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Books, Theology, and Gospel-Centered Living

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The Cult of Death and the Life of Christ

Russell Moore:

Last week the state assembly of California voted to allow legal assisted suicide. Lawmakers have sent a bill allowing terminally ill people to purchase and use life-ending drugs to governor Jerry Brown. This news come just weeks after an astonishing report from Europe detailed a huge expansion of assisted suicide in the Netherlands and Belgium, an expansion so vast that even mainstream media outlets have labeled it “sinister.”

The battle over expansive assisted suicide is not merely another skirmish in the “culture war.” Rather, it is an expression of one of the biggest religious alternatives to historic, orthodox Christianity in our world today. No, it’s not atheism or Islam. It’s the Grim Reaper. It’s Death itself.

The Look of Everyday Kindness

Bob Smietana:

For 30 years, Miss Bobbie stood outside the doors of Hillview Baptist Church, a small congregation south of Nashville, and waited for a miracle. She was there in the early 1980s, when the Hillview held its first service with 7 people in a tent on a snowy Easter Sunday. And she was there a year ago, on the day that Hillview Baptist met for the last time. All along, Miss Bobbie hoped and prayed the church would one day be filled to overflowing.

But Hillview, which once had as many as 100 people, had dwindled to a congregation of 14. Last spring, they voted to merge with Conduit Church, a relatively new congregation meeting in a nearby school. Conduit had people but no building. Hillview Baptist had few people and a building. It seemed like a perfect match.

It’s easy to get people to believe fake “news.” Here’s how.

Marty Duren reminds us why we should be a little wiser with what we share on Facebook.

Where Are All The Godly Men?

Jason Allen:

Not that long ago, “man of God” was a common and honored descriptor in the church. The phrase ranked alongside “great preacher,” “brilliant theologian,” or “gifted writer” in frequency and surpassed them in value. Now, it seems as though the designation “man of God” has gone the way of the bus ministry and the youth choir—a largely passé referent to a bygone era of church life.

It is as though someone snuck into the shopping mall of the Kingdom and changed all the price tags, upsetting and inverting God’s value system. We have increased the mundane and ancillary aspects of Christian ministry, all the while cheapening its true virtues and values. In God’s economy, though, character is valued over talent, and holiness over giftedness.

Three Important Ways for Pastors to Build Trust

Dan Darling:

What is the most important character trait for a pastor? A preaching gift? Theological education? Leadership skills? Vision? Communication saavy? A shepherd’s heart?

All of these things are important and essential for the ministry, but none of them will be used effectively if the pastor doesn’t possess the one thing that will determine the rise or fall of his ministry: trust.

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An unshakeable foundation for human dignity

dignity

One of the most dangerous things about fudging on the first few chapters of Genesis—or really, on any part of the Bible—is what you lose. See, I do believe that genuine Christians can continue on in their faith in error, sometimes even in serious error. And I’m the first to admit there are undoubtedly some things that I am in error on, perhaps even seriously.

But one of the things we can’t back away from, even when we consider all the weird and wonderful stuff we read in the Bible, is this important passage in Genesis:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Upon these verses, Christianity’s concept of human dignity cling. They are central to what we believe about human beings (even the awful ones). And the fact that Jesus—God the Son, the second person of the Trinity—would come to earth and take on human form… well, my goodness, that just compounds humanity’s value, doesn’t it? God’s plan of redemption stems even from these verses—they give us the reason why he would send Jesus. He redeems because he loves us in a way that is unique from all the rest of creation. He loves us because of how he made us. And he redeems us in order that we might be as he intended us to be. Russell Moore captured this truth so well in Onward. This is how he puts it:

A Christianity that doesn’t prophetically speak for human dignity is a Christianity that has lost anything distinctive to say. The gospel is, after all, grounded in the uniqueness of humanity in creation, redemption and consummation. Behind the questions of whether we should abort babies or torture prisoners or harass immigrants or buy slaves is a larger question: “Who is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?” If Jesus shares humanity with us, and if the goal of the kingdom is humanity in Christ, then life must matter to the church. The church must proclaim in its teaching and embody in its practices love and justice for those the outside world would wish to silence or to kill. And the mission of the church must be to proclaim everlasting life, and to work to honor every life made in the image of God, whether inside or outside the people of God. A vision of human dignity can exist within the common grace structures of the world, but a distinctively Christian vision of why humanity should be protected must emerge from a larger framework of kingdom and culture and mission. (138-139 [ARC])

You don’t have to be a Christian to be opposed to abortion, for alleviating the suffering of those living in poverty, or wanting to see the end of sex trafficking. But what that conviction is grounded in matters. For the pro-life—and whole life—Christian, we truly do have an unshakeable foundation. Let’s not forget that.

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Links I like

Links

Kindle deals for Christian readers

Lots of good Kindle deals for you today, starting with the Theologians on the Christian Life series from Crossway for $5.99 each:

I’ve got a number of these on my shelf, and those I’ve read have been brilliant. Also on sale:

Wormtongue at the Listless Wheel

Jared Wilson:

When you get right down to it, the whole enterprise is nonsensical and self-defeating. Cultural rebukes from a relativistic reading of the Scriptures and of historic orthodoxy guts any presumed authority in the rebuke from the outset. In a comment thread at one of these wormtongue-y blogs I read someone’s defense of the use of p()rnography in a marriage, arguing the need to respect differing values. The commenter also maintained that complementarian marriages were evil. “Get a brain, morans,” indeed.

Stop Saying You Are Being Micromanaged IF…

Eric Geiger offers some good pushback for those who feel micromanaged.

I. Must. Pound. This. Into. My. Head.

Stephen Altrogge:

We need to cram our heads full of the gospel until it leaks from our ears. We need to gulp down the gospel constantly, like a runner sucking down water during a race.

More than a Sequel: Heaven Is Our Reboot

Jeffrey Porter:

Star Wars fans experienced this when the Phantom Menace was first released after years of anticipation. Droves of fans packed theaters the opening weekend with hopes of reliving cherished memories. However, a storyline revolving around a dry trade federation concept, the revelation that the mysterious power of the force was reducible to a not-so-enchanting organism called Midi-chlorians, and the out of place and cartoonish Jar Jar Binks seemed contrary to the whole spirit of the original trilogy. It was not the same far, far away galaxy, from a long time ago that fans had spent years remembering. As we anticipate another Star Wars sequel later this year, it is not at once clear how a new sequel or prequel could live up to the kind of expectations we put on our most beloved films. If we are trying to fill a hole in our hearts the size of heaven itself, it is absurd to think any Star Wars movie will ever be good enough.