Blessings to you, my friends.
There are a couple of Kindle deals to consider today as you continue to build a library.
(Yesterday on the blog: Are We Performing or Are We Participating?)
One Month After the Roe Leak: Reflections on the Supreme Court’s Draft Opinion
Though we saw many hot takes on that leaked draft of the majority opinion of the Supreme Court, Steven Wedgeworth waited a month to offer some slightly more mature reflections.
Expressive Individualism and the Death of Mental “Illness”
“Everyone who knows anything at all knows you must never attribute someone’s character or behavior to their identity. It is universally agreed in polite society that no person is ever good or bad at something because of their gender, or their race, their family, sexuality, etc. To indulge in this reasoning is at best a crude stereotype, at worst an expression of flagrant bigotry.” Or that’s what we’ve been led to believe…
Why the Promise that Jesus Will Build His Church Does Not Mean He Will Necessarily Build My Church
This is a key distinction.
Beware the Free Steak Dinner and Financial Advice Retirement Seminar
“I recently received another one: an invitation in the mail to a ‘free dinner and retirement discussion.’” I am starting to get those too! Chris Cagle tells what they are about (though from a distinctly US-based perspective).
Letters from Lockdown: A Shanghai Pastor on Pandemics and Persecutions
“Though the church I serve in Shanghai still rents a physical space for worship, for many weeks it seemed useless. As much of the world—and many of the churches in it—moved on from strict pandemic protocols, a viral uptick here kept many Chinese Christians in an extended lockdown.” I was challenged by this one.
Embodied Discernment: Learning to Discern with Our Minds, Hearts, and Actions
“If discernment is a spiritual gift, you’ve got it. You never turn off your discerning brain—it’s always engaged and evaluating the words you read, hear, and sing. You have a stack of theology books on your desk and a tattered, marked up Bible. Whenever a theology question comes up during Bible study, all heads turn to you.” This is all good, but it comes with certain temptations.
Flashback: Could You Use Some Joy Today?
But we do not need to be Christians for long before we learn that the greatest joy connected to wealth does not come from gaining but from giving…Where we tend to associate joy with how much we get, higher joy comes from how freely we give.
Reading the Bible isn’t just reading words on a page but listening to one who loves us more than life itself, and who has a very clear agenda for our lives and our world.
—Gary Millar
