The lost we love most
‘Please don’t lose heart. Don’t believe the lie that nothing will ever change, that there’s nothing more for you to say or do. Don’t settle into the conviction that your spouse, child, neighbor, or friend will never come to know Jesus. Keep praying. Keep patiently speaking as you have opportunity. Keep loving with the love of Jesus. Keep sharing the twists and turns of your own life as you cling to Jesus and grow in him. Keep persevering in pursuing the lost you love.’
Bully pulpit
‘While all shortcomings of a leader have potential to harm the flock, there’s something exponentially painful about bullying behavior. People are being hurt by the very people who are supposed to protect and care for them.’
Is there a pattern to the Bible’s miracles?
I thought these graphs were really helpful. Whatever your position on the miraculous, these show us that – even in scripture – miracles really were not the norm.
Truth and reason go together
‘When we get careless about the veracity of our claims, we also become careless about our reasoning. This matters because if people find that they cannot trust Christians to be completely truthful and completely reasonable on a matter like this, then how likely are they to pay attention to our claims and arguments when we are using apologetics to defend the faith.’
8 variations on selfish preaching
Peter Mead highlights 8 ways we might preach with poor motivation that are, sadly, too common.
An open letter to the evangelical church on christology
Stephen Wellum calls us to return to Christ and right thinking about him.
From the archive: El Salvador gangs, Loyalist paramilitaries and the allure of prosperity-lite
‘Come to Christ and he will restore your honour. Trust in Jesus and he will lead you out of the gang violence. Put your faith in the Lord and he will take away your drug problems. Jesus is the fixer. He is the genie who magically makes all the nasty, yucky stuff go away. Jesus is there to solve your problems and to give you release from them. The problem with this mode of thinking is made painfully clear at the end of the video. One of the former gang members was shot to death shortly after the making of the film. Did Jesus not work for him? Was Christ not powerful enough or did the guy not have enough faith that Jesus would keep him safe? Maybe, just maybe, Jesus never actually promises us those things.’