The God of peace be with you today, my friends.
There is a long list of Kindle deals to browse through this morning. I recommend Don’t Follow Your Heart and Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, but there’s lots else as well.
(Yesterday on the blog: Only Ever Better)
Should I Use AI to Help Me Write Sermons?
John Piper is both amazed and dismayed as he considers AI. “Let’s use ChatGPT and other sources that are coming along for information, even for inspiration, just like you use commentaries and articles and books and songs and poetry. But don’t use it for composition unless you’re going to give credit for it.”
The Spiritual Bond: David, Jonathan, Sex and the Nature of True Fulfillment
There are lots of really helpful insights in this article. “While the hypothesis that Jonathan and David were friends with benefits makes sense of the modern belief that unrestrained sexual expression is the highest good, it does not make sense of David’s world or of adherence to Biblical morality.”
You Are a Burden
Yes, let’s all embrace the fact that we are burdens to others and they are burdens to us.
Why I Complain
Samuel James gives his take on why, as we age, we tend to complain more. “There is no easy version of life. There is no existential financial freedom seminar that can teach you how to put away 10% of your hopes and desires in an account that will one day mature and be available to withdraw. There is no guarantee, not from your parents or lovers and certainly not from God, that you will succeed. You may, you may not.”
Don’t Preach a Commentary
Please don’t! “Preaching that truly disciples a congregation is rooted in intimacy with the biblical languages, a knowledge of the rich history of interpretation, and sound exegesis. But this combination does not make a sermon. These are the building blocks of a pastor’s sermon. They are the raw materials in the hands of a craftsman. Instead , what every congregation needs is the finished product—not the building materials.”
Why Did the Angels Leave?
“Entitlement is a common parenting issue in our day. Entitled children can’t appreciate a gift. They’re anxious and angry and disappointed in their riches, because they are convinced that there is always more and better out there somewhere. That there is always someone in a more privileged position. That there is always a better present under the tree with another person’s name on it. So instead of enjoying all that they have and being grateful for it, they can only focus on what they don’t have, and fix blame onto the one they think is withholding it from them.”
Flashback: When Grumbling Meets Gossip
…grumbling and disputing are not merely actions but evidences of a disposition. They are not just words of our mouths but attitudes of our hearts. They do not simply reflect something we do but broadcast something we are.
Repentance is not a discrete external act; it is the turning round of the whole life in faith in Christ.
—Sinclair Ferguson
