The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you, my friends.
I have benefitted a lot from Nick Needham’s series on church history, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power. I’m glad to know he’s got a new book on people who shaped Christianity. It’s on sale now at Westminster.
Today’s Kindle deals include a recent biography, a book about contentment, and several others.
God’s Pain Megaphone
Stephen McAlpine: “Since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, there has been a confident (albeit myopic) view that somehow things were getting better and better for the average Westerner. The megaphone was being dialed down as the West experienced one of the biggest wealth and personal freedom movements in history. Not one of the biggest, the biggest. … And by many indices these were the good times. We were headed on the increasingly smooth cable car ride to the top of Mount Progress. And now? The times are not good.”
One of Us
This is a sweet reflection on the beauty of Christ being one of us.
Destroying Ministerial Reputations
Nick reminds us that “it is altogether possible for ministers of the gospel to harbor bitterness toward those with whom they have had disagreements, seek the destruction of their colleagues’ reputations, and desire to supplant their usefulness in the kingdom of God. Sadly, this is more common than most would like to acknowledge.”
Prepare Your Heart for Pride Month
Like it or not, the world will soon be celebrating “pride.” Cindy suggests some ways to prepare your heart for it. “What if God has something more for us this June? What if we set aside time at the outset of the month to adopt a different mindset about Pride Month? Maybe instead of just gritting our teeth for these 30 days in the summer, we could see change both in ourselves and in our community? I know I need to prepare my heart for Pride Month. What about you?”
What Does It Mean to Give Quietly?
Randy Alcorn considers what it does and does not mean to give quietly.
One Step Closer
I appreciate this way of enduring a trial. “In the midst of our great sorrow over losing our girl and finding that we were seeing day after day pass by on the calendar since we last saw her, God gave us a different way to see it. Instead of ticking off each day, ticking off each experience without her, we now tell each other that we are one step closer.”
Flashback: Another Week in a Difficult and Hostile World
The people come to church each week weary and hungry, eager to be fed. And it is the task of the pastor to meet their need for spiritual sustenance, to equip them for their God-given duties, to feed them good food. It is his privilege to fill them up and send them out full and satisfied.
Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity.
—Horatius Bonar
