | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

The Apostle Paul taught that every follower of Jesus Christ is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). We are like “walking tabernacles” of God’s presence wherever we go, including the workplace. Just like the tabernacle, the portable temple where God’s presence resided that the Israelites carried through the wilderness for forty years until they... Continue Reading

The Author’s Rationale for Overture 9 Being Considered by the 50th PCA General Assembly

Issues related to human sexuality have become points of great debate in the PCA over the past five years.

Written by Josh Harp | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

In light of our current crossroads as a denomination, I pray that we will be found faithful to uphold the faith once delivered, to realize the shoulders of the many faithful men who have gone before us and upon which we stand, and to not shy away from where the battle is most fierce but... Continue Reading

The Allure of Evil

Destruction and violence are anything but banal.

Written by Carl R. Trueman | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

What we are up against is a generation transfixed by the allure of desire, the delight and satisfaction of destruction which lets loose the forces held in check by civilization. Any effort to respond in a persuasive manner must come with an appeal to the heart—one that offers to satisfy not only material needs but... Continue Reading

Fear Is a Function of Worship

The idea that fear is a function of worship is an uncomfortable notion if we’re honest, because it reveals our idols.

Written by Keith Evans | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Whatever it is you most fear—you are giving that thing, that aspect of your life,worth. You are saying it is worth your time, it is worth your thoughts, it is worth your worries, it deserves your energies, your planning, and your deliberations. It is worth giving large swaths of your life over to serve it in your mind.  ... Continue Reading

Undistracted by Spiritual Isolationism

God has designed the Christian life to be lived together, not alone.

Written by Patrick Slyman | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Straying sheep must be found and carried home with compassion and care. This is the picture Jesus paints in Matthew 18 as He describes the church discipline process. He begins with a parable about a lost sheep and then transitions to His instruction on church discipline (Matthew 18:12-18).    I was sent only to the... Continue Reading

NYT Polyamory Puff Piece Proves Conservative Christians Right Again

The left has lost the ability to say no to anything demanded in the name of sexual liberation.

Written by Nathanel Blake | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Polyamory is a particularly apt illustration of how the sexual revolution encourages us to try to have our cake and eat it too—to have not just pleasure, but also the joys of love, while keeping our options open and never really giving all of ourselves to anyone. This is also why it is so destructive.... Continue Reading

Loving People Isn’t the Most Important Thing in the Church

It is not because love for others is unimportant; it is because love for others is presented in the Bible as a byproduct of something else.

Written by Michael Kelley | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

There is a definite chain of events that happen when it comes to love. The last link in the chain is that we love others. Back up on, and you get that we love God. And then back up to the beginning and you find that God loves us. Put it in reverse order and... Continue Reading

WCF Chapter 4—Of Creation

We want to define ourselves. But God already has.

Written by William Boekestein | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

After Genesis one briefly records six days of creation, chapter two backs up to emphasize the significance of God’s creation of humans. What essential truths can we learn about ourselves from the creation of the first two people?   Have you ever told someone, “I must have missed the first part of your story. I... Continue Reading

The Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession—Hebrews 3:1-6

Our confidence, boasting, and hope are all in Jesus.

Written by Cole Newton | Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Our hope and confidence is the heavenly calling that we share because Jesus shared in our humanity to bring us to glory with Him as the captain of our salvation. Our boasting is in love and might of our great Savior and that He is our merciful and faithful high priest who is able to help us whenever... Continue Reading

Faith, Family, and Church Community See Jeff and Mariah through the Challenges of Aphasia

PCA pastor Jeff Windt enjoyed preaching and working with local families. Then an ischemic stroke stole his words.

Written by The Mary A. Rackham Institute | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

“One of his therapists made a very good synopsis, describing someone’s brain before aphasia being a neatly categorized file box but after a stroke, everything gets thrown about and put back in,” Mariah said. “The retrieval part of words that Jeff is trying to communicate is being thwarted.” “It wasn’t until towards the end of... Continue Reading

A Philosopher’s Guide to the Overtures Presented to the PCA General Assembly

Frank assessments of the overtures being considered by the 50th PCA General Assembly in Memphis, June 12-16, 2023.

Written by James Bruce | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

In what follows, I take a different approach. I give my frank assessment of the overtures in the hopes that, even if you disagree with me, you can better formulate reasons for why you do so. I also, at times, offer an analysis of different issues surrounding the overtures. This approach will, I hope, be... Continue Reading

The PCA at Fifty: A General Assembly Preview

Will the Fiftieth General Assembly be decisive for whether the PCA will be a "big tent" or the house of the living God?

Written by Ryan Biese | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

There are indeed many reasons to continue to be hopeful, optimistic, and engaged in the work of the PCA courts. The PCA continues to move slowly but steadily in a direction that reflects greater faithfulness and integrity regarding our confessional commitments and Reformed distinctives.    The PCA turns a half century this year, and the... Continue Reading

Professor Declares June “Fidelity Month” in Support of God and Family

The outspoken Catholic and social conservative announced that June would be “Fidelity Month,” in opposition to "Pride Month."

Written by Matt Lamb | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

The new month is a positive development coming from a professor and supported by other academics….Instead of posting rainbow flags and boasting about their support for the LGBT agenda, schools should embrace Fidelity Month and fight for the restoration of traditional values.   June is officially “Fidelity Month,” according to Princeton University Professor Robert George.... Continue Reading

Evangelicals and Progressives: The Great Divide

Progressives give a nod to the Bible but adopt what they view as a kinder, more inclusive idea of Jesus.

Written by Don and Joy Veinot | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

As the reader probably has noticed, there is now a great divide between Evangelicals and Progressives. Can that divide be bridged? It is impossible to know, though it doesn’t appear likely at this time. Our understanding of God and His word are very different.   In our book, A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and... Continue Reading

The Basics—Election

Dead people do not, and indeed cannot, come to God. God must act upon us while we are dead in sin or else we stay dead!

Written by Kim Riddlebarger | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

The Bible is very clear that God’s election of particular sinners is based upon God’s good pleasure and purpose, that election is “in Christ” (which means that all those who presently trust in Christ were chosen in Christ before time), and that God provides the merits of Jesus Christ (through his suffering and obedience) to... Continue Reading

Acts 29 and the Big Sort

On Seeking Faithful Institutions and Alliances

Written by J. Chase Davis and Matt Patrick | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Today if you visit an Acts 29 church, you can’t be sure what you will experience. You might experience the promotion of trans ideology, a woman preaching in the pulpit during worship services, the teaching of critical race theory…that America was founded on lies and racism which has set up a system of white dominance. Or, you may... Continue Reading

Sometimes It’s Healthy to Be Known for What You Are Against

When being "winsome" is a cop-out.

Written by The Laymen's Lounge | Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Abraham Kuyper didn’t like the depraved Dutch political system, and so, he did something about it….He started a new political party. He united different groups. He started newspapers, a college, and eventually became the Prime Minister. We can learn a lot from seeing somebody not just being a theorist but an actual doer.   “Christians... Continue Reading

The Purpose of Worship

Creatures are made to worship their Creator. When anyone, be they human or angel, turns to think about who God is and what he’s done, the right response is worship.

Written by Jonty Rhodes | Monday, June 5, 2023

The self-sufficiency of God has huge implications for our understanding of worship. When we gather on a Sunday, who is gaining? Not God, but us. We don’t come because he needs us but because we need him. We come ultimately not to give but to gain. How else could needy, dependent sinners approach the God... Continue Reading

A Plea to Keep Lawyers in Ecclesiastical Proceedings: Against PCA Overtures 10 and 14

Urging the PCA General Assembly not to approve Overtures 10 and 14 seeking to limit lawyers from representing parties in ecclesiastical proceedings.

Written by Jim Eggert | Monday, June 5, 2023

These overtures have the outrageous practical effect of chilling the participation in ecclesiastical proceedings of PCA officers who happen to be lawyers, serving the very courts in which they are members and in the very type of matters for which they are specially gifted and trained.  This proposal is not only prejudicial to such brothers,... Continue Reading

Defending the Family in Liquid Modernity

Opposition to the dissolution of the family requires better family politics.

Written by Scott Yenor | Monday, June 5, 2023

Mary Harrington’s Feminism Against Progress sees the benefits, counts the costs, tells us how we got here, and gives some advice on muddling through the bitters. No institution—including the Church—is immune from feminism’s influence, so no one can ignore its deeply personal wounds.   Human mastery over nature, exercised technologically, is how human beings experience “progress.”... Continue Reading

Beauty: The Pursuit of Knowledge and Wisdom

The Bible itself is God’s truth communicated in beautiful forms.

Written by Scott Aniol | Monday, June 5, 2023

‌As you continue to pursue holiness and Christlikeness, don’t simply strive to acquire theological knowledge alone, but let your love abound more and more, with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus... Continue Reading

Final Reflections (Job pt 17)

God is Sovereign and Good

Written by Al Gooderham | Monday, June 5, 2023

We need Jesus. Job’s faith in his redeemer in chapter 19 is one of the most staggering examples of gospel hope in the Old Testament. His confidence that his Redeemer lives and will stand on the earth and rise over it conquering the dust/death and then he will see God is astounding. It shows us... Continue Reading

The Presbyterian Cup from Wine to Welch’s

The uninterrupted Christian tradition of wine in communion went unchallenged until 1869.

Written by Jared Nelson | Monday, June 5, 2023

While many Reformed writers, especially recently, make the scriptural case for wine, our question is specifically one of polity: how have Presbyterian Churches used grape juice without running afoul of the Westminster Standards and their respective Books of Church Order? Was the change in American Presbyterian polity merely a matter of disobedience?   In the first 1,800 years... Continue Reading

The Blessedness of Motherhood

The Goodness of God’s Design

Written by Michael Clary | Monday, June 5, 2023

We do not live in a perfect world. Every household will make decisions based on their life circumstances, and Christians should avoid being overly prescriptive about matters that are truly secondary. God is honored when Christians prayerfully consider how to best pursue their God given priorities. Even though motherhood is diminished in the world, the... Continue Reading

The Motion of God

There’s a posture, a "motion" if you like, of God that dominates a correct understanding of how the Lord works and that influences how we consider and think about the church.

Written by T. M. Suffield | Sunday, June 4, 2023

If we chase after experiences we won’t find them, but that if we look to worship God in spirit and truth, we will have dramatic and dynamic encounters with God by his Spirit that will change us, change our churches, change our towns and cities, shake the foundations of the earth, challenge the powers successfully,... Continue Reading

Thousands of Congregations Leave United Methodist Church Over Biblical Concerns

They are part of a growing exodus from the denomination.

Written by Jeff Johnston | Sunday, June 4, 2023

In recent years, bishops and ministers blessed homosexual relationships. UMC conferences approved lesbian- and gay-identified ministers and bishops, defying Scripture and official Methodist policy. Church leaders also showed support for abortion, denouncing the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.   Last week, 193 churches disaffiliated from the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church “over matters related to human sexuality,” announced Bishop David Graves, overseer... Continue Reading

Don’t Wait For Joy

Jesus gives us His joy in the midst of world full of trouble.

Written by Jacob Crouch | Sunday, June 4, 2023

One day, for all those who have repented and believed that gospel, we too will rise. We will be with the Lord, in His presence forever. And in His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). Our joy now is weak and fickle, but then it will be unshakeable. We will be with Him forever and... Continue Reading

The Ministry of the Pew

Sunday Morning for Normal Christians

Written by Greg Morse | Sunday, June 4, 2023

The pastor’s ministry does not replace mine; it refines mine. It makes our ministry better, more effective. Your pastor equips you for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ into mature manhood (Ephesians 4:12–13). This ministry finds some expression on Sunday mornings as you serve, you prepare, and you exercise your own gifts and acts of love within your... Continue Reading

Question 2: What Is God?

He is not simply our Creator; He is also the Sustainer.

Written by Cole Newton | Sunday, June 4, 2023

All things exist because of Him, but He is not the deistic idea of the great Watchmaker, forming the cosmos and then leaving creation to its own devices. No, God actively upholds and sustains His creation. He spoke light into being, and light continues to shine throughout the universe because God is still speaking. Paul... Continue Reading

More Than You Can Handle

Bring Your Insufficiency to Jesus

Written by Seth Lewis | Sunday, June 4, 2023

If you belong to Jesus, you can rest assured that he will absolutely give you tasks that are far beyond what you can handle. An honest look at his commands will show you that he already has. Don’t worry about that. The size of your lunch, or your ability, or your strength, is never the... Continue Reading

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