Many people imagine God looking for the lovely and then loving them. They see themselves as basically good, morally beautiful people and therefore, God's love is deserved. There is a problem though. That problem is that we are not, nor can we ever be, morally beautiful on our own. Hoping that God will look on us and love us because we are lovely ascribes attributes of human love to God and misunderstands the very nature of divine love. 

This week: the benefits of a home library, James Madison's nightmare, passive-aggressive conflicts, 10 things about the New Covenant, biography videos, and more!

This week on The Pastor Discussions Podcast, we talked about the recent results of The State of Theology study that Ligonier does every two years. One of the takeaways we talked about was confusion among professing American Evangelicals about the Trinity, the gospel, the condition of man, and other theological topics essential to Biblical Christianity. This week seems to have been a perfect storm with the release of American Gospel. The Arbor Drive staff watched it today and I will be doing another post with takeaways, but this is something that everyone should watch. You can watch it here on Vimeo by renting it for $4.99. This is something that every Christian should watch and is well worth the price. In a culture with so much gospel confusion, this documentary is a much needed breath of fresh air. 

As I stood at the door of the worship center after service last Sunday, a wonderful woman in our church asked me a question with a note of pain in her voice. The question was simple. How do you comfort someone who is suffering without being platitudinal or offering mere sentimentalities. This wonderful lady had family members who were in the midst of suffering and she longed to comfort them with something real. 

This week's awesome come in the form of video of skyscrapers being built and the top 100 books. 

Here is some stuff I found this week that is worth checking out. 

By looking at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary today, one would not think that in my lifetime, the seminary was in theological crisis. When I decided to attend seminary, I sat down with my pastor and asked what seminary I should attend. I had no idea where to start and needed some wisdom. I remember his words very clearly; "if I could go to one seminary right now, it would be Southern. They have the best faculty in the world and have the most theologically rigorous program available". That settled it for me. With a lot of prayer, and in spite of my stellar 2.2 (cumulative) undergrad GPA, I was accepted. For the next 2 1/2 years, I was challenged and pushed to grow theologically more than I ever anticipated. The theological preparation that Southern provided is among the best available in the world. That is the Southern Seminary that I know... but it wasn't always that way. 

While wasting some time on social media, I came across this picture posted by someone in a group. 

This week I've found some good stuff for you guys. Al Mohler celebrates 25 years at Southern Seminary. Here are some lessons to be learned. 

After an extended hiatus (can you have a hiatus a week after just starting something 2 weeks ago?) due to my wife being out of town and watching the kids, Week in Review is back. Here are some resources and recommendations from the first week in October, 2018.