Good morning! Grace to you and peace.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Endearing Conceit of Young Men)
Humility on the Opinion Front
This is a really good call for humility when it comes to opinions (and other things).
Tithing in Financially Tight Times
“Your bank balance hovers near zero. Your job feels like it’s hanging in the balance. You can’t see how you’ll pay those bills. And yet you just heard your pastor encourage the congregation to think hard about how much they should give. By which he meant everyone, not just the wealthy. So how on earth can you think about giving money away when it seems like you can’t hold onto enough of it in the first place?”
Why Did the First Humans Live for So Long?
I really enjoyed John Piper’s take on why the first humans lived so much longer than we do today.
What Will Become of Atheism?
The latest newsletter from Esther O’Reilly reflects on other people’s reflections about the demise of the New Atheism. “Speaking as a denominationally homeless but decidedly conservative Protestant, I didn’t expect to find myself in 100% agreement with a secular Marxist hot take on Christianity vs. Atheism. But it’s 2021, so here we are.”
How to Protect Your Church from Abusers
This is a fairly basic (but important!) guide to protecting your church from abusers.
Church Membership Among Former Mormons
I hadn’t ever considered the special difficulty a church would face in persuading former Mormons to value church membership. This article explains it.
Endurance in the Christian Life
Amber Thiessen takes a current sorrow (another lockdown) and uses it to reflect on the Christian life. “The Christian life is all about endurance: Persevering, learning, and growing.”
Flashback: If Only I Had Been Saved By Merit!
One of the hardest tasks for every Christian is to deeply believe and forever remember that we’ve been saved by grace. One of the sweetest disciplines for every Christian is to meditate upon the grace that God extends to the undeserving.
It is harder to slander people in public when we’ve prayed for them in private.
—Dustin Benge
