<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.25em; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: proxima-nova, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Question 1: Are You a Fake Friend?</strong></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.25em; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: proxima-nova, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> There is one defining characteristic of the phony friend in Proverbs: he uses people. The fake friend makes friends with people who can give him things. He establishes relationships solely for personal gain. In Proverbs this means money.</p> <ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 35px; direction: ltr; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; list-style-position: outside; font-family: proxima-nova, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr;"> “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend” (19:4).</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr;"> “The poor is disliked by his neighbor, but
Sorted by: Kevin DeYoung
I don’t know if modest is hottest, but I do know that modesty is biblical. It is one of the marks of the confusion of our age that so many teenagers and young adults are more ashamed to dress with modest reserve than to very nearly undress entirely. Even after we give full throat to the necessary caveats–being pretty (or handsome) is not a sin, working to improve your appearance does not have to be vanity, the line between modest and immodest is not always black and white–we are still left with the undeniable biblical fact that God considers modesty a virtue and its opposite a vice.
What must we leave behind if we are to follow Christ? The simplest answer is that we must leave behind idolatry. That’s the very first commandment—you shall have no other gods before me. They don’t have to be obvious representations of the divine; they don’t have to be stone or wood or marble. There are all sorts of gods: education, athletics, marriage, choice, power, self-expression, beauty, achievement. Whatever you give your whole life for, there’s your idol.
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that make the biggest difference. For many years I’ve used the 3 R’s I learned from Ben Patterson to pray through Scripture. This simple tool has helped me pray the Bible more than any other single strategy. I’ve used in my devotional times and have employed it often in leading others in prayer. 1. Rejoice 2. Repent 3. Request
One of the clearest and most comprehensive statements of John Witherspoon’s theology can be found in his Essay on Justification (1756) where he sets out to defend justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ and ends up giving this big, broad, glorious summary of the gospel:
The world is full of bad reasoning, which is too bad because few people bother to learn logic anymore. What’s worse, the most common
We talk a lot about relationships in the church. There are scores of marriage seminars, retreats, and conferences. There are video series and books for newlyweds and engaged couples. Most every church offers marital counseling and most every pastor preaches somewhat regularly on marriage. And the same is true for parenting. There are dozens of books on raising children. There are Sunday school
Parenting has become more complicated than it needs to be. It used to be, as far as I can tell, that Christian parents basically tried to feed their kids, clothe them, teach them about Jesus, and keep them away from explosives.
One of the clearest and most comprehensive statements of John Witherspoon’s theology can be found in his Essay on Justification (1756) where he sets out to defend justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ and ends up giving this big, broad, glorious summary of the gospel:
Question 1: Are You a Fake Friend? There is one defining characteristic of the phony friend in Proverbs: he uses people. The fake friend makes friends with people who can give him things. He establishes relationships solely for personal gain. In Proverbs this means money. “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend” (19:4). “The poor is disliked by his neighbor, but