As you may know, this Sunday is Sanctity of Life Sunday. Although we don’t build our Sunday service around the occasion, we wholeheartedly embrace the cause of justice for vulnerable unborn human life and wanted to link you to an important article on the subject.

Over at Christianity Today, Daniel Darling and Andrew Walker have written a piece, “Abortion Meets a New Generation,” showing the pro-life cause to be a matter of basic human justice, a cause important for each generation regardless of the cultural mood or cost.

Here are some excerpts:

As evangelicals who came of age during the culture wars, we’re part of a generation ready to move past the pitched left-right debates. The critiques of Christian political activism have held some merit: A hyper-focus on elections, voter guides, and strategy has often buried the gospel story. Sometimes following Christ has strangely looked like following an elephant or a donkey. . . .

We’ve heard well-meaning, but cautious lovers of the gospel say that the cause of the unborn is too political, that it casts a harmful pall over the church, damaging gospel witness. To be sure, politics has not always brought out the best of God’s people. A renewed embrace of the grace-truth tension is needed. And yet, can we really claim to be social justice warriors if we ignore the millions of unborn children silenced and snuffed out in America at the altar of convenience? Can we overlook the corporatist worldview of Planned Parenthood that has industrialized abortion? No, we cannot. . . .

In fact, the denial of human life is arguably what triggers all other forms of activism. If we don’t get our witness right on life, how can our witness on any other issue seem anything other than pyrrhic? A Christian approach to social engagement cannot be calculated through the grid of popular appeal or mass approval. . . .

Being pro-life is about justice. And justice is blind—blind to color, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, or socioeconomic status. Justice is standing up for what is true, good, and beautiful; and on the issue of life, we insist that every child is a uniquely good and beautiful creation of God, and therefore deserving of life.

Click here to read the whole article.

For more reflection on the question of unborn life, read a blog published here earlier this year, “Why are we against abortion?.” Also, in love for the unborn and their parents, consider volunteering at Care Net, one of DSC’s strategic local missions partners. You’ll also have a chance to meet a representative from Care Net next Sunday morning, January 26, at DSC’s Ministry Fair.

Perhaps you have been around DSC for a while and you’ve asked yourself that question. What is The Gospel Coalition (TGC)? Is it a denomination? What is it?

Well, it’s not a denomination. DSC is a local church without ties to any outside governing body. But we are happy to partner with other like-minded churches here and abroad for the sake of the gospel, and that’s what TGC helps us do. It’s a network of pastors and churches committed to the gospel and to its spreading. This network is grounded in a few Foundation Documents, including a Confessional Statement and a Theological Vision for Ministry. Click here to read both.

TGC has a rich website, which serves the broader church with articles on cultural and theological issues, book reviews, a sermon and resource catalogue, and a web hub for TGC conferences and TGC’s global missions effort, International Outreach.

Here in Albuquerque, since Ryan is a council member for TGC, DSC regularly hosts meetings for a network of area pastors who are part of Albuquerque’s TGC Chapter. They meet to pray, discuss Scripture, and offer help to one another in the work of ministry. Click here to check out the chapter’s new website. And, of course, DSC’s annual theology conference, Clarus, is also a TGC regional conference and hosted in partnership with Albuquerque’s chapter.

Enough text. Here are two videos to help put this partnership in context for you, the second of which was recently published at the TGC Blog and features Ryan Kelly.

Founding TGC council members answer the question, “What is The Gospel Coalition?”

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Ryan Kelly discusses the historical background for a church network like TGC

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Over at the newly redesigned Desiring God site, Jon Bloom published an article on the subject of new year’s resolutions. After unpacking briefly why resolutions are biblical and why annual resolutions are good idea, he presents a single resolution as the heart of all Christian resolve: love. Here’s a bit from his article, “Your Most Courageous Resolution in 2014“:

. . . resolves can either be rooted in our selfish ambitions or in the love of God. We must think them through carefully. So as we make our resolutions for 2014, God wants them to all serve this one great end: “pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1).

“Pursue” is a very purposeful word. The Greek verb has an intensity to it. It means to “seek after eagerly,” like a runner in a race seeks eagerly to win a prize.

. . . Let this be the year that we pursue love. . . . Each person’s situation is so unique that we can’t craft strategies for each other to grow in love. It’s something that we must each do with God, though some feedback and counsel from those who know us best are helpful.

But here are some of the Bible’s great love texts to soak in during 2014 that can help loving strategies emerge:

• 1 Corinthians 13: soak in or memorize it and let each “love is . . .” statement in verses 4–7 search your heart. With whom can you show greater patience, kindness, and more?
• John chapters 13–15: soak in or memorize them. Ninety-five verses are very doable. You can memorize them in 3–6 months and be transformed.
• The First Epistle of John: Soak in or memorize it. You can do it! Forcing yourself to say the verses over and over will yield insights you’ve never seen before.
• Take 2–4 weeks and simply meditate on the two greatest commandments according to Jesus (Matthew 22, Mark 12, Luke 10). Look and look at them and pray and pray over them. You will be surprised at what the Lord shows you.
• Read Hebrews 13:1–7, take one verse per day and prayerfully meditate on what you might put into place to grow in each area of loving obedience. It may be one thing or ten things.

If you’ve got four more minutes, read Jon’s whole article, “Your Most Courageous Resolution in 2014.” For a plan and some help in reading the Bible in 2014, check out this post from the DSC Blog last week.

Reading the Bible regularly is a really good idea. It’s even more important than eating regularly. As Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

With just a few days left until the start of 2014, we’re posting here some suggestions for how to read through the Bible in a year. Of course, there’s no Bible verse that suggests an annual plan for Bible reading. But, like reading the Bible regularly, it’s a good idea. At least once a year most of us need to take inventory and take some kind of action toward being more faithful with our intake of Scripture.

• Chronological Reading Plan: Reading God’s Story: A Chronological Daily Bible, by George Guthrie is a unique resource. This Bible is published with a one year daily reading plan in mind, ordering the Biblical material chronologically along the Bible’s own narrative framework and includes a reading plan. George Guthrie has also published a one year chronological Bible reading plan, Read the Bible for Life.
• The M’Cheyne Plan with Daily Devotional Commentary: For the Love of God is a two volume series of books written by D.A. Carson providing daily reading to supplement the M’Cheyne reading plan. This plan, named after its designer and Scottish minister in the 1800′s, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, takes you through the Old Testament once and the Psalms and New Testament twice in one year.
• Several Places A Day: Crossway’s Daily Bible Reading Plan is available as a PDF form to print out as a series of bookmarks. This plan gets you through the Bible in a year, reading from several different places in the Bible each day. Crossway has published 10 reading plans to supplement the ESV, including RSS, email, audio, and print versions daily. Also, the Discipleship Journal “Bible Reading Plan,” by NavPress, takes you through the entire Bible by reading from four different places each day.
• Just a List of Chapters: The Bible Reading Record, by Don Whitney, is a simple list of every chapter in the Bible. With this, you can read at whatever pace you like and keep track of what you’ve read until you’re through the Bible. This, of course, wouldn’t necessarily be a one year plan, but it could be. To get through the Bible’s 1089 chapters in a year, you need to read an average of 3.25 chapters a day, which comes out to about four chapters per day if you commit to reading five days each week.

If the Bible is new to you, or if you haven’t personally invested in knowing the Scriptures through regular reading, listen to Ryan’s sermon on Psalm 1, “If You Wanna Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life….” For the worlds most complete summary of Bible reading plans, read this post by Justin Taylor. And if you need some help reflecting on some of the spiritual dynamics involved in our struggle to read the Bible, check our Ryan Kelly’s article, “How’s Your Bible Reading Going?” Finally, for a list of helps in understanding the Bible as you read it, check out our post from last year, “Help for Understanding the Bible.”

D.A. Carson and Matt Boswell have written a new song, “Exult in the Savior’s Birth,” which we’ve been singing through this Advent season. It’s a great song for pondering, revering, and adoring the incarnate Christ who is our King from Heaven. It’s available here as a free download.

Here’s an introduction to the song followed by the lyrics:

Read, listen to, meditate, and pray through these words this Christmas. Click here to download the song for free.