Laudable Linkage

Posted on November 4, 2023 by Barbara Harper

For those of you who enjoy the Friday’s Fave Fives, I’m sorry I missed posting yesterday! I usually write those posts on Thursday, but this past Thursday I was in atrial fibrillation most of the day. Then Friday was very busy. But I’ll catch up next week.

These linkage posts, however, I add to throughout the week as I read here and there. Perhaps you’ll find some of these interesting and beneficial.

Eternal Security: Fives Reasons God’s Gift of Salvation is Secure. “Can you lose your salvation? Some teach that you can. Others feel like they have. But what does the Word of God promise regarding the eternal security of those who have truly trusted Christ as their Savior?”

Quiet Time and Evangelism: How Much Is Enough? HT to Challies. “Spiritual disciplines are great (and necessary) when the goal is to know God better. Spiritual disciplines are soul-crushing when the aim is to get our metaphysical workout in each day, knowing that we could always exercise more if we were better Christians.”

Meditate on Scripture by Breaking it Down Into Phrases. “One of the best ways to meditate on Scripture is to break it down into phrases and detail the meaning. This can help you to better understand the text and to apply it to your own life.”

How to Mo u rn Over Your Sins, HT to Challies. “‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ (Matthew 5:4). Spiritual mourning is laden with blessing, and we are to go after it and get as much of it in our lives as we possibly can. The more you know of this mourning, the more joy you will experience in your life.”

What My Wife Taught Me About Life. “Last month, just about a year after my wife Phyllis died, I reread her book Handbook for Caring People, now out of print. I once again saw how this book reflected her own life of being deeply attuned to the needs of people—emotionally, physically, spiritually. I wasn’t the only one who thought she was perhaps the most caring person they’d ever known. So did dozens and hundreds of others.” Andrew Le Peau is the author of Write Better: A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality (linked to my review).

Reflections on the Reformation. I liked this balanced perspective.

Three Encouragements for Difficult Projects. “If you’ve ever been in the midst of a long, challenging project, you know the war you experience with regret, frustration, and self-flagellation.”

Aged Care Ministry: 3 Challenges and 5 Responses, HT to Challies. “I lost count over the past three years of how many Christians said to me: ‘Those old people must be very open to the gospel, as close to death as they are.’ It’s a plausible idea, but not at all true to my experience. I did not at all find nursing home residents more open to the gospel, but generally less so than those younger in years with more years of life ahead of them. I begin by describing three challenges to bringing the gospel to the frail elderly, and five possible responses to those challenges. I conclude with a word about how all people serve God, no matter how frail and incapacitated they are.”

Joni Eareckson Tada quote about abiding in Christ

Laudable Linkage

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Once again, I have not had much time at the computer this week. But here are some of the thought-provoking reads I found.

The Real War, HT to Challies. “Evil is real and it is staring us in the face. It cannot be legislated or medicated or rationalized away. It is a force that exists in every corner of the world; among all peoples, for all of human history. And we either surrender to its power, or we resist it; a cosmic conflict where neutrality is not an option.”

Prayer Requests from a Church in Israel, HT to Challies. “There is no one in Israel who doesn’t know someone impacted by this war. The state of Israel is devastated and in mourning, with funerals happening non-stop. Never before have so many Jewish citizens been murdered in one day since the Holocaust, and the rockets are still being fired into Israel, over 6,300 up till now. In the midst of all the atrocities, there are miracles that are taking place every day.“

Silly Putty Bible Study, HT to Knowable Word. “Sadly, many Christians use their Bibles like Silly Putty®. Just add the Spirit, and the Bible becomes putty in their hands, able to be molded into almost anything at all. Rather than approaching the Scripture as a treasure of truth for all Christians, some evangelicals have the dangerous habit of searching the text for a personal “promise” or “word” of guidance from the Spirit that is unrelated to the text’s original meaning.”

Navel-Gazing Won’t Help You Grow, HT to Challies. “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.”

A Word to My Inner Perfectionist, HT to Linda. “Then one day, a Truth dropped into my consciousness: Amy, you are finite. It was one of those realizations I’d always known was true but hadn’t really digested. Oh, right. I actually have limits. So that means I can be responsible and still forget things sometimes.”

How Should Christians Handle Disappointment? “Jobs, finances, health, people, and relationships all have the power to disappoint us. How should we—believers in Christ—handle the disappointments that hurt our hearts and weary our souls?”

Bookish Believers. “I had always believed fiction was nothing more than entertainment; reading theology was a better use of my time. However, I realized that fiction can do something mere theology can’t, which makes it especially valuable to the Christian’s intellectual and spiritual transformation.”

The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us. C. S. Lewis

Laudable Linkage

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Barbara Harper

I didn’t think I’d have a Laudable Linkage since dealing with my husband’s surgery this week and not having much time on the computer. But I did have a draft started and a couple of links to add, so here we are!

You Are not Invisible to God. HT to Challies. “My daughter, in her power chair changes how I look at others. People once invisible to me, catch my eye now. I can see them with my heart.” I love the example shared here.

The Joy of Knowledge, HT to Challies. “The more we learn about God, the more we can appreciate what we see of him in the scriptures and in the world. Becoming more and more familiar with the details of his personality, his character, his likes and dislikes will allow us to see him more clearly and love him more deeply. Some may object that this is just head knowledge and relationships are more than that. That’s true. But they’re not less than that.”

5 Simple Ways to Teach Faith to Your Children. “Thankfully, long before Sunday school and professional Christian workers, God provided simple guidelines to help parents raise their children in the faith. This model has worked for centuries—even millennia—as Old Testament believers passed on their faith to their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, down through the ages and into today.”

10 Ways Your Pastor Wishes You Would Pray for Him. This is good any time, but especially now since October is Pastor Appreciation Month.

Book Club for Kids: No Stress Fun with Stories and Friends. “Since my student teaching days many moons ago, book club has been my favorite way of engaging kids with others and with story. The benefits include the schoolish things you would expect (comprehension, vocabulary, ability to articulate opinion, etc.), but they also reach far beyond that. A call to responsibility, a sense of belonging, and a stirring of compassion are all wrapped up in the wonderful package deal that is book club. I’ve seen these benefits come to fruition in both classroom and homeschool settings, with peers, with mixed aged groups, and even with multi-generational groups.” Love these ideas!

An Update o n Lars Gren, Elisabeth Elliot’s third husband. That article also referenced Forget Me Not: Loving God’s Aging Children, a pamphlet Elisabeth wrote when her mother faced dementia.

If you like Christian fiction set in WW2, I’m giving away a couple of books in that category here.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Barbara Harper

These are some of the posts that stood out to me this week:

Israel at War: Prayers, Hope, and Heartache. Some good prayer points during this time of upheaval.

A Well-Stocked Pantry, HT to Challies. “It’s not a question of if storms will come—storms will come for us, and we need to be ready with a soul packed tightly with God’s Word so we can draw on it in a time of need.”

Add a Little Extra Beauty. “God loves to add a little extra beauty. God could have made every time of day the same, but he gives sunrises—he adds a little extra beauty.”

The Secret to Abundant Life: Expressing Self-Love through Service. I’m not fond of the title, but the article is good.

How to Be a Growing Christian. This was a good message by Adrian Rogers I heard part of while making a late breakfast one morning. I was especially struck by the part about the middle of the sermon discussing the apostle John–what he was as an early disciple compared to what he was later as a gospel and epistle writer. The link goes to the overview, outline, and then transcript of the message, but if you’d rather listen than read, you can do that here.

The Transforming Power of Hopeful Love in Marriage, HT to Challies. Thoughts on what 1 Corinthians 13 means when it says love “hopes all things.” Good for any relationships, not just marriage.

Biblical Hope When It’s Time to Consider Residential Care. “You’ve got a decision to make about someone you love. You want to serve sacrificially. You want to do the ‘right thing.’ You want to honor God. As you move forward, let God’s Word illuminate your path, one tender and needy step at a time.”

We tend to use prayer as a last resort,
but God wants it to be our first line of defense.
We pray when there’s nothing else we can do,
but God wants us to pray
before we do anything at all.
—Oswald Chambers

Laudable Linkage

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Barbara Harper

I’m a bit behind in my blog reading, but here are some of the thought-provoking posts found this week:

Crowned, HT to Challies. On being a grandparent: “This is miles apart from mothering. At first blush, you would not think so: filling sippy cups, opening snacks, picking up toys, readying baths, reading books, kissing those chunky cheeks, swinging, collecting rocks, frolicking, and singing.”

Your Faithfulness Affects Us All: A Plea to Empty Nesters to Continue to Pursue Their Marriages, HT to Challies. “The problems that are often swept under the rug while the kids are at home have a nasty way of coming back with a vengeance after the kids have left the home. The call to pursue your husband or wife is just as crucial three or five decades into marriage as it is in the first couple of decades of your covenant. Here are three ways to pursue faithfulness in marriage during your empty nest years.”

How to Get the Most Out of Your Pastor’s Preaching. “Do you ever find yourself: Waking up on Sunday morning and wishing you didn’t have to go to church? Having a hard time staying awake in church? Daydreaming during the message, or making a mental ‘to-do’ list while the pastor is preaching?”

Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. “Raechel and Amanda reflected on where in their lives they are seeing beauty, goodness, and truth, and challenged their listeners to consider that too. As I thought about that question, I was surprised by how much it encouraged me.”

3 Times You Should Disobey Authority, HT to Challies. “What are the limits to our moral obligation to submit when someone possesses an ostensibly legitimate authority over us, like a parent over a child? Certainly there are limits. Remember, no human authority is absolute. Authority is always relative to the assignment given by the Authority Giver.”

5 Things at the Heart of a Pastoral Visit, HT to Challies. “Pastoral visitation is a powerful means of spiritual encouragement and a tangible demonstration of the love of Christ to his people. . . . While I have written before about the benefits of visitation to the life and work of a Pastor, this post will seek to lay bare some of the basic principles of visitation which could be of help to those on the receiving end of it.”

Laudable Linkage

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Here’s some of the thoughtful blogging found this week:

The Blessings That Come With Forgiveness, HT to Challies. “Birds fly. Fish swim. Christians forgive.’ My husband made this statement in a sermon on forgiveness a few weeks ago and it resonated with me. With all the authority and confidence that could only be rooted in Scripture, he proceeded to explain how forgiveness is as necessary to the Christian as breathing.”

When You Long to Know the “Why” Behind Your Sorrow. “It is the question that has spurred a world of exploration, invention, and innovation. Why? It is no surprise, then, that when we encounter troubles, when we experience tragedies, and when we find ourselves in situations that grieve us, we ask why.”

Are You Worried that Your Past Might Cancel Your Future? “The past you wish you could hide from the world may be the very thing God will use to qualify you for serving the world he loves.”

Places I Can’t Go, HT to Challies. “I am grateful that the kids grew up and were able to leave home and fly; they are capable and thriving, and I feel excitement and joy for them in each new adventure. But sometimes, when I say goodbye before a long separation, I have a fleeting but powerful yearning for them to be back under my roof.”

Closing the Gap Between Work and Worship. “Too often, we think of work and worship as entirely disconnected spheres of life. But I will argue that more than anything else, your work is your primary opportunity for worshipping God. And the more we can close the gap between work and worship in our minds, the more fulfilling we will find our work, and the better we will worship God through it.”

On Using Your 20s Well, HT to Challies. “It seems like my friend had bought into a common myth: the idea that once you’ve finished college, you should be a fully-formed adult who understands yourself fully, knows exactly what you’re going to do for the rest of your life, and walks confidently into that future with full assurance.”

Five Blessings of Marking Up Your Bible, HT to Knowable Word. I don’t do this as much as I used to, but when I do, it’s usually for the first reason listed. The list of what kinds of things you might want to mark is useful.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on September 23, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Here’s some of the good blogging that particularly resonated with me this week:

The One Thing We All Need Right Now. “Never mind for a minute about platforms and hashtags, soap boxes and sides, movements and slogans. There’s really only one solution, one remedy, one antidote to the sickness that plagues our world today.”

Fighting for Faith When Doubts Abound, HT to Challies. “If my child is in danger, I would do whatever I could to rescue him or protect him from it. If I were to sit idly by and do nothing, I certainly wouldn’t be a very good and loving parent. But I’ve learned that I too often come to conclusions about who God is by interpreting a circumstance through the limited understanding of my humanity.”

A Hope-Filled Message for the Tired, Worn, and Overwhelmed. “It’s been a tough season, hasn’t it? I don’t know your specifics, but the effect those circumstances are having on your heart, body and mind? I think I can make some experience-informed guesses about that, and here’s what I want to say about it. Don’t equate how you feel today with your worth, your usefulness, your attractiveness or your future fruit-bearing potential.“

Contentment Doesn’t Mean You Must Stay in the Same Circumstance Forever, HT to Challies. I wondered about this in the past: if we’re to be content in all things, should we not try to change our circumstances? This gives a valid answer.

Treasures in Jars of Clay, HT to Challies. “As a missionary, I often feel like family members, friends, and supporters put us on a pedestal. That my sacrifice and calling as a missionary in Uganda are far beyond what any “normal” Christian would be able to manage. 2 Corinthians 4 gives a beautiful description of reality though. I am only a clay jar. A plain, fragile clay jar.”

Rescuing Abraham, HT to Challies. A different and interesting take on the two situations in which Abraham said Sarah was his sister rather than his wife.

Three Powerful Reasons You Should Tell Your Story. “The way you live your days will be, when all is said and done, the sum total of your story. Your story puts the gospel in context, demonstrates God’s generosity, and proves His faithfulness.”

God keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat of affliction.

The quote above is from Be Exultant (Psalms 90-150): Praising God for His Mighty Works by Warren W. Wiersbe, p. 126.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Barbara Harper

I found a lot of good reading this week:

A Comforting Resource for People Who Have Lost Parents. My friend, Lois, lost both parents within five weeks of each other a few year ago. Some of her blog posts since then have been about processing their loss and working through grief. She found a lot of resources for losing a child or a spouse, but not much on losing parents. That seemed to be treated as just a normal part of life. Though the death of one’s parents is inevitable, grief still runs deep. Lois has just pulled these posts together in one resource page. She tells about it and links to the Help for Parent Loss page there.

How Can I Cultivate a Listening Life in a Noisy World? “Do we demonstrate through our choices that we truly believe that we NEED God’s Word? Are we still ‘the people of the Book?'”

Can a Christian Have Mental Illness? HT to Challies. “Some Christians believe that Christians cannot have mental illness. If a professing Christian is depressed, anxious, or bipolar, they think it’s because they are not a real Christian, or that there is some terrible sin they haven’t repented of, or that they need to repent of the depression or whatever the problem is. Nearly half (48 percent) of evangelicals believe that serious mental illness can be overcome with prayer and Bible study alone. The result of this condemnation of mental illness as sin is that many Christians do not admit they have a mental illness, they don’t talk about it, and they don’t reach out for help.”

We Need Every Word, HT to Challies. “I want to feast on the Bible passages I love, the ones that make me feel some note of pleasure or comfort. I want the reminders that I’m loved, the encouragements to hold fast, and the songs of praise that remind me of God’s faithfulness. I don’t always want the lists or the history or the stories that don’t seem to affect me.”

Why We Are Tempted not to Pray, HT to Challies. “Prayer should stupefy us. ‘You mean, this all-powerful God who keeps galaxies spinning is interested in you telling him about your day and might alter the course of the entire cosmos because you asked him if you could have a parking space?’”

Being Involved in Church as a Teen, HT to Challies. “But being born into a church as a baby, and then growing up through Sunday school and youth group, can often make it hard to be taken seriously. Even older Christians with the best intentions can miss the mark. It can feel a bit awkward when they ask you the same questions every time they see you in church. It takes time and effort from both sides to help and encourage one another, and ultimately, have more meaningful relationships.”

Is the Lord’s Day the Christian Sabbath? HT to Challies. “At the outset, I need to say that this issue is one that I think Christians should not divide over. The view I present below is not the one I grew up with, but I have no particular ambition to convert people to my view — except that, with regard to those who have the duty to teach God’s word, it is important to do so properly, ‘rightly handling the word of truth’, preaching the full counsel of God with all His authority, but never giving human ideas that same authority.”

The Ritual of Rearranging Books, HT to Linda. “Taking all the books down was a chance to organize and cull, but primarily, it was an experience in simply remembering what was there, how it got there, and why. You can look at shelved books until the cows come home, but it’s not the same as actually taking them off the shelves.”

Seeing the Light on Religious Fiction, HT to Linda. “As I complete my 40th year working with books, I’ve changed my mind about an entire publishing genre that I once held at arm’s length at best, and treated with something akin to critical dismissal at worst. I feel like the proverbial old dog who has suddenly learned a new trick. The genre? Religious fiction.” I especially loved this one!

Routine leads to devotion, especially in Bible study.

The quote here is from “Just Not Feeling It”: How Routine Awakens Devotion.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on September 9, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Some good reads found this week:

“Just Not Feeling It”: How Routine Awakens Devotion. “To some, the word routine carries the stiffness of stale bread and the rot of dead plants, the stuffiness of library books never opened and attics dusty with age. The very thought of routine spirituality — planned, scheduled, disciplined — seems to undermine the ministry of the life-giving, freedom-bestowing Spirit. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’ (2 Corinthians 3:17) — and where the spirit of routine is (we may think), there is bondage. The dichotomy, however, is self-imposed, self-imagined. If routine smells stale to us, the problem lies in our own sniffer.”

Delays Are as Much a Part of God’s Plan as Answered Prayers. “At times, we may find ourselves in situations where we are eagerly waiting for answers to our prayers, hoping for our dreams, goals, and aspirations to come to fruition. However, it’s during these moments of uncertainty and delay that we may become overwhelmed with frustration, anxiety, and even a sense of disillusionment.”

2 Ways Anxiety Affects Parents, HT to Story Warren. “In my thirty-plus years of counseling, I’ve never seen parents feel as much pressure or as much like failures as they do today. I’ve never had as many parents in tears in my office. And I’ve certainly never seen as many parents who live in a perpetual state of worry.”

5 Lies Teenagers Believe & Biblical Truth to Set Them Free. “I sometimes fear this generation of young people is stuck in a giant game of Where’s Waldo? They only see the things they are looking for. When you fear rejection, you see it on every face in the crowd. When you want to escape your responsibilities, you spot exits everywhere. When you crave affirmation, you will find it in all the wrong places. 1 Peter 5:8 HCSB says, ‘Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.’ Sadly, teens are primary targets in the enemy’s strategy to dismantle the kingdom of God.”

Purposes of Predicative Prophecy. “Why has God given revelation in the form of prophecy? And why so much? What is the goal of prophecy? Or are there multiple intended effects? A number of passages answer these questions. The answers are surprisingly diverse.”

Lists are Menus, HT to Linda. I don’t have the negative feelings this writer has about working through a list. But there is something appealing about looking at a list like a menu. “These menus also help clarify a critical way a menu differs from a to-do list: picking just one or two items from a menu is something you get to do, not something you have to do. The myriad things you could order – so far in excess of your capacity to consume them – don’t constitute a problem.”

The Bible has to go through our head to affect our heart and life.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Here are some of the good reads found this week:

Jesus Said More About Hell Than Anyone in the Bible, HT to Challies. “What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus warns us. He does not leave us ignorant of the wrath to come. He not only warns. He rescues. This is the best effect of fear: it wakens us to our need for help and points us to the all-sufficient Redeemer, Jesus. Let it have this effect on you.”

Truth to Cling to When Nothing Makes Sense, HT to Challies. “Though there have been many precious years of walking with my Savior, the past several years has shaken my confidence as the road has continued to be dark, long, and painful. Though God has been faithful in so many ways (far more than we can probably see) I have been increasingly perplexed and unsettled by his ways.”

What’s the Temperature of Your Love Relationship with the Lord? “Whether you’re teaching, planning events, cleaning the church, or filling your days with service to your family, your love for what you do and for the people you are serving is an overflow of your love for God. In protecting and preserving that vertical relationship, there’s no substitute for time spent in his presence, soaking in the truth of his Word.”

Don’t Think About Elephants! HT to Challies. “There is more to the answer than saying, ‘don’t be anxious’. That doesn’t work; we then become anxious about whether we are doing a good job of not being anxious! Let me prove it to you. I want you to not think about elephants. Whatever you do, I don’t want the thought of an elephant to enter your mind. Don’t think about their size or their ears or their trunks. How are you going? What are you thinking about right now? I think I can guess!”

7 Meaningful Ways and Reasons to Be Kind to Yourself. We can beat ourselves up unmercifully when we make mistakes, but that’s destructive. Jeanne shares better ways to respond.

On Short-Term Missions, Part 4: Semper Gumby. “When you’re ministering cross-culturally, you’re dealing with people who are different from you all day long. They think differently, they do things differently; they’re offended by different things, they laugh at different things. In that kind of environment, it’s possible for you to be highly offensive, even with the best of intentions. So you need to adjust your thinking.” This is good advice even in business or other situations where we interact with people from another culture.

Greet with a Holy Kiss? Applying an Uncomfortable Command, HT to Challies. Some good ways to think about and apply the passages referring to a “holy kiss.”

The Blessings of Boredom. “Anytime we feel the slightest hint of boredom, we look for the closest novelty to alleviate that feeling. That usually means grabbing our phones, checking social media, playing a game, reading the news, or otherwise finding something to occupy our minds. The result, however, is that we find ourselves dashing from room to hallway, room to hallway, never fully pacifying that feeling of boredom and never very much enjoying the distraction either. The sad thing is that this is a form of self-sabotage.”