Posts by Ben Janssen

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Unequally Evil

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We find comfort in a God of mercy who punishes us infinitely less than our sins deserve....

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The Depths of Depravity

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Sin discourages us from looking at its horrors closely....

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A Welcome from Jesus Christ

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The only qualification for receiving a welcome from Jesus is to be in need of what he can supply....

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Antichrist Revealed

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The antichrist just might be closer to you than you thought....

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Tempted By God?

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God tests his people, but he never tempts them with evil....

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The Land of the Living

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Resurrection is the promise to reunite all that death has separated....

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Debate and Division

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Ignoring the real facts that separate us holds no promise for finding unity....

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The Love of Truth Wins

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Trying to maintain unity apart from a commitment to pursuing truth is destined to fail far worse than any division that comes while ignoring the pursuit of truth....

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The Weekly Holiday

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Keeping a weekly Sabbath just might be the gift of grace we desperately need....

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Your Kingdom Come

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Christians can pray with the expectation of seeing God’s kingdom come day by day....

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The Christian Obligation Toward Authority

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The Christian response to authority ought to demonstrate our confidence in the One who occupies the highest place of authority above all....

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Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls

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If you cannot gather with your church right now, be sure you do all you can to mitigate the risk to your soul....

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The Future Has Already Come

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The Bible calls us to live in the reality that the most consequential prophecies have already been fulfilled....

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The Christian's Liberty In Voting

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How we vote is a matter of Christian liberty requiring us to develop our biblical convictions and acting in a manner worthy of our calling as Christians....

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Book Review: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

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Christians are called to a bold, unhurried life that refuses to bow to the unhealthy busyness of the world....

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Where Can I Hide My Idol?

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God sees the idols of our heart and will tolerate no rival. He loves us too much to do that....

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The Requirement of the First Commandment

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How good it is for God to require us to have as our God nothing less than the best....

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The Essence of the Ten Commandments

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The Ten Commandments require a love that will inevitably lead to their fulfillment....

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The Preamble to the Ten Commandments

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The power we need to see real change take place in our lives is the assurance that God’s love for us is secure....

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Union with the Whole Christ

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The grace of God can be fully seen and applied to our lives only as we begin to grasp the inseparable realities of Christ’s person and work....

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God's Rules

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God requires an obedience that is unachievable without the Savior....

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Complementarian Careers

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The Bible calls both husbands and wives to be homemakers....

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Evangelical Principles for Politics Evidenced in the Civil Rights Movement

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Evangelical Christians should learn from some basic principles that guided King and the Civil Rights Movement in its earliest days....

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The Wonder and Encouragement of Christmas

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He who is one with God in deity has become one with us in our humanity....

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The New Creation of the Incarnate Word

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A new creation brought about by the incarnate Word of God is the only hope for our eternal salvation....

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The Place of Christ’s Crucifixion

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We should come to Christ whose blood washes away our sin and whose body was completely broken and wasted to remove any last hint of our reproach....

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Joyful Shepherds, Joyful Churches

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The Bible exhorts church members to do what they can to minimize the hardship and to maximize the joy of ministry for their pastors....

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The Coming Apocalypse

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The world is not headed for obliteration but for the liberation of the new creation....

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No More Pain, Only Pleasure

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Once the soul has been fully satisfied with God, there is only eternal pleasure....

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The Subjects of Baptism

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The church ought to baptize only those who profess faith and are unbreakable members of the new covenant....

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The Significance of Baptism

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We must not make too much of baptism, but we must not make too little of it either....

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The Sovereignty of God in Salvation and Sacrament

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Just as in salvation, God is the primary actor in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper....

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Finding the Need to Pray

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Three ways we can not only fuel our prayer lives but also become more fruitful in prayer....

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Book Review: God So Loved, He Gave

God So Loved

We imitate God’s generosity when we ourselves enter into his lavish gift by faith....

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When God Saved Us

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God saved us when it could only be explained as an act of unilateral grace....

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Getting Clear About Sin

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To freely confess that we are the most despicable moral creatures on earth encourages us to hold on to Christ as our only hope....

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On the News of Josh Harris’s Deconversion

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The good news upon which Christianity is based is true whether anyone believes it or not....

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Lazarus Lives

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Would people repent if God sent a messenger back from the dead?...

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Missional Families and a Vision for Gospel Saturation

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What are Missional Families and why are they essential to the ministry of the local church?...

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On Being Patriotic

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Christians must prioritize the kingdom of God over every kingdom of this world although this will make them appear less patriotic in the eyes of the non-Christian world....

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Seeking Boredom

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Boredom might be our clue that we have lost the ability to delight in the ordinary goodness of God....

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A Word of Encouragement

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The ground for assurance is always what Christ has done and never what we have done....

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Confessions of Superiority

Just because you feel affection for someone doesn't mean you don't feel superior to them....

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King, Perkins, and Now Us

John Perkins and the conviction that only the church and the love of Christ can overcome racial injustice....

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Praying for Revival in 2019

What if this was the year that you and I could witness an extraordinary work of God if only we would faithfully ask him for it?...

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Am I Saved? How Can I Be Sure?

What we believe about eternal security determines our beliefs on the doctrines of grace....

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What Is Sin?

Even if we are externally doing the “right things,” we might find sin lurking in the motives and attitudes of the heart....

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God's Voice, My Agenda

We need God’s commands as much as we need his comfort....

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The Most Distinctive Christian Doctrine

The doctrine of the Trinity is mind-blowing, but it is essential that Christians know the doctrine well....

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The Bible's Primary Teaching

Our disbelief and disobedience ends up teaching us the most glorious truths we must believe about God....

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Is the Bible the Word of God?

Before we can appeal to the Bible's teaching or ethics, we need to ask and answer this important question: How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God? ...

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The First and the Best

Because God is the first and best of beings, we either live in this reality or live in a fantasy....

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Repentance: True or False?

Remorse and resolution are easily confused with repentance....

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The Rest of Summer

There is a purpose for rest, a purpose we need to work hard to achieve....

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Imagining God

The second commandment urges us to resist making God by our imagination....

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The Key to the Saints' Success

Ambition, diligence, and hard work are vices and not virtues when they are driving the building of our own glorious kingdom....

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The Rewards of Meditation on Scripture

Let us commit ourselves to the work of careful meditation of the Word of God....

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That Time Jesus Lied to His Brothers

How do we explain Jesus's apparent lack of truthfulness in John 7?...

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Podcasts Worth Your Time

Every minute around the world there are almost 150,000 emails sent, 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube, and 3.9 million Google searches conducted. Those are staggering numbers that remind us of the inexhaustible amount of content that is available for public consumption, just a click away. There are some real dangers to be concerned about with all this data for sure. A...

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Welcome to the Crosstown Blog

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Two reasons for this church blog....

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