SATURDAY 7

Your Saturday Seven is a hand-selection of seven articles from this week that will hopefully be a blessing to you. You can see more past articles here. Note: I do not necessarily fully endorse or agree with all content posted.

1. GIVE THEM TIME: HOW TO PROTECT THE ASSURING NATURE OF A CHILD’S BAPTISM.

By: Michaeel Lawrence, 4.12.24 / 9 Marks

“We should be quick to celebrate and encourage any and every sign of faith in our children. And then we should continue to explain that a Christian isn’t someone who prayed a prayer, but someone who repents and believes and continues to do so. We should teach our children to “grow in the graces of evangelism, service, and love of neighbor.” We should encourage them in their service within the church…”

2. THE ART OF EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING: LESSONS OF C.H. SPURGEON.

By: Geoff Chang, 4.22 / Desiring God

“The second kind of speaking is extemporaneous sermon delivery, where “the words are extemporal, as I think they always should be, but the thoughts are the result of research and study” (230). This was Spurgeon’s preferred preaching method….”

3. SEND NETWORK HOSTS ORIENTATION FOR 200+ CHURCH PLANTERS IN ATLANTA, GA.

By: SEND, 4.19.24 / Send Network

“More than 200 church planters represented 189 Sending Churches at Send Network’s most recent Orientation for newly endorsed church planters this past week, April 15-17. Five different languages were spoken among the planters, who hailed from 24 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces…”

4. UNITED METHODISTS VOTE TO RESTRUCTURE WORLDWIDE CHURCH.

By: Yonat Shimron, 4.26.24 / Baptist Press

“CHARLOTTE, N.C. (RNS) — The top legislative body of the United Methodist Church passed a series of measures Thursday (April 25) to restructure the worldwide denomination to give each region greater leeway in tailoring church life to its own customs and traditions…”

5. SPURGEON ON THE MARKS OF A MISSIONARY.

By: Charis Gonyo, 4.26.24 / The Spurgeon Library

“One of The Pastors’ College’s proudest achievements was the increasing number of missionaries sent out internationally. However, Spurgeon did not forget that there was much work still to be done at home. Speaking to the Baptist British and Irish Home Missionary Society in 1870, Spurgeon sought to encourage all Christians to engage in the work of home missions…”

6. THE PATH TO CONTENTMENT.

By: Tim Challies, 4.27.24 / Challies

“The path to contentment begins with your current life, your current reality, your current circumstances. It begins with words like the Apostle Paul’s—words written from a prison cell: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Philippians 4:11). Paul could be content in every situation because he knew that God is sovereign over every situation—that whether in plenty or hunger, in abundance or need, in joy or sorrow, in receiving or surrendering, his circumstances had been decreed by God…”

7. THE ESSENTIALS OF BIBLICAL MASCULINITY: INTEGRITY.

By: Dr. John MacArthur, 4.26.24 / Grace to You

“It used to be that the cadets in the academy would pray these words every Sunday at chapel: “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy…”