Blog

...

some challenging encouraging thoughts from Paul Tripp: Church is wonderful. Church is important. Church is meant to remind us of the miserable condition in which sin left us and our world, and of the glorious rescue of redeeming grace. The songs we sing, the Scriptures we read, the sermons we listen to, and the prayers we engage in are all designed to keep us from ever...

Desiring God recently published this incredibly helpful article. Read it below or at the Desiring God site HERE. Article by Liz Wann My Dear Sons, The eye beholds much good and evil in this life. Beholding leads to becoming. What we continually put before our eyes and minds will shape and determine who we are. Images either tell the truth or lie, but they all speak. On ...

The Sojourn Network provided an excellnt article by Nikki Daniel On January 7, 2006, I dove into the trenches of ministry doe-eyed and unsure of myself. Although I began attending church services when I was about twelve years old, I had never seen the behind-the-scenes of ministry. So, when the Lord brought a handsome pastor into my life, I had no idea what to do. I certa...

Crossway provided an excellent post that was adapted from Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work by Tom Nelson A Journey toward Understanding Work I believe how we view our work and how we do our work matters a great deal more than we might imagine. Yet when it comes to this important area of my life, particularly how my work connects to my Christian fait...

The Gospel Coalition had the following article byKeith Getty that really encapsulates why we do what we do here at Bethel. I love Yo-Yo Ma. The stellar, nearly flawless strokes of his bow dancing upon tensioned stringsthey resurrect meticulously crafted melodies conjured centuries ago among master musicians. Centuries have passed since then. And yet I lie on my bed at n...

An excellent article byTony Reinke aStaff writer, desiringGod.org It's easy to become a passive sermon consumer. As a young Christian, I started to sense this tendency in my own listening, so one Sunday I brought a notebook to church and devised a simple little practice to get my discernment juices flowing before listening to sermons. It was as simple as asking three litt...

BY Douglas Wilson NB: This letter is fictional with regard to the particulars, but with regard to the nature of the sins described, it is unfortunately not at all fictional. Consider it a composite portrait, with no particular man in mind. At the same time, if any individual husband recognizes himself in the portrait and humbles himself, I would thank God and say that thi...

This might seem a strange question, because it is often not only hard to answer but seemingly unimportant. In a gospel conversation with a friend over coffee, apologetic-style questions and gospel proclamation are often all mixed together. Who can predict or determine which comes first, and why would it matter? However, the principle of whether apologetics or evangelism c...

The God of the Unlikely Time Often our schedule and God's seem out of sync. He acts earlier than we had expected, or later than we had hoped, or when it seems most awkward and inconvenient. The result is that sometimes we are impatient with God or choose to act impetuously, while on other occasions we are lazy and inactive. I suspect that's how the Israelites must have f...