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Trusting God With My Child’s Salvation – “Take heart, Mom & Dad. Jesus is sovereign over your children’s salvation. And he faithfully goes after his lost sheep (Luke 15:4), whether they’re in the time-out corner of their preschool class or walking through cancer and chemotherapy. Our Father is more concerned with redeeming our children for his glory than we are.”

Surviving the Dangers of Prosperity – “We need to realize that if not for the work of God in our lives, we would have never experienced these abundant blessings. How many good things come our way that we didn’t work for or earn or achieve, but were just given into our laps through the homes we grew up in and the culture we live in? These blessings come through the things that God has done in the past and is doing in the present for us.”

We Are A Deeply Needy People – “Rather, what we see in the exercise of spiritual gifts are the excellencies of the Spirit to magnify Christ by meeting the needs of the saints through mutual service and expressions of encouragement. When spiritual gifts are exercised, the church is built up just as Christ promised.”

The Secular Salvation Story – “We are all telling a story, living by a story, evangelizing a story. One story is ancient and rugged. The other modern and banal. One confronts. The other caresses.  One truly saves. The other falsely succors. Choose your story wisely. For one starts grim, but ends in life. The other looks cheery and ends in death.”

The Best Way to Spend Your Life – “David served the purpose of God in his own generation and fell asleep. Wouldn’t it be great if people said that about you at your funeral? ‘She served the purpose of God in her generation.’ Wouldn’t that be great to have on your tombstone? ‘He served the purpose of God in his generation.'”

Brace Yourself for Suffering – A reminder that the time to prepare for suffering is before it arrives.

The Sanctifying Work of Parenthood – “Many people describe marriage as the laboratory where our spiritual growth is fostered and developed. I find it to be equally true of parenting as well. God has used parenting in my life to refine and change me in ways I had not anticipated. He’s given me a child who requires more than I was trained to handle so that I would depend on him and not my own strength. I’ve also learned things about myself I never knew and have seen things in my heart I never wanted to see. I’ve come face to face with sins I didn’t know were buried deep inside, sins like impatience, selfishness, irritability, and discontent. While uncomfortable and sometimes downright painful, the sanctifying work of parenthood has been necessary and good.”

Busyness is Not A Virtue – “Likewise, going on about how busy you are isn’t conversation and doesn’t lead anywhere — except making your conversation partner bored, or worse, peeved. People who act super busy send the same message, making time spent with them never feel quite whole. Interestingly, I find that most people who are legitimately occupied — with their work, or family, or art, or what-have-you — rarely play the “too busy” card, or go out of their way to make time for meaningful connection exactly because they’ve been busy.” (H/T)

The God of the Old Testament – “Nothing short of chronological snobbery would make us think that in contrast to God’s biblical followers we are better placed to judge the character of God. Biblical saints expected God, the judge of all the earth, to do what is right (Genesis 18:25), and it was not out of delusion that their hearts panted for God as the deer pants for water.”

Should We Be Eating More Bugs? – Ok, I admit it. The primary reason I shared this article is because of the headline. However, don’t dismiss it. It contains some interesting food for thought (pun totally intended.)

When I Want to Edit My Life – “When I grumble and complain and fight against God’s will, I am critiquing his story. When God’s will seems slow or unclear, I grab the pen and try to scratch out my own plan. I become an editor, telling my Author that his story is headed in the wrong direction.”

12 Terms for How Christians Participate With Christ – This is a helpful chart that may prove beneficial in furthering our understanding of how we co-labor with Christ.