How to Lose the Abortion Debate While Winning It: Russell Moore says, “What the world needs most from evangelical America is that we be a people who really believe what we say. Whether the world agrees or disagrees with us on abortion, or any other matter, they need to see us love vulnerable children—whether in the womb, in abusive homes, in foster care, or in our own pews.”
Jesus, Friend of Sinners: Adriel Sanchez begins, “’How many prostitutes do you know?’ I once sat with a theologian who recommended asking that question to gauge a pastoral candidate’s qualification for ministry. Our conversation took place shortly before my ordination exam. Of all the questions I’d anticipated, this wasn’t one of them. He didn’t mean, ‘Have you ever visited a prostitute?’ He meant, ‘Are sinners drawn to you like they were drawn to Jesus?’ His point was that if we’re going to ordain men to represent Jesus as ministers of the word, they should know and love sinners as Jesus did.”
Christ Conquered Death. He Didn’t Cancel It: Jennifer Rosner considers how Jewish traditions link death and life and what that means about the cross and the resurrection. She says, “Death, in all its insidious forms, still pervades our daily lives. Even after Jesus’ glorious resurrection, we continue to wrestle with the disquieting dimensions of our humanity: the traumas we relive, the losses we endure, the disappointments we amass, the anxieties we are paralyzed by.”
The Ten Minutes After Church Ends: Andy Huette offers simple but impactful advice. The first is, “Don’t talk to your besties…Don’t miss that opportunity to experience the fullness of the body of Christ by getting to know those who are unlike you or from different life stages and interests.”
How Should Christians Think About Gun Control: Excellent debate between Bob Thune and Andrew Wilson.
Fighting for Victimhood
As a boy I was fascinated with pain. I often wondered how the pain I felt compared to pain others felt. I mostly kept this to myself, but there was at least one occasion I got into an argument with friends about who had experienced the most pain.
We all shared our stories: fractured limbs, concussions, road rash, and a hernia (that was my best card). As each story concluded the storyteller would lean back, content with his story, expecting white flags to be raised in defeat. But, in fact, each of us was disappointed with the reception of our tales of woe as the next storyteller would jump in, one-upping the last teller’s story of pain with his own.
I look back with embarrassment at the immaturity and narcissism this pain one-upmanship revealed in me. And yet, is this not the culture we live in today: a culture of victimhood?
The Royal Flush of Victimhood
There is nothing more powerful in today’s culture than playing the card of victimhood. And there appear to be more playing that card than ever before.
This Week's Recommendations
Jesus Versus the Trade-In Society: Samuel James begins his excellent article, “It seems to me that if there’s one thing that our current version of advertising-based capitalism teaches us all, it’s that everything is replaceable: everything can be reproduced, or traded in for a new and improved model. And that applies to coaches, to churches, to spouses. We live in a trade-in society.”
9 Myths About Abortion Rights and Roe v. Wade: Kevin DeYoung considers some misconceptions. For instance, “Myth #6: Our abortion laws are mainstream compared with the rest of the world. Truth: The United States is one of only 10 nations that allow abortion after 14 weeks of gestation. Only four countries allow abortion for any reason after viability: Canada, North Korea, China, and the United States
The Ukelele and the Cross: J.A. Medders says, “Theologians have wrestled with the various angles that describe what Jesus did for us on the cross. Some will even argue that there is only one way to describe and define what Jesus did for us on the cross. Rather than pick sides on the theological playground, I want to propose a harmony of notes that are played at the cross of Christ.”
How Not to Pray with a Hurting Loved One: Blake Glosson’s post is helpful to all of us. He says, “There’s certainly a time to give advice, but prayer isn’t the place for it. Prayer is not a free pass to share your opinions with the other person while pretending to talk to God (this is manipulative and the other person will feel it).”
Constructing the Roman Road: A short video on what became a significant cause for the spread of the gospel.
Need a Book for the Pool?
Slow Down: a Dad's Reflection
Our kids just finished fifth and seventh grade. Unless God has unexpected plans for us, elementary school is now in our rear view mirror. The week of my son’s fifth grade promotion, Nicole Nordeman’s “Slow Down” came on. I froze as I listened and welled up.
This Week's Recommendations
Why Are So Many Kids Rejecting Christianity? Look at Their Parents: Pamela Danzinger considers on what startling new survey data tells us, “The Cultural Research Center (CRC) is out with a new study comparing the number of American parents of children under age 13 who hold a biblical Christian worldview with those who adhere to competing secular alternatives. The results are a damning indictment of Americans’ rejection of or simple indifference to a biblical worldview. Across all parents of pre-teens, only 2 percent hold a biblical worldview, which is defined as “consistently interpreting and responding to life situations based on biblical principles and teachings.” Those with a biblical worldview believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God containing all moral truths.”
Why ‘Consent’ Isn’t Enough for a Sexual Ethic: I think Trevin Wax’s observation here is important. He begins, “Perusing various magazines and news sites in recent months, I’ve noticed a growing number of commentators who recommend we reexamine our society’s norms surrounding sexuality. Casual sexual encounters bring more misery than happiness, they say, and “consent” isn’t a high enough standard to bring about sexual fulfillment and freedom.”
40 Random Pieces of Advice for the Christian Life: Tim Challies loads tons of wisdom in this post. I love this one, “Open your home to other people often. Help foster a culture of hospitality within your local church by being the one who invites people over on a regular basis. The living room is one of the best contexts in the world for friendship, discipleship, and evangelism.”
Zombie Sins: My friend Chris Thomas consider zombie movies and sin, “Zombie sins thrive in darkness, like the Orcs of Mordor they gather in the gloom beyond the Black Gates. To fight them in the dark watches of the night, alone against the throng, our hopes fade. But we look to the East.”
Well, THAT was Magic! Seth Lewis shares the story of his three-year-old son’s amazement at the automatic doors. In response he asks, “Somewhere along the way, we seem to have picked up the idea that once we can explain how something works, the magic and wonder disappear. But why should that be?”
The Bible's Strange Reasons for Generosity: True Prosperity
The famous minister, Benny Hinn, is one of many who promises that if you are generous, God will reward you financially. “Divine prosperity is God’s will for every believer!” Hinn says, “All we must do to receive God’s blessings and abundance is to obey him.” How do we obey God? By giving. “Sow seed with great expectation of a powerful overflow in your life. Then get ready for it to be multiplied back to you abundantly. Yes, a seed may seem small in your hand, but when you sow seed in expectant faith, you release its God-given potential to produce a supernatural outpouring: ‘He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully’ (2 Corinthians 9:6).”[i]
The fourth reason Paul offers for giving is found here in 2 Corinthians 9:6, the promise that the one who “sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” That’s a pretty wild promise. Are Hinn and the other prosperity preachers correct in asserting that God promises financial reward for those who give?
Open the Windows of Heaven
Malachi 3:10 certainly seems to echo this sentiment as well, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
The answer is that God does promise a blessing for those who give, but he does not promise a financial blessing. We must understand what God means when he speaks of blessing to understand what God is promising. God is no divine IRS agent, caught in his own loopholes, forced to dole out financial blessings against his will. To think that that we can manipulate God like a broken slot machine stuck on 7’s misunderstands the character of God and the nature of his blessings. God’s purpose is to shape us to look like him.[ii] God’s blessings, then, are given just as his discipline is given: to form us more and more in the likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ.
This Week's Recommendations
The Manna is Always There: Glenna Marshall is one of my favorite bloggers and this might be my favorite post she’s written. It leveled my heart. She shares, “Sometimes, the manna is found when others help me look for it. It’s always there if you have eyes to see it. I am coming to terms with the fact that life with an incurable disease will ebb and flow between seasons of healing and seasons of illness. What I really want is full trust in God’s daily provision of grace. I want it to be enough.”
I Am Proud of You: Craig concludes, “Death and life are in the power fo the tongue,” according to Proverbs 18:21. So, give life with your words. Find a young person today, look them in the eye, and pronounce your life-giving blessing: I am proud of you.”
Please Waste Some of Your Prayers: I love this simple admonition from George Sinclair. He concludes, “Do not say ‘God’s No’ for God. Pray for the salvation of the unlikely. ‘Waste’ your prayers on them. Oh yes, please pray for me that I will do the same.”
Does Predestination Mean God is the Author of Sin? Michael Horton handles this challenging question with clarity and simplicity. He explains, “God created Lucifer, but he didn’t create Satan. He didn’t create an evil opponent; he created a wonderful, beautiful, godly, righteous, and just servant, who then of his own free will turned away.”
What a Tangled Web: Carl Trueman points out where we’ve become culturally confused regarding life and gender. He begins, “Confusion over what it means to be human continues to dog public life in the West. Soon after Anneliese Dodds, the Labour party shadow secretary for women, revealed that she does not know what a woman is, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson deferred the same question to biologists.”
This Week's Recommendations
Let the Global Church Give You Perspective: This is really helpful advice from Trevin Wax. He begins, “Stay connected to the global church if you want to hold on to orthodoxy…and if you want to hold on to your sanity.”
God Does Not Despise the Small Things: Ed Welch begins, “Zechariah 4:10 says, ‘Who despises the day of small things?’ Indeed, everything we do is a very small thing.”
Does God Give Us Only What We Can Handle? My friend Caroline Albanese reflects on a tumultuous three years in her family’s life. She says, “All these events took place in rapid succession. The emotional toll on our family is incredible. Suffice to say, the weight on our souls has felt absolutely unbearable, and we’ve been clinging to Christ for dear life.”
Does ‘Love the Sinner Hate the Sin’ Still Work? Carl Trueman explains how the cultural shift to expressive individualism creates an argument where this posture is intolerable. He clarifies, “The old chestnut of “love the sinner, hate the sin” simply does not work in a world where the sin is the identity of the sinner and the two cannot be separated even at a conceptual level. In a time when the normative notion of selfhood is psychological, then to hate the sin is to hate the sinner.”
Escape from Kabul: Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra tells the story of Christians fleeing Kabul, Afghanistan in this gripping podcast. Despite facing persecution and as the country implodes, they still shared Jesus with so many. But, how?
Does Systemic Sin Exist?
Our world is talking theology. They probably aren’t aware of it, but theological conversations permeate the air. One such conversation that has persisted over the past several years has been about whether or not America is a racist nation. How would you answer that question: is America a racist nation?
I’m aware that the question itself likely creates a strong emotional reaction in you. But, if we can lean in together to listen to scripture, there is much we can learn from the question. Before we can answer the question, “Is America a racist nation,” we have to ask an underlying question: does systemic sin exist?