I’m grateful to TGC for sponsoring the blog this week with Are You Keeping Track of Your Church’s Culture?.
There are some interesting books listed in today’s Kindle deals.
(Yesterday on the blog: World Religions in Seven Sentences)
Our Infertility and God’s Foreknowledge
“There are over one billion websites on the internet, yet some days it can feel as though they contain none of the information we want to know. Approximately four million new book titles are released each year, yet too often they tell us everything we don’t want to know. At least 350,000 new tweets are published every minute, and for what? Even with all this information at our fingertips, we still long for more—especially in times of suffering.”
Could It Be Time for a Pastoral Transition?
Benjamin considers times when it may be right for a pastoral transition.
Don’t think about elephants!
“I want you to not think about elephants. Whatever you do, I don’t want the thought of an elephant to enter your mind. Don’t think about their size or their ears or their trunks. How are you going? What are you thinking about right now? I think I can guess!” Simon means to prove something with this.
Truth to Cling to When Nothing Makes Sense
“Though there have been many precious years of walking with my Savior, the past several years has shaken my confidence as the road has continued to be dark, long, and painful. Though God has been faithful in so many ways (far more than we can probably see) I have been increasingly perplexed and unsettled by his ways.” You may identify with Sarah in this.
Such Were Some of You
Justin reflects on one of the most unexpectedly encouraging verses in the Bible.
Don’t Begin With the Needs of Your People
“I used to begin with the needs of people and then go to Scripture. I figured that the place to begin as a preacher is with the needs of the people in front of me.” Darryl explains what changed and why.
Flashback: Love Is a Risky Business
God takes no risk in his love, because he knows everything about me. He knows all I have done, all I am doing, all I ever will do. He will never receive new knowledge of me that may cause him to question his determination to call me his friend. And for that reason, no relationship I have will ever be more secure than my relationship with him.
We tend to think that the default destiny of all people is heaven, and hell is reserved for the particularly wicked. But in truth our default destiny is hell, and heaven is reserved for those who have the honesty to admit it and look to Christ.
—Dane Ortlund
