There are just a few Kindle deals today; also be sure to take a look at Saturday’s list if you didn’t check in over the weekend.
(Yesterday on the blog: Are You Lonely? Tired? Caught in a Mess?)
How Things Have Changed: Reflections of a Millennial Pastor in a Gen Z World
This article helpfully explains how ministering to college students has changed in recent years. “There are many other ways the 2020 college campus is a much different world. Despite frequently being lumped together with millennials, Gen Z is distinct in a number of important respects. And while discussions of generational differences often take the form of complaint, clear-eyed wisdom in such matters is crucial to faithful and fruitful ministry.”
Flip Flops: Mine or Ours?
This is a really interesting reflection on cultural differences when it comes to private vs public property.
Protection Not Secrecy
“God calls a husband to provide, pastor, and protect. One way a man protects his wife is by protecting her reputation. We know that a marriage involving two sinners is going to have difficulty. In those moments of trials, how will we respond? As Christians, we are responsible for our actions and our reactions.”
The Call of Creation (Video)
Here’s a beautiful video that calls us to hear and understand what creation is saying.
Are You Cheating on Your Church?
“There’s nothing wrong with listening to sermons of various pastors—but only as a supplement to the discipleship offered through one’s own church. The tendency to merely sit back and receive rather than invest in real relationships was already prevalent in our pre-COVID world. But this pandemic seems to have elevated the desire for non-committal consumption.”
Thirsting for God
“Out of all the many ways Covid has stoked deep dissatisfactions within us, the deepest of them all should be our not being able to meet and worship as we used to. Not because of the act of worship in itself; but because of how God uses these means to impart himself to us.”
Preacher, Watch Your Tone In The Pulpit
Here’s a timely call for pastors to monitor their tone when in the pulpit. “Sometimes, even when I agree with the content of a sermon I hear, I nonetheless find myself mad at the preacher because his tone is belligerent and disagreeable. At other times I’ve heard preachers undercut the inherent power of God’s Word by preaching with a timid and fearful tone, even though the message is firmly based on the authority of Scripture.”
Flashback: Thank God We Do/Don’t Know the Future
I am grateful we don’t know the future. While our desire to know what will come is understandable, it is not wise. If we knew the future in detail, it would undoubtedly hinder us, paralyze us, destroy us.
Our prayer and God’s mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends, the other descends.
—Mark Hopkins
