Because it’s a new month there are lots of Kindle deals to look at, including Greg Koukl’s Tactics and Kelly Needham’s Friendish. You may also want to sort through the monthly general market deals (where you’ll find, for example, McCullough’s biography of Theodore Roosevelt.)
(Yesterday on the blog: A Casket and a Bible)
Stop Eulogizing The Local Church
“We criticize online news sites for their click bait approach to news, but a few websites dedicated to church ministry and pastors need to be reprimanded as well. In an effort to promote clicks during COVID, there have been a number of eulogies written for the local church. We have been told that it will never be the same, that 20-30 percent of pre-COVID attenders will not return, and that your pastor is getting ready to quit.”
Does It Matter How We Spend Our Free Time?
Randy Alcorn answers this one. “We have to look at our lives as a window of opportunity, because none of us has unlimited time. Everyone, no matter who they are, has 168 hours a week, and we’re supposed to spend about a third of it sleeping, and then another large amount of that likely goes to work. But in terms of what we call discretionary time, how much do we actually have? And how are we spending it?”
False Teachers are like Spiders
It’s an apt comparison. “It’s early in the morning, still dark, and I’m sitting at my kitchen table unable to sleep. Just outside my window and clinging to the corner of that window is a spider’s web. He has provided entertainment for several nights now. The light from the inside by the table draws unsuspecting bugs to the window pane. The spider takes advantage of the light to deceive them into his larder. The spider isn’t effective without being close to the light.”
Are There Degrees Of Sins?
Stephen Wellum takes on a common question. “Is all sin equal? Or, should we think of degrees of sin? Are some sins more serious than others, or does God view all sin as the same in terms of its consequences? Today, it’s quite common for people to claim that all sin is the same. James 2:10 is often quoted: ‘For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.’”
Ravi Zacharias’s Ministry Investigates Claims of Sexual Misconduct at Spas
I’m never sure if or when to link to investigations like this one, but the fact that the story has been covered thoroughly in Christianity Today surely makes it newsworthy. “Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) has opened an investigation into allegations that its late founder and namesake sexually harassed multiple massage therapists who worked at two day spas he co-owned.”
Running an Unexpected Course
“The Christian life is a race. Running it requires focus and faith. There is a starting place for all runners: putting their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And there is a specific destination: eternity with Jesus Christ. There is a start and there is an end, but what happens between the two?”
How Recent Restrictions Have Affected Churches in Québec
I have a heart for the churches in Quebec (at least in part because my family roots are there), so would encourage you to read this and include them in your prayers.
Flashback: 3 Quick Questions Before Quitting Your Church
Love grows cold where there is no prayer. Love grows cold where there is no service and no togetherness. In other words, love grows cold where there is no love—no expression of love through prayer, through deeds, through fellowship.
It is nothing new when young people want churches to pander to them. What is new is the extent to which churches have obliged.
—Michael Horton
