Article Roundup: March 2016, Part 1

I can't believe it's March.  Whatever happened to the first two months?  I hope you've kept your New Year's resolutions until now :)

The Ordinary Christian Life is a Radical Life by Burk Parsons at Ligonier Ministries

There is much truth in this.  Never was there a lifeless, boring Christian, for never did the Lord save a sinner and not set their heart on fire for His glory.  We who are not missionaries, who are not pastors, and who are 'great' in the eyes of Christendom ought to revel that we too can honor the Lord.

How Should We Then Defend? and Persuasion: Beyond the "Burp Effect" by Scott Oliphint at Reformation21

These articles plead for persuasion in evangelism, and every sentence dripped with gold.  If we will not plead, can we really say we are sharing the gospel as it deserves?  Oliphint's series reminded me of the series I wrote called "Pleading Evangelism."  Maybe I'll get around to finishing it one of these days.

5 Truths We're Keeping From Our Youth Groups by Jordan Standridge at The CrippleGate

This article strikes home for me, because I teach the Bible to both high schoolers and 4-7 year olds.  It's encouraging to know that others refuses to give children a watered-down, wrath-less, impotent "gospel."  If we will not teach them the full counsel of God, we assert that we know better than God.

What Should You Look for in a Church? By Jim Elliff at For the Church

Everything in this article is so good.  I'm blessed to already have a church home, but I'll keep this in mind if I ever need to help someone else out!

Romans 8:31-39

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written,
“FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.