"Answering the Abortion Question that is Sure to Come"

Here is an article from Kevin DeYoung answering the question that a pro-life presidential candidate would most likely face during the general election. The question is

Would you really tell a rape victim that she must carry to term a child that was forced upon her by an act of such cruelty?

Click here to read his good and thoughtful answer.

Salvation is Secured by The Object of Our Faith, Not the Intensity of Our Faith

If you have ever been discouraged over how weak your faith seems at times (who hasn't) then check out this video clip from DA Carson (3 min 30 sec). A great illustration.

Why I Wrote a Book on Singleness & What it's About

If you've been reading the blog for the past several months, you saw the posts (numerous ones) on singleness. Those were from a book I wrote entitled, God, Singleness, & Marriage: How the Bible gives purpose and direction to singles. Well, it wasn't actually a book, but now it is.  You can order copies at amazon.com.

Why I wrote this book

The Bible has such a grand perspective on singleness, but it has often been overlooked, and I wanted to lay out what the Bible said in order to:

1. Encourage single men and women who were content in singleness, 
2. Provide a vision of God-glorifying singleness, and
3. Encourage married men and women to appreciate, love and serve singles as full members of the body of Christ.

I didn't start out planning to write on the subject. I began by looking for a book that I could use to encourage single men and women. As I read books on the topic, I found a bunch of really good ones but none that covered all of what I thought was important. Some focused on the practical (how to) type stuff and others were a bit academic. I wanted to see something that started with theology (it is rich on this topic) and dealt with the practical issues.  Also, I noticed that almost every book I could find on singleness was directed towards women, and I wanted one that would apply equally well to men and women. So I started writing, and, before I knew it, it was the length of a short book.

What the Book is about

It is about singleness and marriage, under the rule of God, and in service of his purposes. And, as the subtitle states, it is about how the Bible gives hope and direction to single Christians.

Its content is divided into three parts:

First, Singleness Redeemed- How the Bible gives purpose and hope to singles.

In this section, I trace Singleness through the Biblical storyline to see how singleness is redeemed; made useful for the Kingdom of God. Then, I give a Biblical vision for God-glorifying singleness in order to show how singleness serves the Kingdom now that it has been redeemed. The section closes with a look at how a right view of God gives hope to us all (single and married)

Second, Dangers of the Single Season- Keeping watch on your soul

This section contains 3 chapters that discuss some common dangers or temptations for single men and women (discontentment, fear, etc.).

Third, Living in the Single Season- Honoring God as a single person

The first chapter here is for all singles regardless of desire to get married or not. It discusses maturing as a Christian man or woman. The next two chapters are more specifically for singles desiring marriage: Honoring God as You Look for a Spouse and Biblical Principles for Finding a Spouse .                                   

I then conclude with a look at where marriage and singleness are ultimately going and how that gives us direction now - namely to glorify God through Jesus Christ.

I hope you can read it, benefit from it, and pass it on to others. 

Take Note of 43 Years of Carnage

Today marks 43 years since the Roe v. Wade judicial overstep of the supreme court, and in that time over 57 million human babies have been killed. One writer notes that if you put their names (if they had them) on a memorial like the Vietnam Memorial in DC, it would have to stretch for 50 miles.

We must continue to shine the light of the gospel into the darkness that ruins so many babies, mothers, fathers, and even abortion workers.

To help you reflect on this issue (which would be a good thing to do on this anniversary), I recommend one article and one podcast.

The article is from Frederica Matthewes-Green at the National Review and is entitled "When Abortion Suddenly Stopped Making Sense."  She makes a stunningly clear case for the fact that abortion is not about women's rights. In fact, it harms women. It makes like easier for everyone around her, but it leaves her (and the baby) in ruins. Along the way, the author also brilliantly dismantles many pro-choice arguments. Here is the next to last paragraph (read the whole article though, it is great):

In time, it’s going to be impossible to deny that abortion is violence against children. Future generations, as they look back, are not necessarily going to go easy on ours. Our bland acceptance of abortion is not going to look like an understandable goof. In fact, the kind of hatred that people now level at Nazis and slave-owners may well fall upon our era. Future generations can accurately say, “It’s not like they didn’t know.” They can say, “After all, they had sonograms.” They may consider this bloodshed to be a form of genocide. They might judge our generation to be monsters.

The podcast episode is The Briefing's January 21, 2016 edition. Dr. Albert Mohler is, as usual, insightful, clear-minded, and very  helpful. Take a listen.

Persecution Index: A Reminder to Pray for the Persecuted Church

Christianity Today has an article reporting on the annual persecution statistics put out by Open Door. We ought to remember to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

Here are some of the excerpts  from Christianity Today's report:

More than 7,000 Christians were killed for their faith last year, up drastically from 4,344 in 2014 and 2,123 in 2013. Those numbers don’t include North Korea or parts of Iraq and Syria, where accurate numbers are hard to obtain... 

Violent Islamic extremism was the main culprit, "with its rise being the lead generator of persecution for 35 out of the 50 nations on the list," stated Open Doors. "Its two hubs are in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, regions where persecution has risen to a level akin to ethnic cleansing." ... 

In addition to death and destruction, Islamic extremists caused the displacement of thousands of Christians. Syria’s largest Christian city, Aleppo, saw its Christian population shrink from 400,000 to 60,000, while more than 1 million refugees fled from the Horn of Africa and the Middle East to Europe, Open Doors said. ... 

North Korea remained the No. 1 perpetrator of persecution in 2015, as it has since the WWL [World Watch List] began 14 years ago. Up to 70,000 Christians are in labor camps there, Open Doors said. ... 

The authoritarian Eritrean regime "has consistently supported the rise and spread of radical Islam in the Horn of Africa," Open Doors said. Of the 15,000 Eritrean refugees resettled in the US in the past 12 years, 85 percent were Christians.
"Evangelical and Pentecostal Protestants routinely are tortured and pressed to recant their faith," wrote Robert George and Thomas Reese, members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), for the Christian Science Monitor.

You can (and should) read the article or at least take a look at the chart Open Door put out to see where most of the persecution is happening so you can pray more intelligently for our brothers and sisters as well as their persecutors. 

Healthy Living is Good, but It's Not God

One of my favorite verses to take over-apply is 1 Timothy 4:8,

for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

I don't like exercise much. I recently saw a "0.0" bumper sticker and loved it (for those that don't get it, it is like the 13.1 or 26.2 half/full marathon stickers, but it's the couch potato version).

I say all that by way of full disclosure.

I also want to say at the outset that I do believe exercise is good, and caring for one's body is required. God has made us spiritual / physical beings (Gen. 1-2), and we will remain that way in the new creation but with glorified bodies (1 Cor. 15). So, we have a stewardship now to care for the bodies he has given us and to use them for his glory (1 Cor. 10:31).

That being said, our physical bodies are not ultimate. Hence, giving one's physical life for the sake of Christ, if necessary, is good and necessary. We don't worship our physical life, because we know we have resurrection life. So like those 3 young men in the biblical book of Daniel, we are able to say that we will die rather than bow to a false God because God will raise us.

All that was introduction.

I recently read a story in the New York Times (published in December) called "When Some Turn to Church, Others Go to Crossfit."  My point here is not the same as that article (which is an interesting read). Rather, the article got me thinking again about something which has come to mind many times.

We can easily take good things, like eating healthy and exercise, and turn it into a bad thing. We can make it more important than God. It becomes all we want to talk about, think about, and pursue. We can begin looking to good things to be saviors to us. The same can happen in a friendship or marriage where we can turn that good relational gift into something it was never intended to be. We begin to look to that person for fulfillment, unmitigated joy, and direction in life rather than to God. Good things are good, but they make terrible gods.

I think healthy living is one category where we run this danger. All the diets, exercise plans, and supplements can be good things. But if we start looking to them as our hope for joy and "eternal life" we have a huge problem. We look just like the world that lives by the motto "You only live once."

We are a resurrection people and subjects of King Jesus. Since we know God is our creator, we have the responsibility to care for our physical bodies. That is something I need to do better at for God's glory. But let us not go to the other extreme and live for good health.

To live is Christ and to die is gain. Let's live and die for Christ. Let's strive to steward and enjoy our bodies to God's glory, but let us not fear the day when our bodies fail (and they will fail). When God is God and health is gift and stewardship, we are free to live for Christ and to see death as gain.

"I Will Not Leave Jesus - But I'm Done with the Church"

Here is an audio clip of John Piper addressing the question of whether a Christian can love Jesus and "be done with the local church." Perhaps you know someone or are someone who has felt hurt by the church, or someone who just doesn't like the idea of a local church, and it is keeping them from being in a local church. This audio is a helpful place to start.

Here are some good books on the subject while I'm at it:

• The Compelling Community by Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop
• Church Membership by Jonathan Leeman
• Stop Dating the Church by Josh Harris
• Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Cluck