Good morning from Zambia! The conference in Zimbabwe wrapped up yesterday, and Aileen and I made the short flight to Lusaka and then on to Kitwe. I’m looking forward to speaking later today at Central Africa Baptist University’s Equip Conference.
As usual, you’ll find a selection of Kindle deals today. Highlights include Kendra Dahl’s A Place for You, Alan Noble’s On Getting Out of Bed, and a couple of Christmas devotionals.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Here’s an interesting article on pastoral transitions and how a congregation should be involved in them. There’s lots to think about!
Dust
“When I was growing up in the 1980s, the Prime Minister was nicknamed the iron lady, the heavyweight boxing champion was called ‘Iron Mike’. That prime minister has died, the boxer is a shadow of what he was. Both are just dust. Our lives, as we are reminded at funerals, are ‘from dust to dust’.”
Worshiping God at the Ends of the Earth
Tim Keesee, who co-authored From the Rising of the Sun with me, wrote an opinion piece about it for the Wall Street Journal. This link should get you past the paywall. “The worldwide church is a spiritual family, not a manmade institution. In a world of tribal hatreds and ancient resentments, the Gospel unites people in bonds of love who might otherwise have every reason to treat each other with suspicion.”
The Real Reason Many Reject Penal Substitutionary Atonement
Phil Cotnoir gives his assessment that many people reject penal substitutionary atonement because they take the doctrine alone rather than as part of a whole constellation of core truths.
We have not arrived YET
No, we have not yet arrived at full sanctification (and neither will we on this side of heaven). There are important implications to this.
Every Human an Image-Bearer
“Radical environmentalism paints humans and population growth as the great scourge of the planet, while strangely also pretending that humans are basically good down deep. Meanwhile God actually says the opposite: humans are broken sinners at heart; yet they are still made uniquely in the image of God, and so therefore still are given dominion over the earth and are to still multiply, fill the earth, and steward the planet on his behalf!”
Flashback: You Are Still a Mother
There is one character who is the same in all our stories. It is the God who made our precious children, and who called them home. This story is about him, and how he is always good, even in the darkness.”
Apologetics is about honoring Christ as holy, loving others more than ourselves, and presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ in love.
—Preston Perry
