Free but unwise

I wrote about this last week here. Stephen McAlpine writes about another issue connected to the same incident. We both agree, defending freedom is important, but we are nonetheless to be wise as believers too.

Pride, police and the preaching of the gospel

On the same note, David Robertson writes about this too. I also remember the previous encounter with the police in Perth that he alludes to in this article. Freedom is important, but so is wisdom.

The greatest danger is just going back to normal

This one is worth thinking about: ‘Is life back to normal? No. Is church back to normal? No. Will it ever get back to where it was in February? I just don’t know. Do you want it to? Now that’s the question.’

How to run a good meeting – and why it matters more than you think!

I basically second this one. There may be one or two points I might do differently, but in the most part, I think this is about right.

2 reasons bully pastors rise up in the church

I think this is essentially right so long as we’re careful to recognise that those character qualities that we rightly land on are often culturally interpreted and applied.

The local church was made to serve the Christian, not the Christian to serve the local church

Tim Challies: ‘If we judge our faith or our spiritual maturity or our commitment to the local church by the quantity of activities we participate in (or choose not to participate in), we are judging ourselves not by the freedom of the gospel but by the captivity of the law. The religious people Jesus spoke to judged their adherence to the fourth commandment not by their adherence to the commandment itself but to the host of little laws they themselves had created. And in much the same way we can judge our commitment to the local church by our own little laws, like “when the doors are open, we are there.”’

From the archive: Why Northern Ireland should not have the Irish referendum result imposed on them by Westminster

‘If we are concerned about a hard-border threatening the peace, and it is a genuine question that needs addressing, do we really want to see what might happen if the British government move to overrule both a democratically elected devolved parliament and an overwhelmingly decisive referendum? It is a move likely to please nobody and carries the very real threat of demolishing the various agreements that those proposing the imposition insist they wish to maintain. Those who talk a good game of hating the violence regarding the border issue seem troublingly happy to risk the bombs and bullets for the right to do even worse in the womb.’