Pride and selfishness, rather than Christ’s principles of humility and sacrificial love for others, control much of what is called God’s work. All too often God’s work becomes a matter of ego, a competitive game, or a ladder to success in the big business of religion.

Strauch, Alexander; Peterson, Robert. Agape Leadership: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership from the Life of R.C. Chapman

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Friday! It’s been quite a week, but what’s a week without links? A weak one! Well, let’s finish it strong by getting into the links that have been provided by some of God’s people this week.

• Here’s a slice of Michael Reeves’ story in overcoming unbelief by a deeper pursuit and study of God through His Word. Also a lead in to John Piper’s very anticipated book on the self-authenticating nature of Scripture.
• David Powlison recently spoke at RTS on depression and suffering, which Justin Taylor highlighted on his blog. You can watch the video and follow the brief outline below.
• If you have never heard the story of Rosaria Butterfield’s conversion, this would be a good place to start.
• Ken Sande continues addressing how to change habits through the lens of the gospel. There is much that will help you here.
• The Grace to You blog continues their series on Christian cliches, covering the common slogan, “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship.“
• Continuing his series on gospel conversations, biblical counselor Robert Kellemen gives two portraits of what a gospel conversation looks like.
• When seeking to apply forgiveness, it’s best to have a working knowledge of how Scripture defines forgiveness in light of what the culture perceives forgiveness to be. Mark Snoeberger provides a short summary of this beautiful, and difficult, theme.
• Over at the True Woman blog, Kimberly Wagner writes 10 ways for wives to love their husbands well. The majority of these ways can be applied to the other gender, so men, pay attention!
• Denny Burk provides his reasoning on why, when it comes to presidential elections, he’s a single-issue voter. Don’t knock it ’til you’ve read it.
• Here’s a couple posts to bookmark: James Dolezal gave a series of lectures on the doctrine of God, specifically on His simplicity, at the 2015 RBAP Conference, and Pastor Gavin Beers spoke on God’s impassibility, which David Murray highlighted and included a number of follow-up articles on the subject. All in all, these speak more of the God we worship, so dig in!
• You might be surprised to know that, for Christian professor Mitch Stokes, he encourages athiests to be more consistent in their athiesm. To understand why, check his recent post at the Crossway blog.
• On The Glory Book’s Women’s Hope podcast, Carolyn Lawson seeks to give hope to those who would call themselves lonely by fault, and by no-fault. To understand what that means, take a listen (make sure to read the post below as well).

That’s all for this week! Please be in prayer for College Life, as they will be at CL Retreat, with Pastor Scott Ardavanis from Grace Church in the Valley! See the rest of you on Sunday!

Soli Deo Gloria