I’m the pastor of FBC Jackson in Jackson, Alabama. Each week, I post “Article Roundup: Helpful Reads,” sharing articles that I believe will benefit the saints who make up FBC Jackson and followers of Christ everywhere. Happy reading!

He Rested on the Final Sabbath: The Quiet Hope of Holy Saturday by David Mathis

The Bible is amazing. God’s providential governance of all things is breathtaking. “A late Friday afternoon providence may have felt like small comfort to his shattered followers. But they did not yet know how soon this seed, sown in an unsuspecting garden, would spring with the indestructible life of Israel’s resurrection hope.”

The Problem With Habits (and Why We Still Need Them) by Darryl Dash

This is such a helpful reminder. When it comes to spiritual disciplines, we must keep the end in mind! “Habits are important when they help us focus on Christ, deepen our relationship with him, and transform us through his presence. Think of habits as valuable servants but poor masters. Let them help you deepen your connection while staying focused on your relationship with the Triune God.”

Beware Toxic Servant Leadership by Jacob Crouch

This is an important point of clarification. “But sometimes this servant leadership becomes toxic. Sometimes, what people mean by servant leadership is not leadership at all. If I only understand leadership as deferring to others and not stepping on people’s toes, then I’m at risk for ignoring what God has called me to do.”

6 Lessons We Learn from the Nicene Creed by Kevin DeYoung

I would love to see FBC Jackson become more familiar with the Nicene Creed. I’ll probably teach through it at some point! “Here are six summary statements—or, we might say, six lessons—we can learn from this seventeen-hundred year-old confession of faith, the Nicene Creed.”

Pierced for Our Transgressions: Why Nails Matter by Benjamin Gladd

On April 14, 2025, Christianity Today published an article titled “Was Jesus Crucified with Nails? Why One Evangelical Bible Scholar Thinks the Answer Might Be No.” The article was biblically anemic. Thankfully, Benjamin Gladd published an article on the importance of nails on April 18, 2025. I don’t know if it was a response to the Christianity Today article, but it sure was timely. “By preserving the details about nails that pierced Jesus’s hands and feet, we’re reminded that at the gospel’s heart lies One who is pierced, One who bore God’s wrath, so you and I can enjoy God’s favor.”

The Death of Pope Francis: His Transitional Papacy of Liberal Suggestion and Signaling is Now Over, but What Comes Next? by Albert Mohler

Mohler speaks candidly about Pope Francis. “Francis will go down in history as the pope of liberal gesture—the vicar of equivocation. Just when his church needed a firm hand and intellectual firepower, he responded with a shrug. He filled critical Vatican appointments with liberal cronies and appointed as the church’s chief doctrinal protector a fellow Argentinian whose writings included materials rightly defined as sexually perverse.”

Francis (1936–2025), the Pope Who Made the Roman Church More ‘Catholic’ by Leonardo de Chirico

Leonardo speaks candidly about Pope Francis as well! “The change Francis brought about didn’t promote an evangelical move in the Roman Church. He made his church more ‘catholic’ and less Roman, but no more biblical. Regardless of who the next pope will be, the need for a biblical reformation will be as relevant as ever.”