From Trevin Wax:

We will never be effective missiologically if the main source of our energy is spent rooting out every sinful tendency we have in our hearts. There is no end to discovering our depravity. The paradoxical truth is that the more we rest in the goodness of our Savior, the more progress we make in our fight against sin.

I should re-name this blog 'What I'm reading now that I don't want to forget'.

1. 'Four ways to pray the gospel over your life' by JD Greear. These are stellar. Regarding number three ('Your presence and approval are all I need today for everlasting joy'): 'It’s one thing to know that Jesus is your possession; it’s another for that approval to have such weightiness in our hearts that our captivity to other idols is snapped.'

2. 'Be stressed out and do not sin' by Jonathan Parnell. 'God's unfailing love for me in Jesus reaches down into the details of my life and wields them for my good.... I can bank on the fact that he's got all this under control. And that makes me a different person.'

From Taryn Clark: 'This is what I do' --her account of life in the aftermath of Sandy. "Someone asks me why all of us are doing this and I tell him, 'Because we’re the church. We’re followers of Christ, doing His work. This is how we live our faith.'"

1. 'Seven Practical Steps to Cultivate a Heart For the Lost' from John Piper posted by Justin Taylor. Good stuff yo.
2. 'Two Ways the Gospel Changes Your View of Sin'. Tim Keller. Resurgence.

le 20 octobre 2012

I should be working on my Cézanne paper for art history. 


1. From Jonathan Dodson's post over at the Resurgence:

The gospel is good news whether someone perceives it to be good to them or not. But the only reason we know is because we experience its grace-saturated goodness in our everyday lives. We know the gospel is good, not just in theory, but in the experience of suffering, parenting, dating, working, and so on....The trouble, of course, is that there are so many people who don’t know the power of the gospel like you and me. They don’t know how the gospel is good news for them.

2. 'Five Tips for Authors Who Also Happen to Be Mothers' from Sibella Giorello, an author I happen to know. 
3. And thanks to Sibella for a link to here, an article about a book and a Pringles analogy.
4. Soundtrack.

le 8 octobre 2012

1. From the Wall Street Journal, this article by Camille Paglia, 'How Capitalism Can Save Art'

2. Hospitality: from David Mathis, 

In a progressively post-Christian society, the importance of hospitality as an evangelistic asset is growing rapidly. Increasingly, the most strategic turf on which to engage the unbelieving with the good news of Jesus may be the turf of our own homes....

The reason this is no minor biblical theme is because the streams of hospitality flow deeply from the well of God. Christians love the stranger, because we have been loved by the Father when we ourselves were strangers. Hospitality rises in its purest form when we heed Paul’s counsel, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

In Jesus, we find ourselves now to be the enemy who has been loved, the sinner who is saved, the stranger who is welcomed. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And welcomed strangers should be quick to learn to welcome other strangers. 

1. This article from Desiring God by Jonathan Parnell on what love really is: a work of divine grace that causes joy to well up in our hearts which overflows into giving to others. This has changed my week and hopefully my whole life!
2. This article by Christine Hoover on how believers are no longer orphans and how this truth changes our lives. We don't have to take care of ourselves. We don't have to be strong. We don't have to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of. We can be dependent. We are free to be weak. We are loved. We are accepted, we belong. We can trust God. We don't need to be scared of getting close to people. We are not on the outside looking in. 
3. Another article: 'Practicing the Presence of the Holy Spirit' by Justin Taylor on Richard Lovelace's book.

We should make a deliberate effort at the outset of every day to recognize the person of the Holy Spirit, to move into the light concerning his presence in our consciousness and to open our minds and to share all our thoughts and plans as we gaze by faith into the face of God.
We should continue to walk throughout the day in a relationship of communication and communion with the Spirit mediated through our knowledge of the Word, relying upon every office of the Holy Spirit’s role as counselor mentioned in Scripture.
We should acknowledge him as the illuminator of truth and of the glory of Christ.
We should look to him as teacher, guide, sanctifier, giver of assurance concerning our sonship and standing before God, helper in prayer, and as one who directs and empowers our witness.
We should particularly recognize that growth in holiness is not simply a matter of the lonely individual making claims of faith on the basis ofRomans 6:1-14. It involves moving about in all areas of our life in dependent fellowship with a person: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16 NASB).
When this practice of the presence of God is maintained over a period of time, our experience of the Holy Spirit becomes less subjective and more clearly identifiable, as gradually we learn to distinguish the strivings of the Spirit from the motions of our flesh. (pp. 130-131)