Speaking the Truth in Love. “Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love; love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth.”
Idolizing Worship. “A true worshiper is not a consumer or a spectator. A true worshiper is one who is personally engaged with God in spirit and truth. The means of our worship is not Christ’s point of emphasis….In general we devote ourselves to building up the church, not simply pursuing an idealized experience that makes us feel as if we’ve worshiped.”
Slowing Down rather than rushing and hurrying children.
Sync Free Audiobooks. Sync is offering a couple of different audiobooks for free each week through the summer, several classics among them.
I don’t know if this will matter to anyone but me, but I used to label my Laudable Linkage posts with all the different topics covered. The only problem with that was when I went to look through a particular category, there would be a lot of “Links” posts, and it was hard to find and skim through my own posts. I didn’t want a reader searching through the categories to face the same thing, so I created a separate Laudable Linkage category for these types of posts and I’m in the process of changing the tags on the old ones.
On to my collection of interesting reads from the last couple of weeks:
Tim Bosna and Evil’s Smile. The last paragraph is a helpful perspective when unthinkable and insensible evil happens.
A delicate subject matter – toilets in Japan from missionary friend Kim. I find these things fascinating. Note the last one with the sink on top of the toilet, so the water from washing your hands goes to fill the tank. One thing I’ve never understood about bidets – I’ve never used one, but you know how with a air hand dryer, your hands never get completely dry….? Seems like that would be a problem with bidet dryers as well. I’m glad they have alternate western-style toilets in airports there! Even in the US, I’m always glad to get back to my very own bathroom. 🙂
Enough of that – here’s a fun way to make a bear-faced pancake:
Here are some interesting reads from the last couple of weeks:
The Boundaries of Evangelism. I’ve been coming across what he’s talking about here, elements of mysticism creeping into evangelicalism, so this was a timely read, though I’m not of a Reformed denomination and believe you don’t have to be Reformed to be Evangelical.
The New Legalism. “How the push to be ‘radical’ and ‘missional’ discourages ordinary people in ordinary places from doing ordinary things to the glory of God.”
Mommy. Sweet post about becoming Mommy and then Mom.
Howard Schultz, Tim Keller, and Commandment #9. Two people whose views have been misrepresented and then spread across the Internet. We need to be careful before we click the “Share” link.
So what if abortion ends life? I can understand people being for abortion if they don’t believe life begins at conception (though I disagree, I can understand the rationalization.) But to believe “the fetus is indeed a life. A life worth sacrificing” is indeed chilling.
There has been much about the Boston marathon bombings, but this one tells at the beginning and end about the older racer whom we saw fall down at the first bombing. He got up and finished the race.
In the Crosshairs of the Discernment Bloggers. This is a vital, valuable post in many ways. There are many sites, bloggers, forums, and even Facebook groups that set themselves as watchdogs for certain organizations, colleges, and individuals. The problem is they so often operate from a platform of bitterness (even while denying bitterness), interpret every nuance in the light they cast on it without conceding there may be another side to the story, and even make up facts some times. Discernment is highly valuable, but that’s not what they’re exercising.
Excellence or Faithfulness. I had to think over this one, as learning to strive for excellence has been life-changing for me, and I can’t stand when someone does a simple job sloppily. But reading this in context, I do agree: “Every man I know would much rather be married to a faithful woman who’s a fair cook, a competent housekeeper, a good mom, and a decent wife than a woman whose devotion to excellence in all things leaves her strung-out, uptight, and intolerant of herself and her family.”
9 Things You Should Know About Edith Schaeffer. There has been much written online about Edith since her recent death. I loved her book The Art of Homemaking in my early married days and always wanted to read something more from her and her husband, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Not a Waste of Time is an excerpt from her book, and Thank You, Edith is a tribute to her teaching and example.
Curing Fear, Restoring Mission. Though there are times we are supposed to separate, ““Does there have to be perfect conformity to the customs for us to have biblical fellowship in our church? Does the other person or group have to adopt our customs and live exactly as we do for us to fellowship with them?” No.
The Christian Fantasy. Why good fantasy is hard to write and why today’s doesn’t often measure up to the great fantasy writers of the past (Lewis, Tolkien).
Writes of Passage is a blog of ten different Christian fiction authors. This month they’ve been celebrating Women’s History Month by featuring a different woman of history each day, sometimes a woman who influenced one of their books. It’s been interesting reading.
Here are a few good reads seen on the Web this past week:
Touch the dead. I dare you. Thought-provoking post from Lisa about how and why we who are alive spiritually can and should reach out to those who aren’t yet.
What does “unworthily” mean? I used to fear taking communion due to the verse about partaking in an unworthy manner. This is a good article explaining what that means.
Countdown to Easter. Great Bible reading plan for the 21 days leading up to Easter. Though there are less than 21 days now, it’s not too late to jump in on this.
The Blogs, the Battles, and the Gospel. Controversial topics are inevitable and even necessary to discuss. Here are some things to consider in discussing them in a God-honoring way.
Why is the cross “a big deal” for Christians, and why do “good” people need to consider it?
And someone shared this in church Wednesday on the question of if God is good, why is there evil in the world. It doesn’t answer all the questions — nothing could in under 2 minutes — but it makes some good points.
It’s Better to Be Faithful than Gifted, HT to Challies. “There aren’t many superstars in the kingdom of God. Not many have super gifts. Most of us are just average. Gifted in small ways. But if we are faithful to use the gifts we have and serve in whatever ways we can, God will increase us.”
Encouragement For Writers. “I am not called to write. I am called to intimacy with Him. It is about letting your dreams die and being willing to live out His dreams for you.”
This is a cute short video of a father dancing in front of his babies, and the babies mimic him and stop when he does. If that link doesn’t work, the same video is here, but someone added music on top of it that takes away from it, in my opinion. It’s funnier when it’s just the dad singing.
This is touching. And I love the tiara on her helmet. 🙂
Craig Courtney is one of my favorite modern composers and arrangers. This is a video of snippets taken from a longer concert, and I enjoyed hearing him discuss aspects of some of his works.
