Good morning, my friends. Grace and peace to you today.
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(Yesterday on the blog: A Pastoral Prayer for Unity Amid Pandemic)
Unmaking the Patriarchy
Neil Shenvi has posted an interesting review of a popular and influential book. “Beth Allison Barr’s The Making of Biblical Womanhood belongs to a growing genre of (post)evangelical social scholarship. Using a combination of history, sociology, and political analysis, books like [these books] aim to show that conservative evangelicalism has been built on the foundation of racism, or sexism, or nationalism such that it needs to be substantially reformed if not outright dismantled.”
Is Complementarity Merely Functional?
Speaking of that subject, here’s Piper answering a question on complementarity. “I suppose it’s inevitable that the longer a label is used — like complementarianism or complementarity — the easier it is for the label to replace the reality. The label complementarian, as a designation for how men and women relate to each other, has been around for about 35 years. I would want to stress that labels are only valuable if they capture and communicate reality. It’s the biblical reality that we really care about, not so much the label.”
Beware Evangelical Talk
“When I was a brand new missions pastor, I was given a great piece of advice from the lead pastors that I reported to. ‘Beware Evangelical talk,’ they said.” Here’s an explanation of that…
Should the Church Have Authority over Me?
“If we were to put together ten rules for constructing a moral society, it is doubtful that many would emphasize parental respect. Why then does God bother to put in a commandment about honoring your parents? What’s the big deal?”
Don’t Reject God Because of His People
This is true and important: “We shouldn’t reject the whole body of God’s truth because some of His people, or those who professed to be His people, fell so far from His ideal. They’re accountable for their sins and failures, but what they do doesn’t void the truth they taught. We’re accountable for the truth we’ve heard despite the vessels it sometimes came through.”
The Songs We Sing Say a Lot About What We Believe
There are some interesting observations here. “As a worship pastor in Canada, I have observed that our liturgical database, though full of songs of praise and the experience of salvation, lacks other important theological themes. Songs of lament? None. Songs of Christian fellowship? Few and far between. Another thin theological theme in our songs is biblical eschatology.”
The Beauty and Dangers of Familiarity with God
“Familiarity, which means having a close acquaintance with or knowledge of something, can be good and bad. In the Bible, we are called to respond to God’s everlasting love and draw close to Him. We are invited to love Him, treasure Him, revere Him and know Him intimately. Yet, familiarity lacking these can lead to casualness.”
Flashback: 18 Prayers to Pray for Unbelievers
God loves to hear us pray and God loves to respond to our prayers. So as you pray for unbelievers, pray with confidence that God hears your prayers.
Why do we love to read the Scriptures daily? Because they speak to us of home. Why do we live differently from those around us? Because we remember that we are soon going home. —Iain Duguid