May the Lord bless and keep you as you serve and worship him this weekend.
My thanks goes to Missional Wear for sponsoring the blog this week.
Today’s Kindle deals include some newer books along with the usual Saturday classics.
(Yesterday on the blog: Faithful Leaders)
5 Marks of Harmful Megachurch Culture
Jeremy Howard points out 5 marks of many megachurches (though certainly not all!) that can be very harmful.
Words: A Hidden Weapon of Domestic Abuse
Darby Strickland: “When we think about domestic abuse, we tend to think about acts of physical violence. We picture women with bruises and black eyes, or worse. While this is an all-too-common occurrence, this assumption about domestic abuse causes us to miss the fact that the primary weapon abusers use against their victims is not their fists but their words. Does this surprise you?”
Guarding Your Heart in the Pulpit
I always appreciate the way H.B. Charles Jr. writes about subjects like this one. “Let’s face it. The pulpit is a dangerous place. It can fill the preacher with pride that leads to his downfall. It can fill the preacher with discouragement that causes him to give up. It can fill the preacher with fear that prostitutes his divine message for human approval.”
The Future of Social Media Is Private
Chris Martin speculates that there is a good future for social media, but that its future is far more private than its present (and recent past). “Of course, not everyone hates social media, but more people do now than did a few years ago. Short of having any statistics that its a reality, I think it’s fair to say that overall sentiment toward social media is at an all-time low. In some ways this is surprising and in others it is totally logical.”
Do the Old Testament Promises of Prosperity Apply to God’s People Today?
Randy Alcorn: “How can we explain the apparent contradiction between the words and lifestyle of Jesus and the apostles, and the Old Testament prosperity passages? Can God’s people today lay claim to those Old Testament promises of prosperity? The answers to these questions lie in the fundamental differences between the Old and New Covenants. Suffice it to say that the New Testament reflects a fuller picture of the true, eternal wealth that is ours in Christ.”
William Booth’s Steadfastness in Ministry despite Strong Opposition
“In Scripture and throughout Church History there are many examples of committed Christians who continued to faithfully, bravely carry out their God-directed ministries in the face of stiff or sometimes even fierce opposition. Not a few such Christians continue to do so around the world today. Their examples show us how to respond appropriately to such challenging situations and inspire us to be similarly brave and faithful with the Lord’s help.”
Flashback: The Two Kinds of Conversation You Need To Have With Your Children
From the perspective of an inexperienced parent with young children, this counsel was both timely and valuable. It was counsel I’ve heeded and counsel that proved to me the necessity of mature, experienced Christian friends.
God’s grace didn’t get us going then leave us to get by on our works. Grace didn’t just justify us in the past, it sustains us in the present and will deliver us in the future.
—Randy Alcorn
