Aaron Armstrong's Blog, page 380

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The Difference Between Doubts and Questions

Douglas Wilson:

We grow as Christians when we question, even if the questions are difficult, requiring hard answers. But when we doubt, we dry up and our spiritual vitality is destroyed. What is the difference? The answer is straight-forward. Questions have answers, and doubts do not.

New Music from Page  CXVI

Friends, We're giving away an entire album again in celebration of Easter! Tell all your peeps. We've even including a song off our upcoming...

Book Review: The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler with Jared Wilson

When we think of missions, what do we picture? People groups in faraway lands? Perhaps major urban centers and cultural hubs like Los Angeles or New York City? If you really want to get ambitious, maybe the province of Quebec?  But how many of us really think of church-folk—especially those in the Bible Belt–as a mission field?

As the pastor of The Village Church, Pastor Matt Chandler has seen firsthand that there is as great a need for the gospel in Texas as in Kathmandu. But where in many...

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Christianity in Crisis? A Response to Andrew Sullivan

Trevin Wax:

Sullivan wants to take Christ's teaching without Christ Himself. His vision tries to deliver Christ's message of love without the atoning cross that gives love its meaning. It wants Christ's justice without the victorious resurrection that launches the new world God has promised , the new world that totally changes the landscape for how we view everything: ethics, morals, politics, art, law.

An Opportunity For God To Triumph

Mark A...

Intolerance, Tolerance and the Implausibility of Opposing Views

The charge of intolerance has come to wield enormous power in much of Western culture – at least as much as the charge of "communist" during the McCarthy years. It functions as a "defeater." A defeater belief is a belief that defeats other beliefs – i.e., if you hold a defeater belief to be true (whether it is true or not is irrelevant), you cannot possibly hold certain other beliefs to be true: the defeater belief rules certain other beliefs out of court and thus defeats them. For instance...

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Jude and His Sources: Non-Canonical Books

Phillip J. Long:

It is possible that Jude uses these texts because they are popular with the false teachers. In my post on Jude's use of the Hebrew Bible I commented that Jude alludes to the wilderness tradition frequently, perhaps his opponents used the wilderness tradition and a book like 1 Enoch in their own teaching. The allusion to the Testament of Moses may be appropriate since the event took place in the wilderness and the end of that period of...

The Deeps

Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in...

The Sure Hope of the Glory of Heaven

The sure hope of the glory of heaven is made use of ordinarily by God, since the fall of Adam, as an encouragement to the practice of holiness, as the Scripture abundantly shows. Christ, the great pattern of holiness, 'for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame' (Heb. 12:2). And, though I cannot say that the first Adam had such a sure hope, to preserve him in innocency, yet he had, instead of it, the present possession of an earthly paradise and a happy...

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Christ-Centered Accountability

Jared C. Wilson:

The most life-giving "accountability group" I was ever a part of was called a "pastor's gospel group." There were three of us pastors and one layman who met regularly in Ray Ortlund's study in Nashville for prayer, confession, and sharpening. Ray introduced us to an abbreviated version of John Wesley's famous accountability questions.

Did the Apostle Paul Target Strategic Cities in His Mission Work?

Kevin DeYoung:

Kind of, but not really. That's the...

Many Do Not See The Need of the Incarnation

There are so many people today who say that they do not see the need of the incarnation; that they do not understand all this talk about the Son of God having come down to earth; that they do not understand this talk about the miracles and the supernatural; that they cannot follow this idea of the atonement and terms such as justification and sanctification and the rebirth. They say that they do not understand why all this seems to be necessary. They would argue like this: 'Isn't it the...

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Four Lessons Learned & Four Prayer Requests

Chris Poblete:

'Tis a time of thanksgiving, reflection, and continued prayers. I'm often asked how I got a book published. Let's face it – I didn't. God did. Seriously. From beginning to end, this entire process has been a grand testimony of God's grace in my life. Who knew that the kid who almost flunked out of English class his senior year in high school would one day be a journalism major, career writer, and eventual published author? Not I. But...