“Preaching occurs when a holy man of God opens the Word of God and says to the people of God, ‘Come and experience God with me in this text.’…Making the truth plain is what an expository preacher does. When the main point of the text is the main point of the sermon, the preacher has the assurance that the Lord himself is coming to speak and act.” (Ryan Fullerton, Jim Orrick, and Brian Payne, Encountering God through Expository Preaching: Connecting God’s People to God’s Presence through God’s Word)

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Friday! Praise God for another week to spend in the reading and study of His Word, and the time to serve Him and His people. We have been away for about a month, and have missed many great links, but this week, the Lord provides! Here are this week’s (and this new year’s!) links!

• Tim Challies wrote an informative post on the beginnings of the Pentecostal movement, its quirky history, showing in seed form, many of the current concerns many believers have about those who promote a continuationist view.
• John MacArthur, during a Q&A at a Ligonier conference, answered how to counsel a mother who is Reformed in her thinking while married to a Roman Catholic husband. Very compassionate response.
• What does it mean to love a Savior in whom we have not seen? Pastor Clint Archer focuses on 1 Peter 1:6-9 as a blueprint for us to increase our faith in the risen Christ.
• Biblical counselor Bob Kellemen compiled a vast resource of links that would be a very helpful introduction to the biblical counseling movement. He wrote six blogposts that link to 90 resources, including the top 24 biblical counseling books of 2018, 12 bloggers to read in 2019, and more! You would be foolish not to take advantage of this!
• How would you define abuse, according to Scripture? TMU professor Greg Gifford provides a biblically comprehensive definition that will serve to clarify the nature of abuse in order to offer appropriate counsel to those who are being abused.
• Pastor Gavin Ortlund writes on the weirdness of living life without God. Many things cannot be adequately explained without reference to God, and Ortlund offers three aspects of life that demonstrates this to be the case.
• What are some of the essentials of complementarianism? What are some of the non-essentials? Pastors Danny Akin, Kevin DeYoung, and Darryl Williamson have a small discussion answering these questions, which I thought would be a great conversation starter for anyone thinking through these issues in the context of their church and home.
• New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary recently held an apologetics conference on their campus called Defend ’19 that gives some helpful training in the area of defending your faith against unbelief. Though I can’t endorse all that was presented, I would suggest watching talks by Rob Bowman, Gary Habermas, and Neil Shenvi. A playlist with most of the main sessions can be seen here.
• Jen Wilkin wrote a very helpful post on how to study the Bible with your teen. Parents, you will want to bookmark this page when your kids are approaching the teenage years. However, not to leave anyone out, this looks like a game plan that anyone can use to study the Bible with a young believer. This can work in small groups, an older man/woman meeting with a younger man/woman, or even at home with roommates, friends, or even with a coworker. Trust me, this is worth reading!
• Many of the audios and videos from the recent Cross conference have been posted. If you are looking to be motivated to think deeply about missions, you will be helped much by what was covered at this conference.

That’s all for this week! Pray for the youth and collegians, as they meet for Bible study tonight. See you all on Sunday!

Soli Deo Gloria