Grace and peace to you on this fine today.
This is an unusually good day for Kindle deals with lots of excellent resources steeply discounted.
Westminster Books has just put the excellent NSBT series on sale for those who need to catch up with some of the newer volumes!
How a Divisive Nigerian Pastor Built a Global Following
This fascinating article from The Guardian takes a look at the Nigerian prosperity preacher TB Joshua. “It’s hard to disentangle the facts of Joshua’s life from his self-mythologising. The official Scoan narrative is repeated in many online articles: his birth was foretold by a prophet, he spent 15 months in his mother’s womb, he received a divine revelation in 1987 while fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in an area of swampland that would later be called Prayer Mountain.”
Judging the Sins of Our Fathers
Carl Trueman: “None of this is to say that the slaveholding of Edwards or Jefferson or Washington is not important when we consider their lives and their legacies. Nor is it to neutralize the issue by moral equivalence. There are some very hard questions to ask about our forefathers. But they cannot be asked in isolation from consideration of our own complicity in the exploitation and evils of today’s globalized economy.”
J. I. Packer on “Impressions”
Justin Taylor shares some of J.I. Packer’s wisdom when it comes to spiritual impressions and divine guidance.
Little Golden Worries
Melissa explains that worries are, “in many ways, my most prized possessions. I’m an expert at conjuring them. They are almost always my closest thoughts, and they sit like little golden statues all along the shelves that line my heart and mind. Gold because they last, because they are alluring, always drawing my eye.”
Judge Not
Andrée Seu Peterson warns against hasty judging of other people. “Christians are to live a different way, not as judge and jury of our neighbors, but as believing all things and hoping all things (1 Corinthians 13:7) regarding their potential to change and grow. For the Lord is not finished with my neighbor, or father, any more than He is with me.”
How Do You Know If Your Church Is Legalistic?
Michael Kruger has a good one on legalism. “If you asked the average Christian to define legalism, the answers may not come so quickly. What exactly counts as legalism? How do we know it when we see it? The confusion is exacerbated by the fact that the term can be used in different ways. People can use the same word but infuse it with very different meanings.”
The Logistics of Evacuating Afghanistan (Video)
This is an interesting video on the incredible logistics involved in evacuating Afghanistan.
Flashback: Six Reasons Why Adultery Is Very Serious
Adultery is a serious matter. At least, it is a serious matter in the mind and heart of the God who created sex and marriage and who put wise boundaries on them both. But why?
There can be no better evidence of the Spirit of Christ in us than to love the image of Christ in others.
—Matthew Mead
