Is Sunday a Sabbath, a Secular Day, or Something Else?
‘Many Christians grew up with a clear vision of what Sunday was all about. Morning and evening worship services bracketed a day that was often defined by what you couldn’t do: no shopping, no sports, no homework. Naps, fellowship, and Christian reading often filled their place. Today, people are quick to criticize the legalistic vision of the past but have often failed to replace it with anything else. How should a Christian understand Sunday, and what, if anything, makes it different from every other day?’
Boo Who?
Starting with some booing that happened on ANZAC Day (an Australian national day of remembrance), Steve McAlpine highlights the ironies of the right taking on the methods of the progressive left that they decry who, in turn, must rely on the very institutions they sought to desecrate in order to stop them. Lots of interesting insights in this one.
I don’t know
‘Ideally as the pastor you should be one of the better-educated people in your church. You have likely gone to college and then studied for three or four years to earn your MDiv. During that time you’ve probably read thousands upon thousands of pages of theological literature. For your sermon preparation you ideally read a great deal each week, and that’s not counting your leisure reading. For these and other reasons I suspect that people regularly come to you with their questions, and I suspect that you regularly dispense answers. This is a good thing. But never be afraid to use three words, “I don’t know.”’
Complementarianism and the Dignity of Women
This one seeks to move the discussions about the role of men and women away from one particular issue: ‘only a tiny fraction of church members (whether in complementarian or egalitarian churches) serve in pastoral roles in their respective churches. What important questions should we be thinking about instead?’
Ten Seconds After You Die
John Piper succinctly and helpfully addresses a set of questions surrounding 1 Thessalonians 4 and what happens to those who have died in Christ. Are they just ‘sleeping’, are they with Jesus or is something else going on? What does it mean that they will precede the living? It addresses some common issues surrounding the intermediate state, the second coming and the situation for those who belong to Jesus.
The Lord is near the brokenhearted
Many of you will know why this sort of issue has been on my mind recently. I found this a helpful reflection on these words and who they are for.
From the archive: Mindfulness, narcissism and the solution to self-centredness
‘The Christian is called neither to focus on self above all nor to try and focus on nothing. Instead, we are to be other-person centred. More specifically, Christ-centred. We are actively called not to look to self – and most certainly not to a focus on nothingness – but instead to centre ourselves on the person of Jesus.’