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Jesus Christ and Him Crucified – “There’s a lot of emphasis on sharing your stories with others. The reasoning is that people won’t dismiss a personal testimony as easily. I think there is some value in that, because it helps people see that they’re not alone. And how else can you explain “the hope that you have” without sharing your story? But if we let ourselves get too wrapped in our story, it can become more about us and less about God. To a person who is wrestling with some big issues, we can inadvertently make them feel worse.”

Popularity vs. Pleasing God – “If we’re trying to please people through our sharing of the Gospel, then we’re going to end up revising God’s message and taking out the parts about sin and hell. What we’ll be left with is not the Gospel.”

Repentance Should Grow from Relationship – “When coming to God’s Word, it is so important for me to remember that it is the revelation of God Himself to me that is the priority. The avoidance of and repentance from sin is the result of seeking God with all my heart.”

Not A Waste of Time – A wonderful reminder from Edith Schaeffer about hospitality, service and treating others as if we were doing so unto Jesus.

Our National Pastime – Baseball is often maligned and I understand the reasons why, but it will always have a special place in my heart. This post reminds us some of the reasons that baseball is treasured. For example – “Baseball is unique in the pantheon of professional American sports. It’s the only one where time doesn’t end your game. It’s the only one where offense and defense are totally compartmentalized. And it’s the only sport that actually works on radio.”

Why the Resurrection Changes Everything – “Have we, as gospel-centered, gospel-saturated believers, left the resurrection out of our gospel message? I know I am guilty. After reflecting on an opportunity I had to share the gospel with an unbeliever, I suddenly realized that not once had I mentioned, at least in any depth, the resurrection of Christ. I fear that my experience is not my own, but that of evangelicals everywhere. But Paul teaches us that we must come to grips with the biblical reality that the resurrection of Christ cannot be divorced from the death of Christ when we speak about the gospel. Should we separate the two, we will seriously miss the significance of the resurrection for our salvation.”

What Does It Mean for Jesus to Despise Shame? – “Shame was stripping away every earthly support that Jesus had: his friends gave way in shaming abandonment; his reputation gave way in shaming mockery; his decency gave way in shaming nakedness; his comfort gave way in shaming torture. His glorious dignity gave way to the utterly undignified, degrading reflexes of grunting and groaning and screeching.”

The Joy of Being Given More Than You Can You Handle – “We don’t have to hold out for vain consolations that we will eventually muster our own strength and rise to the occasion to prove our competence. Instead, we have blood-bought promises purchased for us through the work of Jesus on the cross.”

Evidences & Resources – Fourteen concise descriptions of evidence of Christ’s resurrection.

Expiation & Propitiation – “Together, expiation and propitiation constitute an act of placation. Christ did His work on the cross to placate the wrath of God. This idea of placating the wrath of God has done little to placate the wrath of modern theologians. In fact, they become very wrathful about the whole idea of placating God’s wrath. They think it is beneath the dignity of God to have to be placated, that we should have to do something to soothe Him or appease Him. We need to be very careful in how we understand the wrath of God, but let me remind you that the concept of placating the wrath of God has to do here not with a peripheral, tangential point of theology, but with the essence of salvation.”