The Lord be with you and bless you today.
Today’s Kindle deals include several options that are new for the day—books for parents, women, elders, and so on. Remember also the massive commentary (and other resource) sale that’s going on now.
Amazon’s Big Deal Days wraps up today. I added quite a few Christian and general market deals yesterday evening and will keep adding new [print] book deals if and when they appear today.
The Normalization of Slander
Trevin Wax is convinced we’re living in a context that has normalized slander and I think he’s right. “Slander is spreading untruth about someone else so their reputation is damaged. These untruths are sometimes flat-out lies designed to inflict maximum harm, but often slander takes the form of deceptive inferences, assuming the worst of others instead of the best, or deliberately crafting a preferred narrative out of conveniently edited facts.”
Of What Use Is Doctrine to Formation?
There are lots of interesting insights in this article from Ian Harber. He writes about “the role of doctrine in the Christian life” and asks, “What is someone to do with doctrine? It seems to me that there are at least four postures someone could take toward doctrine. We could be ignorant of doctrine, master of doctrine, negotiator of doctrine, or formed by doctrine.”
Why Romans 12 Without Romans 13 Endangers Those in Destructive Relationships
“Let’s look at Romans 12 and consider what it would be like to apply this passage to a destructive relationship without Romans 13. As you read the end of Romans 12, imagine yourself as a child with an abusive mother, a wife with an abusive husband, or a parent of a drug-addicted young adult who is increasingly disrupting the stability of your home.”
Why Judas’s Death Isn’t a Bible Contradiction
Some skeptics claim that the two different accounts of Judas’s death are contradictory. Jonathan Noyes shows how they do not contradict one another in the least.
Laughing (At Yourself) Is Grace
I like what Cheryl Balcom writes here—that sometimes the ability to not take yourself too seriously is grace.
Why Satan Wants You to Think You’re Alone
Satan’s strategy is to make you feel alone and ashamed, leading you to isolate yourself from God and others. That’s the theme of John’s article.
Flashback: Add a Little Extra Beauty
Wouldn’t I be most closely imitating him if I went beyond merely completing the task and chose instead to do it with joy, with excellence, with a desire to in some way make it beautiful?
When you default to thinking of prayer as an abstract activity, a ‘thing to do’, the tendency is to focus on the prayer as an activity – which makes it boring. Instead, focus on the one to whom you’re praying.
—Michael Reeves
