Today’s Kindle deals include a few books from Zondervan and one for college students.
(Yesterday on the blog: Look! Look To Your Baptism!)
Pastor, Be What You Want to See
Jared Wilson: “God forbids pastoral domineering but commands instead ‘being examples to the flock’ (1 Pet. 5:3). Therefore, pastor, whatever you are, your church will eventually become. If you are a loudmouth boaster, your church will gradually become known for loudmouth boasting. If you are a graceless idiot, your church will gradually become known for graceless idiocy. The leadership will set the tone of the community’s discipleship culture, setting the example of the church body’s ‘personality.’ So whatever you want to see, that is what you must be.”
How Tall Can a Tree Grow? (Video)
I love being a Christian who can acknowledge and praise a Creator when I see videos like this one.
Single Ladies Catechism
I am sure some of those who read my site will find this a helpful resource. “The underlying assumption of these questions and answers is that our aim is to lead surrendered lives, that we let God be god, the idea at the heart of being a Christian. Each of the four sections of the catechism deal with a ‘jurisdiction,’ if you will, of God’s sovereign reign in our lives: over our status, our self-image, our sorrows, and our futures. These are all his to shape and define.”
Why “We Need to Reach the Young People” Might Distract Your Church
Mike Leake has been doing some really good writing recently. “If an organization does not perpetuate it will not survive into the next generation. It is right for a church to be concerned if they only have gray heads. But there is an underlying theology within this statement which I believe will lead to death instead of life.”
A Horror of Theology
So maybe this quote doesn’t quite convey the heart of the article, but it’s still a good one. “No amount of insistence that one is speaking the truth in love (when, in fact, he is speaking the truth in anger) will mask the fact that he is actually speaking in loveless pride. As Jesus said, ‘A tree is known by its fruit.’ The bitter fruit of an acrimonious ‘truth speaker’ will inevitably be the bringing forth of disciples more fractious than himself. Nevertheless, the root of the problem does not lie in a love of the truth and a desire to trumpet forth sound doctrine–it is rooted in pride and self-love.”
13 Ways a Husband Can Cultivate His Marriage
This is 101-level husbanding stuff, but it’s amazing how quickly we begin to neglect the basics (and how much those basics mean).
The Blessing of the Gift of Prayer
Familiarity can breed contempt, so I’m glad for this reminder of the blessings of prayer. “Lately, I’ve been thinking about the benefits of being a Christian. There are so many that I hardly know where to start. I can easily write about the gifts of justification, sanctification, or adoption (and many others similar to it). But in this post, I want to keep it simple. I want to focus on a blessing that we may sometimes overlook — the blessing of the gift of prayer.”
Flashback: It Takes a Church To Raise Your Child
It takes a church to raise a child because it is in the church that our children find a whole community of adults who love them, who have a deep concern for them, and who are eager to see them come to faith and grow in godly character.
Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude—an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God.
—A.W. Pink
