A web page and journaling tool designed to help people grow spiritually.

Since 1998 A Puritan’s Mind has been the largest Puritan and Reformed Christian website on the internet. It exists to offer free resources on Reformed and Puritan literature for the Christian’s spiritual growth in Christ to the glory of God.

Centennial Colorado (CO)

Lake Zurich Illinois (IL)

Arise Baptist Church is a church that helps people to begin and grow in their relationship with God.

Possibly this weekend?

What The Bible Says - Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Seeking a biblically qualified full-time assistant pastor

What The Bible Says - Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Prayerfully seeking a pastor

Need: Pastor

KJV, King James, Baptist, Bible, Soul Winning, Independent, Old Fashioned.

New to Bible Baptist Church? If ever you're in the San Diego Area, we would love to have you join us. To find out more, click here: ...

KJV, King James, Baptist, Bible, Soul Winning, Independent, Old Fashioned.

KJV, King James, Baptist, Bible, Soul Winning, Independent, Old Fashioned.

New to Bible Baptist Church? If ever you're in the San Diego Area, we would love to have you join us. To find out more, click here: ...

Beyoncé's right. Whether listening to Cowboy Carter or reading theology, diversity is a good thing.I wasn’t planning to listen to Cowboy Carter, the eighth studio album from American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. I’ve always had a love for her music—but country has never been my thing.Plans changed when I started to read what people were writing about the record, from comments on social media to reviews in major publications. Their reactions were bitter, even cruel. “Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ isn’t a country album. It’s worse,” proclaimed one review in The Washington Post. “Beyoncé has chosen to do Dolly Parton karaoke,” writes the reviewer. “She sounds like she’s doing Wild West bedroom cosplay in outer space.”“The lefties in the entertainment industry just won’t leave any area alone, right?” asked an interviewer on a One America News program. “They’ve got to make their mark, just like a dog in a dog walk park,” responded the interviewee.It’s not that Cowboy Carter is exempt from criticism. Its genre-blending experimentation won’t be to everyone’s taste. Some listeners may have reservations about Beyoncé’s departure from her earlier pop and R & B records. That’s fine. Music, like all art forms, is subjective. Thoughtful critique can serve as a means for musicians to grow as artists, and to engage audiences in meaningful ways.But that’s different from implying that Beyoncé can’t and shouldn’t sing country music simply because of who she is: not a white man from a rural small town, but a Black woman raised in Houston. A “stay in your place” undercurrent cuts through how critics have spoken about her ...Continue reading...

The world is realizing anew that our faith has tangible benefits. This is an opportunity for the gospel.As Christianity continues to decline in the West, the broader world has begun to notice something’s missing. There seems to be a growing awareness that—for all the scandals and failings of the church—the loss of a Christian culture leaves us all worse off, and that there are benefits to being a Christian and to living in a Christian society.For example, Derek Thompson recently wrote in The Atlantic about the loss of community that comes with declining church attendance. “Maybe religion, for all of its faults, works a bit like a retaining wall,” he concluded, “hold[ing] back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism, which threatens to swell and spill over in its absence.”Likewise, Harvard scholar Tyler J. VanderWeele has extensively researched the benefits of participation in religious services, finding that it leads to improved mental and physical health, happiness, and sense of meaning. Statistically, going to church regularly will help you flourish as a human being. As Brad Wilcox, a professor at the University of Virginia, has shown, regular church attendance even correlates with a more satisfying sex life!And then you have those like former atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali who explain their conversion to Christianity at least partly as a response to the decay of the contemporary world, a world threatened by “woke ideology,” “global Islam,” and authoritarianism. “The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” Hirsi Ali said in an essay announcing her new faith. Famous atheist Richard Dawkins objected to Hirsi Ali’s conversion yet seems to ...Continue reading...

After lobbying from fellow Southern Baptists and Christians affected by the war, the House speaker moves a package forward. When deciding whether to protect his place in leadership as House speaker or go against his party to do what he believed was right, Mike Johnson turned to prayer.It had been weeks of hearing intelligence briefings and pleas from fellow Christians when Johnson ultimately sided with his convictions rather than conceding to the Republican Party’s isolationist wing. He backed a $95 billion foreign aid package that, despite the opposition of 112 GOP legislators, overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last weekend.Like many of his fellow Republicans, Johnson had initially opposed further aid to Ukraine, voting against it prior to becoming speaker and waiting months to move forward with an aid package after the Senate approved its version in February.He “went through a transformation,” according to one GOP colleague, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul. The shift may have come in part due to the influence of Ukrainian evangelicals, fellow Christian leaders, and his personal faith.“He got down on his knees, and he prayed for guidance and said, ‘Look, tell me. What is the right thing to do here?’” the Texas congressman told NOTUS’s Haley Byrd Wilt. The next day, Johnson said to McCaul, “I want to be on the right side of history.”The House vote on the Ukraine provisions, around $61 billion, was 311 to 112; a majority of Johnson’s colleagues voted against the measure, while aid to Israel and Taiwan had broader support. The Senate cleared the package Tuesday in a bipartisan 79–18 vote. Now the measure heads to President Joe Biden’s desk.Ukrainian leadership had grown more vocal about depleted weapons ...Continue reading...

After lobbying from fellow Southern Baptists and Christians affected by the war, the House speaker moves a package forward. When deciding whether to protect his place in leadership as House speaker or go against his party to do what he believed was right, Mike Johnson turned to prayer.It had been weeks of hearing intelligence briefings and pleas from fellow Christians when Johnson ultimately sided with his convictions rather than conceding to the Republican Party’s isolationist wing. He backed a $95 billion foreign aid package that, despite the opposition of 112 GOP legislators, overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last weekend.Like many of his fellow Republicans, Johnson had initially opposed further aid to Ukraine, voting against it prior to becoming speaker and waiting months to move forward with an aid package after the Senate approved its version in February.He “went through a transformation,” according to one GOP colleague, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul. The shift may have come in part due to the influence of Ukrainian evangelicals, fellow Christian leaders, and his personal faith.“He got down on his knees, and he prayed for guidance and said, ‘Look, tell me. What is the right thing to do here?’” the Texas congressman told NOTUS’s Haley Byrd Wilt. The next day, Johnson said to McCaul, “I want to be on the right side of history.”The House vote on the Ukraine provisions, around $61 billion, was 311 to 112; a majority of Johnson’s colleagues voted against the measure, while aid to Israel and Taiwan had broader support. The Senate cleared the package Tuesday in a bipartisan 79–18 vote. Now the measure heads to President Joe Biden’s desk.Ukrainian leadership had grown more vocal about depleted weapons ...Continue reading...

Christians can disciple each other toward action, prayer, and hope.I’m 26 and mostly full of enthusiasm for the future. But when I think about the heat waves, floods, and humanitarian crises that I’ll likely experience in my lifetime, I feel a sense of dread. And even more so when I think about the future of my children and my children’s children. I wonder if they’ll get to experience all the beauty of God’s creation that I so cherished while growing up.As a young farmer, I feel my chest tighten as I watch weather patterns and the seasons become more and more erratic. I worry if there’ll be wars for food and water with a warmer climate, or if water sources will be polluted and the soil will be eroded.Many people, especially my age, feel the same way. A recent survey asked 10,000 young people across the world about their thoughts and feelings regarding climate change. According to the findings, three out of four young people think the future is frightening. More than half reported feelings of sadness, anxiety, anger, and powerlessness when thinking about climate change. And around 45 percent of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.These fears have become so prevalent in our generation that a new term has been coined: eco-anxiety.In a way, young people today have fulfilled climate activist Greta Thunberg’s provocation to leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2019: “I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.”But while I respect Thunberg’s contribution to putting climate change on the world’s agenda, I disagree with her on this. I don’t believe that panic will help us. ...Continue reading...