News From the Frontlines: October 24th, 2026
What a joy it is that God commands we love Him above all other things: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). God is far too concerned with His eternal glory and our eternal good to allow us to waste our energies on anything other than that which is best—namely, the everlasting enjoyment of Himself. How often we view this command as a burden, as overly taxing, when in fact it is the very thing for which we were made.
Moreover, it is only after we begin to understand the reality that, as C.S. Lewis said, “he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only,” do we then also begin to make sense of Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:25, where He says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” A meaningful vocation, a healthy body, a spouse, children, a good T.V. show that, for once, doesn’t go belly up towards the end—these are all good things, but we cannot and must not make a god out of them. Apart from the Lord, these good gifts are but shadows and mists, bound only to slip through our fingers. To quote Lewis again, “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’; aim at Earth and you will get neither.” As another saint put it, “He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” If we have Christ, we can lose everything and still consider it gain; without Him, we can gain the whole world and be infinitely poorer for it.
Indeed—I suspect Heaven will be just that: crowning our experience will be our eternal fellowship with the Lord our God, now unbroken by sin and death, coupled with all the joys of Earth and more thrown in.
—News From the Frontlines—
Recommended Reading, Listening, & Watching
Trevin Wax presents three compelling arguments (among many others) for the truth of the Christian faith: the philosophical argument for a Creator, the challenge of explaining suffering, and the resurrection of Jesus.
The words of Jesus from Matthew 22:30 have caused no shortage of angst to married couples everywhere—“in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” For those of us who are married, we are often tempted to ask how this can be a good thing, much less a better reality than what we presently enjoy in the sweet gift of marriage to our spouse. Tim Challies provides an answer from Scripture.
Randy Alcorn walks us through the assurance that the Gospel provides: “Countless people will assure you Heaven is your default destination, or the reward for working hard or avoiding certain sins. This is false. Salvation comes only through Jesus. Still, the question remains: how can we possibly know God, and be confident we’ll go to Heaven, not Hell?”
“There have been plenty of seasons in my life when I haven’t felt like a particularly good Christian. I wish I could tell you that suffering has always brought out the very best in me, that physical pain has made me endlessly patient, that uncertainty has produced unwavering peace, and that every difficult season has found me rising early in the morning with my Bible open, praying beautiful prayers and resting confidently in the promises of God. That would make for a wonderful testimony. It just wouldn’t be mine.”
“Here, then, is the sobering reality – you are influencing your children spiritually whether you want to or not. You will either influence them toward God the Father, or they will have to overcome your influence to come to God the Father. The Book of Proverbs wants you, as a dad, to not run from that responsibility, and instead to not only embrace it, but love it.” A sobering reality, indeed—but an exceedingly joyful one nonetheless.
Nathan Busenitz, pastor John MacArthur’s replacement at Grace Community Church, engages with a timely question in this lengthy ‘lermon’ (lecture/sermon).
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been listening through a video series by R.C. Sproul on the parables. Among the many parables of Jesus, I think that “The Parable of the Talents” has most impacted me, and I appreciated Sproul’s treatment of it.
—Flashback Friday—
(October 23rd, 2026)
“In the halls of my darkened memory, the night of my father’s passing is well-preserved. I may have forgotten a great many things about those weary days—and dreary nights—but I will never forget that evening. Indeed, I have walked the well-worn paths of that memory many, many times.”
Photo by Will Paterson, Unsplash
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