Justin Taylor has highlighted a new album by John Mark McMillan. See video of “Death in His Grave” below.

Shaun Groves on John Mark McMillan new album, The Medicine: “I can’t recommend it highly enough. Beautiful, innovative, poetic, intelligent, subversive, theologically robust, sonic sweet tea and biscuits, transcendent.”

Interesting statistics on young women and their use of Facebook.

While the study covers all of social media, it’s clear that women in the 18-34 range are focused on their Facebook accounts. More than half of young women (57%) say they talk to people online more than face-to-face. A full 39% of them proclaim themselves Facebook addicts, while 34% of young women make Facebook the first thing they do when they wake up, even before brushing their teeth or going to the bathroom.

Last week, Al Mohler posted this horrifying article on feminism and abortion.

“f you are willing to die for a cause, you must be prepared to kill for it, too.” That statement, published for all the world to see, perfectly distills the inescapable logic of the abortion rights argument. It is based on a willingness to kill — and on the horrifying audacity to call this killing “the lesser evil.

Finally, check out the work that Aaron Coe is doing with SendNYC. They have a goal to plant 100 new churches in NYC in the next 10 years and they need your help.

Mission: SendNYC exists to mobilize and equip leaders in order to plant gospel-centered churches in New York City, North America, and cities around the world.

Death In His Grave (Performance Video) from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.

Has Noah’s Ark been found on Mt. Arrarat? Some Chinese researches believe it has.

A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say wooden remains they have discovered on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey are the remains of Noah’s Ark.

The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.

Baby survives nearly two days after abortion. This is a frightening look into a grotesque practice.

The infant survived the procedure, carried out on Saturday in the Rossano Calabro hospital, and was left by doctors to die.

He was discovered alive the following day – some 20 hours after the operation – by Father Antonio Martello, the hospital chaplain, who had gone to pray beside his body.

Christianity Today’s Children’s Ministry page has an interesting article on bribing children to come to church.

Kids do all sorts of stuff without bribes involved. The secret is to give them something they don’t get elsewhere. Consider, for a moment, why many kids like gym class even if they don’t care for the activities. They likely believe the gym teacher is cool—most of them are, you have to admit—and he or she somehow makes kids feel special. Or why do kids thoroughly enjoy some classes and not others? Many times, you need look no further than a teacher who bonds with and affirms each child in unique ways. And why will a child who meets with a mentor eagerly wait for that special time together each week? Because of the relationship they share.

Church planter fired over “Beer and Bible,” outreach program. Apparently this guy committed the cardinal sin…I’m praying that the unnamed denomination is not the SBC.

He was allegedly let go because he drank half a beer in public during the new “Beer and Bible” meeting he started last month.

While he was told that was the main issue, he doesn’t have all the details because he didn’t receive a phone call or e-mail from the decision makers, he said. His boss, whom he respects and who had given him permission to conduct “Beer and Bible,” broke the news to him a couple of weeks ago.

He now has less than 60 days before he and his family – wife and three kids – are cut off from all funding and left “abandoned,” as he put it.

“It’s troubling,” Hill told The Christian Post. “We’re out here trying to reach people as Jesus would.

“It’s still baffling to me that when your boss has given you permission that you can still get terminated for something such as that.”

Pastors, we must resist the temptation toward moralistic therapeutic deism in our day.  The world will not be cured if abortion is ended.  The great need of the world is the gospel of Christ, but rest assured, if the Gospel were alive and well in all Americans, the evil practice of abortion would be ended in our country.  How then do we wage the war against abortion?  We continue to preach the gospel, preach it to all people that some may be saved.  As lives are saved from sin, as the dead in sin are raised in Christ, the sin that reigns supreme in their lives will be forgiven and their lives will be transformed and unborn babies will live.  Fight against abortion but don’t let the fight against abortion define your ministry.  Be defined by the gospel and trust in the power of the gospel to change our world!

I rarely speak to politics in this arena and I am rarely moved to tears. However, the following video simultaneouosly brought tears to my eyes and provoked me to bring politics to the fore in this post. I publicly support no candidate, but this video should be seen by every person in America. I do not know the group who made the video and of course all things are open to scrutiny, but we should all seek to be informed. 

Pastors, politics is not our arena, but we have a responsibility as the mouthpiece of God to speak to the evils of our society.  Truly, the evils are not limited to abortion and homosexuality, we must work to justice reign supreme and to limit the spread of poverty, but I know no greater evil than that performed on unborn children.  Avoid politics, but speak boldly about the moral evils of our society. 

Mathew 25:40- “As you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” There is none smaller than the unborn child. May God have mercy upon us when we have not stood up for the “the least of these.”