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Theology for real life

Weekend reading (6/24)

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Weekend Reading

‘But This I Call to Mind’: Reflections on the Philando Castile Verdict

Dante Stewart:

Though far, his death felt near. In some way he represented my brother, my cousin, and my friend. I found myself repeating the words of Wolterstorff that “if he was worth loving”—a fellow image-bearer—“he is worth grieving over.”

As I grieved, I searched for help in navigating this grim reality. I found that help in a seemingly unlikely yet safe refuge: Lamentations 3. Here are three reflections.

India’s dangerous trends on religious liberty

This is helpful information.

“But wasn’t the Bible written by drunk monks?”

Ray Ortlund:

Yes, I really have heard that objection.  But there are many ways one can cast doubt on the Bible.  It’s a huge subject, and it quickly becomes technical.  But, for starters, here are two things to keep in mind.

7 Surprising Facts About the LGBT Community

Chris Martin:

This morning, Gallup, a research institution, published new data on LGBT Americans, and the facts are fascinating. The Obergefell decision was two years ago already, which is hard to believe, and the new data from Gallup is meant to show some of the ways the LGBT community has changed since gay marriage was made legal in the United States.

Click here to see Gallup’s new data, and click here to see the data they published on LGBT perception back in 2015. The data below is provided by both studies.

As pastors and church leaders seek to better understand, reach, and equip Millennials, understanding the LGBT community is important. So, here are seven surprising facts about the LGBT community.

Are You Thinking of Hiring This Guy, Jimmy?

Eric Geiger:

The experience of student ministry prepares leaders well for other roles if the Lord leads the person to move into another role. If someone serves faithfully in a student ministry context, the person will be well prepared to serve faithfully in another context. Confession: Jimmy and I are also likely to feel this way because we both are former student pastors.

Effective student ministry leaders faithfully fulfill at least four critical assignments in their roles, and these four assignments are absolutely essential in other ministry roles.

Saying Goodbye to Narnia

Chris Thomas:

That ink on paper has power to produce both joy and tears is a wonder to me. Yet, such is our experience as we walk the winding path a master story-teller blazes for us.

Even as a child, Lewis’ mastery was not lost on me as my heart ached with an unknown longing each time the Pevensie children left the bright lands of Narnia and found themselves enveloped by the grey weariness of England. Gone was the vibrancy and joyful melody of that land beyond the wardrobe, replaced, instead, with the drab colours and mournful dirge of reality. As a student of the soul, Lewis was taping into the shared experience of longing and the common ache of mourning that which has been lost. Somehow, to my young mind, it seemed wrong that anyone should say goodbye to Narnia. Why couldn’t the feasting and dancing last forever? Why did the story need to end?

Yet, we know it must be so. Our own story confirms what Lewis told us is true.

Is abundance dangerous?

A favorite from the archives:

Hosea is one of those books that’s both extremely fascinating and troubling, not simply because of the illustration of God’s pursuit of his adulterous people through Hosea’s marriage, caring for children not his own and purchasing his wife out of slavery. (Side note: when was the last time you heard a really great Jesus-focused sermon from Hosea?)

The reason Hosea makes me uneasy when I read it, though, isn’t because of my spiritually adulterous ways (Lord willing, I’m faithful in that regard). It’s because of a different, but related, danger: that of abundance.

Links I like (6/22)

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Links I like

10 Signs You Are Burning Out

Jim Essian:

Not all busyness is bad. Being spent for the souls of our people is good busyness. But the busyness of people-pleasing, the busyness of controlling, the busyness of doing work you aren’t called to, the busyness of performance for your sake, the busyness of “everything rises and falls on you” is toxic and only adds to the waste and stank of Leviathan.

The New Spurgeon.org

Spurgeon.org has been completely overhauled, and it is gorgeous. Excellent stuff.

Never Read the Bible Simply to Know

John Piper:

I have spent virtually all of my adult life encouraging people to pursue their supreme satisfaction in God. I have argued that saving faith in Jesus Christ does not just bear the fruit of joy, but in fact, even more profoundly, is itself a species of joy. Saving faith at its root means being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus.

How to Encourage Your Pastor

David McLemore offers some great advice here.

When You Doubt God’s Love

Jeff Medders:

If the ease of life is the proof of God’s love, we must be the most loved Christians in history since no one dies from the mumps, measles, influenza, or the common cold anymore.

But this isn’t true.

I Am the Center of the Universe

Jared Wilson:

I can only come to one of two conclusions about my frustration over this inevitable fact of life: either I am the center of the universe and you all don’t know, or — I am not the center of the universe and I am upset that you all know.

I don’t just like it—it’s gripping!

A favorite from the archives:

I came home yesterday and found my daughters reading on the couch (which is every dad’s dream). Hannah was reading a graphic novel about a girl and a unicorn. Abigail had a copy of the first Nancy Drew book.

“How is it?” I asked. Normally, she says something like “It’s pretty good,” or “I like it.” This time, though, was different. She looked up at me, with a great big grin, and said, “It’s gripping!”

(When talking to her mother earlier that day, she was more emphatic, saying, “I don’t just like it—it’s gripping!”)

This is what every dad wants to hear, isn’t it? At least, if we’re readers. I want my girls to find books they enjoy. To find books that are fun and exciting. Books that grip them.

Links I like (6/13)

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Links I like

4 Reasons to Enjoy Growing Older

Michael Kelley:

Even as Christians, we feel the reality of time taking its toll. And yet as Christians, we have the unique ability not to see aging as bad news:

Gray hair is a glorious crown; it is found in the ways of righteousness (Prov. 16:31).

Why might that be? Why can the Christian actually stand apart from a culture growing younger and not only embrace getting older but actually enjoy it?

Gender and the Christian Standard Bible: Trevin Wax Answers My Questions

This is a good conversation.

‘We Were in Marital Hell’

Kay Warren:

Our brand-new marriage took an instant nosedive. We didn’t even make it to the end of our two-week honeymoon to British Columbia before we knew our relationship was in serious trouble. We had been warned about five areas of potential conflict all couples have to deal with, and we immediately jumped into all five of them: sex, communication, money, children, and in-laws. We were so young—barely 21—and inexperienced, and when sex didn’t work and we argued about sex, and then argued about our arguments and began to layer resentment on top of resentment, it was a perfect setup for misery and disenchantment.

Love Is Not Whatever You Want It to Be

Alex Duke:

But using language like this stretches and re-stretches important concepts into utter subjectivism. The result: love is emptied of its meaning and weight, and subsequently replaced by a lesser good—something ersatz and manmade, something wobbly and even capricious. “Love” is now a universal term for nothing in particular, which makes conversations about it difficult.

How One Deep South Church Left Segregation Behind

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra shares a great story.

Yawning at the Glory of God

David McLemore:

Since I now get up before the sun rises, and since we built that deck in the backyard, sometimes I take a lamp out, get the cushions out of the deck box, and sit facing East. I read and I write and I study and I think about God and how to put the amazing truths of Romans 8, for example, into a 3,000-word paper that will help others see just a little of the glory. If you’re a writer, you’ll know that a lot of writing is sitting in one spot and staring into space for a considerable amount of time. It’s how we think. But have you ever done that as the sun rises early in the morning? Have you ever done that outside? Staring into space, I mean.

Free training sessions at SBC17

We’re running special training sessions at the SBC meeting in Phoenix this week. If you’re there, do come by and check them out.

Should we kinda, sorta, maybe pray?

A favorite from the archives:

I often forget that making a request of God in prayer is not something I should hesitate to do. Instead, more often I come to him with trepidation. I know that I have no reason to doubt God’s goodness. I have seen him answer my prayers time and again. I’ve seen him provide exactly what we needed as a family right when we needed it. I’ve seen him miraculously heal a young person in our church. He’s prevented Emily from dying, blessed certain opportunities, and given his yes to so many other things besides.

But still, there’s this part of me that lacks confidence when I pray, even though I know I don’t need to be that way.

Weekend reading (6/10)

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Weekend Reading

I Hope I Die Before I Get Old

I appreciated this piece a lot.

3 Indicators of Integrity Lapses in Leaders

Eric Geiger:

Integrity. It is a powerful word. It is used to describe people whose private lives match their public lives, whose actions match their words, who live honorably and humbly.

Rightfully so, we long for our leaders to be filled with integrity. For more than twenty years, people have used The Perceived Leader Integrity Scale as an instrument to measure how people view their leader’s integrity. The questions in the instrument are designed to highlight what a lack of integrity looks like in the life of a leader. In the instrument, people respond, on a Likert Scale, to statements like: “My supervisor deliberately fuels conflicts among employees,” “My supervisor would blame me for his/her own mistakes,” and “My supervisor avoids coaching me because he/she wants me to fail.”

Dear Exhausted, Weary Mom

Charlene Nelson:

Sometimes suffering helps us see more clearly the things that really matter. If you have very little energy, try and put your energy into things that matter for eternity. Once again, nobody might see it or know. Your kids probably won’t even know how your seemingly ordinary responses and actions are actually you, pouring out your life as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1). But when you respond patiently, although in your body, you feel like you are falling apart, God knows. That’s supernatural. That’s accomplishing something, and it matters friends. It might look like nothing to somebody else, but you’re storing up treasures in heaven. Your heart matters to God more than your living room. Don’t compare yourself with other moms who seem to be accomplishing so much more. Be happy for them. Bless them. They have their lot, you have yours, and God has called you both to glorify Him within the means of the abilities He has given you.

Answer These 14 Questions before You Preach

Peter Adams offers some great questions for preachers.

The Time “But God” Literally Saved My Life

Cody Barnhart:

On the outside, I kept up the facade. I had to; I’m a winner, remember? Winners don’t feel like this. Inside, though, I felt the joy of succeeding could never outweigh the pain of living. It’s like I was on a downhill emotional spiral. Any spirituality I had dried up to zilch.

It was my sophomore year of high school, if I remember correctly.

I thought through it. Since I lived at home, I didn’t want it to be graphic. I’d choose strangulation because it seemed like the least graphic way to go out, at least for everyone else in my life.

The Lesson that Saved My Marriage

Kendra Dahl:

Soon after getting married I read an article about a husband’s responsibility to love his wife. The author described a wife who is “nourished and cherished” by her husband, using words like “glowing,” “flourishing,” “satisfied,” “content.” This wife sounded quite wonderful. So did her husband. I, on the other hand, felt off—worn out and lost in the shuffle of needy children and duties at home. I loved my husband, but our marriage was far from “glowing” as we struggled with communication and unmet expectations.

So, naturally, I concluded it was all his fault.

Love in the time of clickbait

A favorite from the archives:

Love doesn’t conceal truth, nor does it treat sin lightly. But it also doesn’t leave us wallowing in the muck and mire. And this is what I see lacking in so much of the conversation around so many issues. There are so few pleas to not lose heart. There seem to be no exhortations to think upon whatever is good and true. No appeals to consider what is honorable and just. No pleas to press into what is pure and lovely. No giving thanks for what is commendable and praiseworthy. Of all these Paul instructs us to think on, and yet publicly we spend so much of our time considering the exact opposite.

We speak with so much fire, but seem to do so with so few tears.

Links I like (6/08)

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Links I like

A New Project: Learn to Navigate the Scary World of Social Media

Chris is a sharp dude. Check out his new project and consider signing up for his newsletter.

You’re Not God, So Get Some Rest Today

Courtney Reissig:

It almost seems cruel to talk about rest in a book on the work of the home, because the work of the home is never finished. You don’t punch a time clock at five o’clock and then go home and do something else. You live in your work. Your children wake up at 3 a.m. with a stomach bug, and you have to do the laundry. Your husband comes home early from a day of work, and he wants to talk. A friend needs a meal after an emergency surgery. The work of the home is never complete.

Big Ebook Sale from B&H, Starting at Only $0.99 Each

If you’re looking for some good reads, you’ll find more than a few on this list from Marty Duren.

4 biblical truths to help fight sexual temptation

Casey B. Hough:

While all believers in Christ have been declared righteous in Jesus and are no longer under God’s just condemnation (Rom. 8:1-2), the power and influence of all sinful desires are not always removed at the moment of conversion. Christians will be tempted throughout the course of their life (Matt. 6:13). Such temptations will include the inclination to abandon and exchange God’s good design for sex for the sexual brokenness offered by the world.

Spotting Fruit In Your Life

Jeff Medders:

My wife and I transplanted this struggling lime maker from a pot to the earth, hoping it’d give birth to some limes. It’s in primo soil. Some of the softest earth I’ve ever dug. Digging the hole for this lime tree was like taking a cookie cutter through butter that’s been on the counter all week. I was proud of this hole for some reason. I told a lot of people about it.

So, there’s our lime tree, getting a droplet or two of pool water from a handful of adorably sad cannon balls these kids are producing.

But I notice something on the tree.

Why C. S. Lewis’ ‘Mere Christianity’ Received Bad Reviews

Trevin Wax:

Still, few books in the 20th century have cast such a long shadow as Mere Christianity. I have multiple books on my shelf that give a nod to Lewis when making a case for Christianity in the 21st century: from N. T. Wright’s Simply Christian to Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. Today, Lewis’s book has its own biography–written by George Marsden–as one volume in a series on influential Christian books!

But despite the book’s influence today (more than 70 years after the talks were delivered and 65 years since it first showed up in print), early reviewers felt little fondness for Lewis’s work or his vision of Christianity. Some of the initial feedback was negative.

3 Reasons Why Asking for Forgiveness is So Difficult

Michael Kelley:

It is a difficult thing to ask for forgiveness. When we know we have wronged someone, we are much more likely to simply remain silent and ignore the issue, hoping it will simply go away. Or when we do eventually have the conversation, we will many times qualify our apology with “but’s” and “if only’s”.

How healthy is our growth?

A favorite from the archives:

Almost any time I hear a pastor speak about church growth—whether in a book, a podcast, or a conference message—I want to cringe. Not because I’m against having a large number of people as part of a congregation, but because congregation size is so often used as a defense: What we’re doing must be working since people are showing up, so God must approve, right?

And yet.

Weekend reading (6/03)

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Weekend Reading

Bed Sheets, Calendars and Prayer

Whitney Putnam:

Could it be that people in American churches have forgotten the promises that result in the duality of prayer – duty, and privilege? If so, calendars and bed sheets will trump prayer every time. So rather than one more call to a prayer meeting, let’s recall the promises, then (ironically) let’s pray they stick.

The Digital Sermon

Nick Batzig:

A minister may be tempted to inappropriately borrow too much of the labor of those to whom they listen. We may allow ourselves to become exegetically lazy. We may even fall into the snare of seeking to imitate their intonation or mannerisms. We may also fall into the trap of downplaying the work of the Spirit of God among the congregation under the live preaching of the word. Nevertheless, these should not be deterrents to our eagerness to listen to the great wealth of digital sermons that God has given us. We are called to learn from those who have gone before us and to pass on what we learn from them. As the Apostle Paul charged Timothy, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). There is absolutely no good reason why listening to the audio sermons of faithful ministers shouldn’t form a part of our sermon preparation.

ISIS Flag Flies in Asia’s Most Christian Country

Kate Shellnutt and World Watch Monitor:

The violence, instability, and Christian persecution that ISIS has brought to the Middle East is making its way to a besieged island in the Philippines.

More than 100 people have been killed and hundreds more taken hostage in the span of a week on the island of Mindanao, home to a Muslim minority in the majority-Catholic archipelago. Insurgents have targeted Christians and those who cannot prove themselves to be fellow Muslims. Experts believe the Islamic State is poised to create a caliphate in Southeast Asia, including this island in particular.

Wonder Woman and the Gender Wars

Russell Moore:

Like our time, the ancient world had a complicated view of women’s empowerment. On the one hand, goddess temples filled the empire. On the other hand, so did temple prostitution and misogyny. Some important rights for women have been gained, of course, but we haven’t completely overcome all of that. Wonder Woman does indeed represent power, but she also is, in every iteration, designed to be sexually attractive to men. The 1970s-era television series noted in its theme song, “Fighting for your rights, in your satin tights, and the old red, white, and blue.” The rights and the tights were both part of the package—and, from the looks of things, still are.

Division Begins With the Departure from the Truth

Jared Wilson:

The person who objects is often told they are “singling out” this particular sin as over-important, as more important than unity! But it is not those who protest who are singling out particular sins. It is those bringing the revision, the ones asking, “Did God really say?”, the ones who suggest it should now be normal what we previously agreed was objectionable who are singling it out, elevating it above the agreement. They are the ones making it the sticking point.

U-Turn in North Carolina: A Story of Church Reform

S Craig Sanders:

When Davis finished his PhD in church history in 1998, he accepted the call as pastor of the historic First Baptist Church Durham, North Carolina. Scripture memory and meditation sustained him as he withstood a powerful faction of deacons and committee chairs. In 2001, his opponents tried to drive him away after he led the church to change the bylaws to reflect biblical roles of gender and authority.

The gospel wore us down

A favorite from the archives:

Sometimes I wonder if the apostle Paul would say if were to arrive in my city. I suspect it would be pretty similar to what he told the men of Athens, “I see that you are extremely religious in every respect” (Acts 17:22). But unlike the men of Athens, most hearers in London, Toronto, New York, or any number of North American cities would be shocked by these words. After all, we borderline pride ourselves on our irreligion.

Which may reveal just how religious we truly are.

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