May the Lord be with you and bless you today.
Today’s Kindle deals should include several good picks from Christian Focus. Among them is Simona Gorton’s Mothering Against Futility, which is a helpful look at meaning and mundanity.
Pastoring the Scrupulous Conscience
I found this a very helpful piece about pastoring or otherwise helping people who have a scrupulous conscience. “Michael Lawrence helps pastors think carefully about how to minister to those with a scrupulous conscience. Both physical and spiritual factors may be affecting those who experience unusual levels of guilt, fear, and anxiety regarding their spiritual state, and pastors are encouraged to deal gently with them, pointing them to the truths of Scripture; praying with and for them; and bringing along other church members who can speak the truth to them in love.”
Protestants and the Pill
Katelyn Walls Shelton has an interesting look at some Protestants who have decided not to use the birth control pill on the basis of ethics or theology. I do tend to agree with her that this is an area in which many Protestants have not thought as deeply as perhaps they should before making their decisions on birth control.
Ben Shapiro and Others Mocked This Christian Couple, So I Interviewed Them (Video)
A Christian husband recently took to social media to share how Jesus changed his wife and forgave her past sins. This led to a lot of chatter online, which even went as far as Ben Shapiro and others publicly mocking them—and especially her. Ray Comfort decided to interview the couple, and I think you’ll be encouraged by it. (I think you’ll be encouraged even if you believe it may not have been the wisest thing to post or even if you wouldn’t have posted such a thing yourself. You can also read Bethel McGrew on this situation in And Such Were Some Of You.)
Made Lonely by Holiness
John Piper speaks about the loneliness that can come to those who choose to eschew what they consider inappropriate entertainment. “I share Kate’s dismay at how many professing Christians, young and old, embrace as their frequent form of entertainment in movies and television a level of immodesty and immorality, filthy language, gender-leveling feminist ideology, arrogance, revenge, and a whole cluster of empty worldliness.”
Two Pressures of Age
Scott Hurst writes about two of the different pressures people may experience as they age. “Two distinct pressures I feel now that I didn’t as a young Christian are the pressure of coasting and apathy. Reflecting on Solomon’s turn offers a chance for self-reflection; to recognize these pressures and respond with faith.”
Three Strategies for Teaching Digital Discernment to Teenagers
Like it or not, it falls to parents to instruct their children in digital discernment. This article from Rooted helps parents by laying out three strategies they can use.
Flashback: What God Wants You To Forget
To run this race well, we must run unhindered—unhindered by sin, of course, but also by whatever lies in the past that may threaten to slow us, to weigh us down, or to keep us from reaching the finish line.
Surely it is not wrong for us to think and talk about Heaven… We are all going to emigrate in a very little while.
—D.L. Moody
