The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today, my friends. Thank you for reading this collection of articles that I’ve drawn carefully from all around the Internet.
I only saw this article after putting together the other links, but wanted to make sure you saw it: American Missionary Doctor Contracts Ebola as Congo Outbreak Intensifies. “An American missionary doctor working at a Christian hospital near the center of the new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has contracted the deadly disease.”
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include some excellent titles like Running Scared (Ed Welch), Take Heart (David Powlison), and so on. Reminder: You can track these Kindle deals on X (@challiesdeals) and Facebook.
Recommended Reading
China Is Throwing Christians in Jail, but This Pastor Refuses to Back Down. The Wall Street Journal has a long profile on Chinese pastor Ezra Jin, who built a thriving church and was thrown in jail for it. “Five miles south, at the Communist Party’s leadership compound, Xi was consolidating power and rooting out any resistance to his authority in the party and culture. He made it clear that the controls on Christianity up until that point hadn’t gone far enough. In 2018, authorities demanded that Zion install around two dozen surveillance cameras to allow them to track the church’s activities. While Zion’s leaders said they welcomed officials to attend their services, they objected to the cameras as a form of intimidation of church members.”
The Other Side of Seminary. Haley Isbell writes a dispatch about “the other side of seminary.” “I come from the underbelly of the seminary. I am the face behind the moving parts: the fall schedule flyer posted, the snacks in the breakroom, the classroom set up, the invoices submitted, the meals for faculty meetings, the peanut M&M’s always at my desk. I am the person who meets the first child of our seminary students.”
The Remedy, the Problem, and the Church. I found this quite an interesting article from Holly Lazzaro. We have all been told that AI is coming for many jobs, and what she shows is that the jobs that may be most at risk are the ones that are often held by women. “We should not be surprised that economic systems do this. Fallen institutions do sinful things. They find the people with the least power and make them absorb the costs of change. They have always done this. The pattern is not a malfunction in an otherwise healthy system. It is what systems shaped by fallen humans do.”
Rushing Our Quiet Times. Jo Gibbs offers what I found to be an especially interesting insight here that helps answer the question of how much time we should spend in our daily devotions. “Thirty minutes? Forty minutes? An hour? Should we feel rebuked that we’re not getting up at 4 a.m. like a spiritual version of Jocko Willink? Or like Martin Luther, who is widely quoted as saying: ‘I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.’ Lately my answer to this question has become simple: the right length for a quiet time is long enough to be unhurried.”
Why We Need to Interpret the Bible (And Why It’s Worth the Effort). Wanjiru Ng’ang’a asks and answers a crucial question: Why do we need to interpret the Bible? Obviously, we know we ought to read it, but why do we also need to interpret it? “This article is simply an invitation to pause and consider why interpretation matters at all, and why the effort it requires is well worth our while.”
Why We Don’t Trust Pastors. “Americans have spoken. We don’t trust pastors. A recent Gallup survey found that only 27% of Americans ranked pastors as ‘high’ or ‘very high’ regarding their honesty and ethical standards. We are outpaced by accountants, bankers, and mechanics with those in the military or medical professions more than doubling our score. Twenty years ago pastors were ranked among the very highest. Why the shift?” There is more than one answer, and more than one solution.
A Very Small Napkin
Here’s Theodore Cuyler expressing his concern for those who profess faith in Christ but who fail to diligently steward all that has been entrusted to them—to become all they could be by his power and in his strength.
Such professors there be in every church. Their single talent is hidden in a napkin—a very small napkin. What God bestowed upon them at the time of conversion is all that they have now; if there has been any change, it has been rather a reduction than a growth. Such began small—they continue smaller. They never were anything but rivulets, trickling with slender thread of water among the barren stones, at the mercy of every August drought, and well-nigh drunk up by every thirsty noonday sun. Year after year they trickle—trickle—trickle—until death dries them up, and nobody misses them. They watered nothing; they refreshed nobody, and blessed no living thing. Earth is little the poorer for losing them; heaven scarcely the richer for gaining them.
Flashback
Stop Swiping, Start Serving. How many church members could be leading important ministries, except that they spend hours on social media thinking that some daft controversy on Twitter in any way impacts the real world? And all the while there are people right before them who need to be loved and cared for and shepherded.
You cannot love God if you are under the continual secret suspicion that he is really your enemy!
—Walter Marshall
