Why Brutal Honesty Isn’t Honest at All: Justin Hale with an important response to us when we might be tempted to excuse our harsh responses to others, “Being more honest is about being more clear, more specific, more sincere, and more authentic. So, you DON’T have to raise your voice to increase your honesty. You DO need to be more effective at stating the observable facts of the situation and your honest perspective about those facts.”
Why Does Hell Exist? James Williams offers some simple analogies to help get our minds around this challenging doctrine. He concludes, “If there were no hell, there would be no need for salvation. If sin didn’t separate us from a holy God, then we wouldn’t need the gospel. The testimony of Scripture undeniably points us to such realities. We lack the ability to atone for ourselves, thus our need for an external deliverance. But, thanks be to God us gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
You Will Fail Sometimes. Don’t Quit: Melissa Edgington considers the discouragement of sanctification and the double truth that God will change us, but we will also fail along the way. She encourages us, “You see, there is no moment of arrival. At least, not on this side of Heaven. But on any given day, in any given moment, we can become a little more like Christ. We can become a little more devoted. We can have moments of sincere adoration and awe for who God is. We can grow. And, before we know it, if we establish these patterns of putting another sin to death, of taking one more step toward God instead of away from Him, we’ll wake up one morning and realize that we are a whole lot more like Jesus than we were twenty years ago. Growth is slow. But He is patient.”
There is Power in Counting it All Joy: Paul Tautges begins, “Joy is a state of mind, not merely a feeling. Joy is peaceful confidence in knowing God’s good and perfect will is being carried out as the result of your trials. I know from experience that this can be hard to accept.”
How Turtles Find Their Way Home: How do turtles find their way back to the place of their birth decades later? What an amazing Creator we have.

1. What's the Most Costly City in the World to Live in? An international report says that five of the top ten cities are in Europe. There are no US cities in the top ten, but two in the top twenty. What's the most expensive city you've ever lived in? For us, it was Princeton, NJ.

2. When Obsessing About Theology Prevents Obedience: Andree Seu Peterson reflects, "Carolyn did Greek boot camp with me at seminary. She was a Carolinian, a people person, and outspoken in her love for Jesus, everything that I was not. I chalked it up to Southern culture. I explained that I was reserved by natural endowment, and more prone to wait for the right moment. She wasn’t impressed: 'I’ve got plenty of faults, but shutting up ain’t one of them.' I did not like Carolyn. Forty years later I’m still waiting for the right moment, and Carolyn’s probably blabbed the gospel all over Dixie. She has offended many people, I’m sure, and won a few to faith. After all, the law of averages."

3. Two-Thirds of Americans Believe They're Sinful: LifeWay Research reports that while 2/3rds of Americans agree that they're sinful, only 33% of women and 22% of men depend on Jesus to overcome sin. And 52% of Americans believe that you can help earn your way into heaven with good deeds.

4. 7 Ways Grief Becomes Sinful: The Bible does not tell us to stifle or suppress our grief, but there are ways that grief can become sinful. Paul Tautges draws wisdom from John Owen: "It moves us to take strange pleasure in sadness. 'Strange it is that we should find some kind of pleasure in rousing our sorrows.'"

5. Online Traps: How so called 'dark patterns' online trick you.

This Week’s Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations