How to respond to Israel/Gaza
David Robertson offers some thoughts on how we should respond to recent matters unfolding in Israel.
How to recover from a toxic church and bounce back even better
‘When the church causes hurt, it pollutes God’s calling and creates a toxicity that works against the gospel. The goal is to minimize church hurt and maximize church unity. Here is reality. Something will happen in almost every church because ministry includes people. In some cases, the pastor is the cause of the hurt. In other cases, the people of the church hurt the pastor. Pastors can be responsible for church hurt, but this article focuses on how pastors should respond when experiencing a toxic church culture.’
The Christian’s inner power
We are so often focused on the issue of sin that we forget we have the Spirit at work within us so that it is possible for us to actually resist it. This one digs into that a bit further.
The problem with Doug Wilson’s Postmillennial Theonomy
I don’t usually link to twitter threads. Even less to single tweets that are now essentially blog posts in their own right (I’m not on the platform any more so missed this particular development). I am quite convinced that you are almost certainly only ever talking about Christian Nationalism and Theonomy if you are dealing with Americans and certain kinds of Presbyterians. Nevertheless, it does seem to be everywhere and Doug Wilson seems to often be at the centre of matters. So, here is one of those long twitter posts that explains what Postmillennial Theonomy is and at least one of the major problems with it. It also links to an article by Michael Riley that speaks into another issue with it. I would also highly recommend this article by Jonathan Leeman (https://www.9marks.org/article/christian-nationalism-as-influence-or-identity/) which helpfully outlines why we really should reject Christian Nationalism.
Where do we plant?
More wisdom from Al Gooderham in this one in considering where we might plant churches.
Navel-gazing won’t help you grow
‘For years I spent my Christian life spiraling into hopelessness over my shortcomings. Whether they were fleeting thoughts, sinful words, or hurtful actions, they weighed me down into ineffectiveness. They stole away the joy of my salvation, replacing it with fear. Instead of looking to Christ, I had my eyes fixed on me.’
From the archive: Were OT believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit?
‘Old Covenant believers were saved and preserved the same way as New Covenant believers; by a work of the Holy Spirit upon their heart that we call regeneration. But Old Covenant believers were not indwelt by the Spirit. God’s covenant presence rested in the temple and moved to the hearts of New Covenant believers following the cross.’