Use Music to Shape Your Affections

Brian Sauve's most recent album, Hearth Songs, has been my life's soundtrack for the past several weeks. I still get teary-eyed when thinking about my own wife while hearing: Oh she's awesome as a mighty host.She's an army with its banners flown.Now who is this who shines forth as the dawn,clear as the moon and …

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Advent Giveaway

With the season of Advent quickly approaching, I will be giving away two Advent devotionals. The first is my own, and the second is Jonathan Gibson's Advent follow-up to Be Thou My Vision called O Come, O Come Emmanuel, which I am overjoyed to be using this year here at the Newton household! All you …

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For Those Distracted with Much Serving

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, …

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Not Ashamed to Be Called Their God | Hebrews 11:16

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:16 ESV With preaching through the entire Epistle to the Hebrews, my thoughts for sermon-text divisions has been to choose large chunks …

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Which Catechism Should I Use?

A few weeks ago, my wife reminded me of an experience early in our marriage that set the stage for my love of catechisms. We were speaking with a husband and wife who were Jehovah's Witness in our home, and the wife shared her testimony of why she left her Methodist upbringing to join the …

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Learning the Bible Alongside Your Children

School kicked back into session this past week. After thinking through education options, Tiff and I became convinced that the classical Christian approach would be worth trying, and for going on three years, Classical Conversations has been making that hope into a reality. While the task of homeschooling is daunting, we keep ourselves grounded with …

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A Better Hope Than Homer

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6XoEFi2sI1jxPMsTH2vL8Q?si=M7SLbjX7TZWPM-4v4ARpKQ A couple of months ago, for no particular reason, I grabbed my copy of Tolkien's translation of Beowulf off the shelf and began to read. Having only read bit of Beowulf in high school, I only remembered that Beowulf fights a monster named Grendel and a dragon. While I have since learned that, though …

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Trusting God When the Everyday Is Too Much

Midsummer gnat season is officially here, and earlier this week, I asked Tiff whether or not we are unknowingly descendants of ancient Egypt who are receiving a fresh outpouring of the third of the ten plagues from Exodus. It's a somewhat humorous exaggeration, I know, but every time I run my electric flyswatter through a …

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How the Sabbath Calls Us to Love God and Our Neighbor

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5fRKheenNLypPHRmgEFgp7?si=rzN_2dO8Q6qBgsR6bRvnKw The Ten Commandments are often divided into two tables, one pertaining to the love of God and the other describing how we are to love our neighbor. The most traditional division is between the Fourth and Fifth Commandments. The Fourth Commandment, after all, requires the remembering and keeping of the Sabbath day holy, while the Fifth Commandment demands honor to be given to …

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Going to Church Is Hard but Worth It

https://open.spotify.com/episode/40yeI6Wl0HpPQjie9KWQA1?si=Tdi7x6tYQQqrR5ma2y0mJw Sundays never fail to be tough. The plan is always to have the house clean and organized on Saturday, to do family devotionals, to set out and iron clothes for the morning, to go to bed early, and have a big happy breakfast together Sunday morning. Things never go according to plan. It never …

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