A significant threat to our freedom of religion, the challenge of getting back to "normal," and something we can do to help others that is always welcome. Check out this week's Excellent Resources.

This week's Excellent Resources examine how the splintering of our society is affecting our churches as well. Then Paul Tripp does some teaching on sex. Finally, how not showing up to church in person can be bad for you.

Is it really true that cohabiting before marriage makes for a better marriage? And what about the voice in our heads that is constantly talking to us? Then there's the question of just what Solomon was talking about in his Song of Songs. Don't miss this week's Excellent Resources!

Statistics regarding evangelicals in America, 5 ways we shouldn't try to be like Jesus, and the impact of the Equality Act on American life if it's made law. This week's Excellent Resources are varied but important.

When a Christian leader falls, how should the church respond? Two of this week's Excellent Reads address this issue. The third is a several-minute video of the basics of Christianity. Who might you recommend that to?

My journey into the world of chronic pain began in the summer of 2007. I remember it well. I was serving at our Kids Town Camp when I was gripped with a pain so severe, I ended up in the ER. After hours on a morphine drip and many diagnostic tests, I was sent home with the diagnosis of idiopathic hydronephrosis or swelling and spasms of the kidney without known cause.

I had this severe spastic, throbbing, nauseating pain off and on for 12 years. In the beginning, I had some months free of this pain but ended up in the ER frequently with flare-ups. Gradually my episodes begin to increase, to whereby the summer of 2017, I was gripped with almost constant spasms and level 10 pain. I was home flat in bed for days begging for pain meds and relief. I felt alone, exhausted, and desperate.

Young Poppy was playing outside with friends when she stumbled, fell, and scraped her knee. She sat for a moment, crying, as she looked at her owie. Having heard her daughter’s cries, Mom met her at the door. She picked Poppy up, carried her to a chair, and sat there with Poppy on her lap. She gently rocked the girl, stroking her hair, and murmuring to her that she was okay, that her injury wasn’t too bad, and it would stop hurting soon. After a while, Poppy’s tears lessened, so she sat up and looked at Mom. With a hiccup, she wailed, “I wasn’t done playing and now all my friends will have left to go to the park without me…!” More tears threatened.

Growing up I was blessed to have very loving parents. I loved both my parents but relied mostly on my mother for comfort and security. I used to worry that when the day came for my mother to die, I wouldn’t be able to survive without her. When my mother passed away in 2011, I was able to accept her passing more than I expected mainly because I have a loving and caring husband. He has provided me with the comfort and security far beyond what I once had from my mother. But what about the Lord?

What is your testimony? Were you saved as a child? Did you walk the “straight and narrow”? Did you have a rough start? However God called you to repentance, your conversion is a miracle! Being brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light is such an awesome thing that even the angels in heaven rejoice. When we confess our faith in Jesus Christ, accept His death and resurrection as the payment for our sins, and turn from our ways to His, He becomes our Savior and our Lord.

In women’s ministry, we believe what the Word of God teaches: God has appointed gifted men to teach what is in accord with sound doctrine (Titus 1) and to proclaim God’s Word to the church. Our first and highest priority is to encourage our women to make it their first and highest priority to listen to and receive with joy God’s Word that is proclaimed each week in the pulpit ministry of the Word by our pastors and then to encourage one another to be women of the Word by being in God’s Word daily.

Emotions are difficult to navigate in this time of great uncertainty, change, and information. They are so strong and fear seems to be the inescapable environment that surrounds us as new information continually comes at us. God’s words, “Don’t be anxious” seem like an impossible burden rather than comfort. It is important to have a biblical understanding of emotions in order to navigate this time well.

When I came to Christ’s Church, I was lonely. I had been married for 39 years. We had three wonderful children married to great spouses the joy of being grandparents to five crazy active grandkids, BUT my mind was far, far away. I looked good on the outside, but I was lonely.

If you haven’t dealt with loneliness in your lifetime, there is a very good chance you will.

God created humans in His image and gave them the ability to learn and create and with the task to rule over the world for His glory. Every generation has seen advances. My grandparents used an outhouse and wood-burning stove. We have flush toilets and electricity. My generation grew up with dial phones on the wall and typewriters. My kids have cell phones and iPads.

What is a W.A.T.W type? I’ll get to that in a moment.

Christmas is probably the most universally celebrated holiday of any on the calendar. For almost an entire month, there is a party atmosphere everywhere with all kinds of traditions around lights and trees and decorations and special food and songs a seemingly endless array of gifts.

While we as believers know why this celebration is so special (“there is born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”), but most in our culture give nothing more than a superficial nod to some little cuddly baby born in a manger.

What can be done to bring more attention to the centerpiece of this celebration? Be more like W.A.T.W. What?

Jason Carlson (Christian Ministries International) Sometimes in our apologetic conversations, whether with cultists or skeptics, we will be confronted with a question or challenge that we simply don’t have an answer for. What should we do in those situations? Avoid the temptation to make up an answer. Not only is this dishonest, but it’s not really helping the person you’re witnessing to.

In a word, the evangelistic message is the gospel of Christ and Him crucified, the message of man’s sin and God’s grace, of human guilt and divine forgiveness, of new birth and new life through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a message made up of four essential ingredients.

1. The gospel is a message about God. It tells us who He is, what His character is, what His standards are, and what He requires of us, His creatures. It tells us that we owe our very existence to Him; that for good or ill, we are always in His hands and under His eye; and that He made us to worship and serve Him, to show forth His praise and to live for His glory. These truths are the foundation of theistic religion; and until they are grasped, the rest of the gospel message will seem neither cogent nor relevant. It is here with the assertion of man’s complete and constant dependence on his Creator that the Christian story starts.

Paul’s trip to Athens is a goldmine for giving us a biblical approach to witnessing. We’re used to looking at Acts 17 and considering his approach in the marketplace and the synagogue, and to analyzing how in his Areopagus speech he both connects with and confronts the lies of the Athenians’ culture and worldview.

But what transformed my evangelism was verses 24–27. Look at what the apostle says about God and about people:

Jason Carlson (Christian Ministries International)

Sometimes in our apologetic conversations, whether with cultists or skeptics, we will be confronted with a question or challenge that we simply don’t have an answer for. What should we do in those situations?

Avoid the temptation to make up an answer. Not only is this dishonest, but it’s not really helping the person you’re witnessing to.