Cigar Smoking and Grace – I really appreciate the big point of this article from Jared Wilson. “When we think of accountability relationships (or accountability “partners”), we often think of all the ways someone might keep a weaker brother responsible for his actions. We rarely talk about how the one being held accountable might live in such a way to not make his accountability-holder look like a jerk.”
Here and There – The current issue of Leadership Journal has an article I wrote. It begins like this: “Some of the pastor’s most precious moments are the ones when you are there. There at the front of the church standing beside the young groom as his bride walks through those doors and down the aisle. There at the hospital to hold the newborn and to pray with and for the new father and mother. There at the courthouse when the judge proclaims those children fully and finally adopted into their new family. There in the river to plunge that new Christian beneath the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”]
Isaiah 1:18 – It’s not hard to see the connection to Isaiah 1:18: “Cricket is a sport of many difficulties. One of the most persistent difficulties during my last 25 years playing cricket has been a peculiar one–removing stains.”
Important But Neglected Discussion – Carl Trueman: “There is an important distinction which is absolutely vital to good theology and to a healthy Christian life. It is also a distinction which seems to have been missed by large numbers of people on both the left and the right of the theological spectrum. It is the distinction between childish and childlike. Christians are called to have a faith with the latter quality; not so the former.”
Predators in the Pew – Deepak Reju has an important article on protecting the vulnerable in your church.
It is altogether doubtful whether any man can be saved who comes to Christ for His help with no intention to obey Him.
—A.W. Tozer
