Today’s Kindle deals include several academic works from Zondervan that may be of interest to you. There are several other noteworthy deals, including one I’ve never seen discounted before: Rejoicing in Lament by J. Todd Billings.
Truth Unhinged in Edinburgh Square
“On the last evening in Edinburgh, I watched a young street preacher proclaiming the gospel from a makeshift podium on Royal Mile Street, which stands in the shadow of St. Giles Cathedral. Here, the mighty John Knox wielded the mighty sword of God’s Word, which brought reformation to Scotland in the sixteenth century. Knox prayed, ‘Give me Scotland or I will die,’ demonstrating his great love for God and his countrymen.” A lot has changed since then.
The End of the Olympics As We Know It
This is an interesting one: “Only a handful of cities can afford the two-week-long, über-expensive bonanza. Unless something changes, angry citizens who don’t want to pay for a bunch of useless stadiums are going to force the IOC to decide on a semi-permanent set of hosts.”
Christopher Yuan’s Story
Randy Alcorn introduces Christopher Yuan and his story.
Two Things We Must Say about the Transgender Debate
Kevin DeYoung breaks it down. “That means while we do not have patience for secular agendas, we must have patience for struggling people. We may be quick with rebuttals in the public square, but we must be quick with a listening ear in the neighbor’s kitchen.”
How the Entitlement Mentality Crept into Our Churches
Thom Rainer makes some very important points in this article. He says, “let me share some key reasons many of our congregations have become more like country clubs than churches, a place where some members demand their way instead of serving and self-sacrificing.”
Don’t Go Until You’re Sent
Mack Stiles: “Modern missions endeavors face many thorny challenges: contextualization, indigeneity, and autonomy, among other cultural issues. Yet in our globalized world, with so many doing great work on cultural issues, there seems to be an ascendant problem: a lack of understanding of the church’s nature and its role in missions.”
Improving Our Call to Worship
Here’s a concern with many calls to worship: “Surely the aim is a good one. Yet the intended result is impossible for God’s people to do.” Barry York proposes some helpful guidelines.
Flashback: The Bible and Birth Control
The Bible is silent on any explicit discussion of the subject of birth control. Nowhere in the Bible does God command that a couple must or should use birth control at any stage in their marriage. Likewise, nowhere in the Bible does God explicitly forbid the use of birth control. However, the Bible has so much to say about marriage and sexuality and family and human life that we are not simply left guessing and hoping for the best.
To compare other things with God is to debase deity, as if you should compare the shining of a glowworm with the sun.
—Thomas Watson
