Laudable Linkage

Posted on July 13, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I have just a short list to share with you today:

The Living and Abiding Word of God, HT to Challies. “A farmer doesn’t cause seeds to grow but faithfully plants and waters them. Despite his careful tending, the seeds he sows sometimes lay dormant for a long time—which is Peter’s point. It’s not our cleverly devised arguments or our life’s example that brings about new life but the powerful life-producing work of God’s imperishable and never-fading Word.”

Look Up In Faith, HT to the Story Warren. “On my way to school, I drove with my eyes fixed on the road, praying I would be ready to meet my twenty-six early morning students in just a few minutes. And then I saw it, a pinkish orange hue highlighting a sky full of cotton puffs. I couldn’t believe it. How many years had I been making this drive and I just now noticed? If I’m honest, I’ve always had a hard time looking up.”

Does the Bible Blame Women for Rape? HT to Challies. Wendy Alsup thinks through a difficult passage in Deuteronomy.

Why Is Proverbs So Negative About Women? “So a fairly new believer asked me a simple question afterward. ‘Why is the Bible so hard on women?’ I am glad she felt the freedom to ask the question. I would much rather get it out in the open than have women wonder silently. Let’s tackle the question for a moment.”

How to Identify a Great Deacon, HT to Challies. Churches have different ways of choosing deacons: some appoint them, others have the congregation vote on them. If you’re in the position of nominating or voting on deacons, this article has great points to consider.

Before you use God’s Word as a sword, use it first as a mirror.
J. C. Ryle

Laudable Linkage

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here’s my latest round of good blogging links:

Why Can’t an Unbeliever’s Good Works Please God? HT to Challies. “But when people find it difficult to grasp why God doesn’t accept their good deeds, I like to offer a few illustrations to help them better understand their standing with God and the nature of the good works. One illustration I like to use involves an estranged neighbor and my front lawn.”

Read the Bible a Lot, HT to Knowable Word. “One sure sign that someone hasn’t read their Bible for very long, is that they are arrogant. That might seem surprising, but it is almost universally true that someone who has spent a little time in God’s word always seems to have the answer for any situation.”

Taking a Hard Look, HT to Challies. Commenting on Paul’s telling people to imitate him in Philippians 3:17: “It’s not that I think Paul’s being arrogant. He’s not saying, ‘You don’t need to imitate Jesus; just imitate me.’ He’s imitating Jesus, so if they imitating him, they are imitating Jesus. This passage makes me twitchy because how can you possibly feel comfortable telling people to imitate you? But Paul did. So why don’t I?” Very convicting!

Beauty Is Found In the Most Unexpected Places, HT to Challies. “The stars shine brightest against the blackened sky. Oak trees gain their stability and strength by enduring fierce storms. Pearls are found hidden within the depths of the sea. Diamonds are formed under intense pressure and heat under the earth’s crust. In God’s world, beauty is often found in the most unexpected places. And our faith often deepens and flourishes when everything is against us.”

Dear Little One, HT to Challies. This is a sweet letter from an aunt to her toddler nephew. It echoes what many parents and grandparent feel.

Made to Rest, HT to Challies. “Two kinds of rest—physical and spiritual — are critical for human flourishing and survival. We often conflate the two, but they are very different.” This is probably one of the best explanations of spiritual rest that I have read.

Why Did the Purity Movement Die? I don’t agree with every detail or characterization here, but overall the article shares many reasons why a movement that meant well ultimately died out.

Learning to Embrace the Counsel of Godly Older Women. “I’ve realized just how much my heart craves this kind of input—input that is quite priceless and rare today. From my study of Scripture, I’ve gained a deep conviction that I long for it because we’re supposed to have teaching from godly older women. Their counsel increases our wisdom and discernment—when we’re willing to heed it.”

Completely Unsolicited, Totally Anecdotal, But Perhaps Marginally Helpful Thoughts on Being a Christian Writer, HT to Challies. “For better or worse, I have a unique angle on this conversation. I’ve spent the last 7 years in the Christian publishing industry. Last year I published my first trade book. And the whole time, I’ve been as active as I know how to be in Christian shortform, maintaining a blog/newsletter for several years and writing articles for a variety of other places. This doesn’t make me wise, just experienced. So what I’d like to do in this post is offer a fistful of thoughts on the craft and business of Christian writing.”

We must allow the Word of God to correct us the same way we allow it to encourage us.
A. W. Tozer

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here’s my last list of links for this month:

How Can the Command to “Honor Your Father” Apply to Good and Bad Fathers Alike? HT to Challies. “Think about it, the biblical command to honour your dad cannot be a licence for dads to be horrible knowing that their christian children have to suck it up and honour them. You are called to honour your dad. But the type of dad your dad is shapes the ways and the extent that you honour him.”

Till He Was Strong, HT to Challies. “Did you know that it is not only the weak who are in danger of a spiritual fall? There are those who think, ‘if only I were stronger, then I wouldn’t be so (fill in the blank).’ But this isn’t true. Over and over again in God’s word, it is the strong who find themselves in the worst predicaments. Uzziah is one example. He was famous. He was helped by God. ‘Till he was strong.’ Do you feel the warning?”

The Golden Rule for Hard Conversations, HT to Challies. “The question of when or how to have hard conversations is one that requires wisdom. As believers in Christ, we are commanded to get involved when we see a brother or sister wondering from the truth (Galatians 6:1-2; Matthew 18:15; Ephesians 4:25). The Proverbs remind us that ‘a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver’ (25:11). ‘Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy’ (Proverbs 27:5-6). We recognize even in those instructions that we are responsible for making sure our rebuke is ‘a word fitly spoken,’ meaning appropriate. I’m sure we’ve all seen the harm in overzealousness in this area.”

A Thousand Wheels of Providence, HT to Challies. “In a situation like this, Jeremiah Burroughs points out that when we consider God’s work in Providence, we can only see things in pieces. We cannot see or understand many things that God does. Burroughs then compares it to the wheels in a watch.”

One of the Best Ways We Can Love Our Loved Ones. “In waiting rooms and living rooms, bedrooms and examination rooms. In the garden, the shower, the pickup line, the checkout line. Love prays.“

Writing (and Reading!) as Hospitality, HT to the Story Warren. “As a long-time member of The Habit, a community of writers, I’ve heard many bits of advice from authors of all stripes, but one idea that has profoundly impacted me over the years is Jonathan Rogers’ assertion that writing is a form of hospitality.”

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. A. W. Tozer

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 22, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I’m still behind on my blog reading, but found some great posts in what I did read:

8 Ways We Normalize the Abnormal by Paul Tripp, HT to Proclaim and Defend. “God has made it clear that the norm for his children should be love. It is the thing that the listening and watching world should know us for. We should be recognized not only for the purity of our theology but also for the consistency of our love. This love is the new commandment that Jesus left with his disciples in his final days with them: ‘that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another’ (John 13:34).” Because love should be our normal response, Tripp lists eight responses that should not be normal for us: those that are driven by emotional, anger, disrespect, and more.

Do You Really Know How to Live by the Golden Rule? “The Golden Rule as Jesus has phrased it is one more example of Jesus’s rejection of bare-minimum obedience. Jesus has called us to a deeper obedience whose focus is character and motive—not simply actions.”

Does Bach’s Music Prove the Existence of God? HT to Challies. “Music isn’t just something physical and material. There’s something beyond the notes on the page. In great works of art, we touch the edges of the transcendent because the best of our human creations are consciously or unconsciously reaching for the true, good, and beautiful.” Interesting to think about! I have been moved to thank and worship God by the beauty and artistry of secular music, whether the artist believes in Him or not.

The Awesome Privilege of Praying to God as a Father. “In Matthew 5–7 the Lord Jesus introduced the ‘platform’ of His kingdom. He didn’t speak of defense, or taxation, or healthcare. He spoke against hypocrisy (‘be not as the hypocrites’) and in favor of private piety (‘go into your closet’). He spoke against religious formalism (‘you have heard’) and in favor of heart righteousness (‘but I say unto you’). He spoke against materialism (‘you cannot serve God and money’) and in favor of spiritual investment (‘seek first the kingdom of God’). All the while, again and again and again (sixteen times in the three chapters), He pointed His hearers to God as their heavenly Father, especially in His instructions about prayer.”

Let’s Stop Hyper-Spiritualising Christian Counseling, HT to Challies. “When Christians really struggle—and all of us will, at different times—it seems that it’s automatically assumed the fundamental problem is a spiritual one. We conclude that something must be wrong in our relationship with God. Our Christian counselling tends to be over-spiritualised. Thus our solutions are merely spiritual, believing the struggles to be spiritual. But that’s hopelessly reductionistic. It’s also dangerously simplistic.”

Why Hardship May Show God’s Love. “I’ve noticed that God didn’t shelter His young heroes from hardship. Neither did He wrap His own Son in bubble wrap.” We try to make things easy on our kids, but God trains us through hardship.

How to Become a Better Reader, HT to Steve Laube. “Anyone can be a good reader, even in the Internet Age. Reading better means reading more slowly. The Net tells us to consume words in small, easy bites, as we dart from one webpage to another. But slow reading demands time and practice.”

I mentioned this yesterday, but for those who didn’t see it, I had a radio interview earlier this week with Kurt and Kate Mornings on Moody Radio Florida to discuss my blog post Life Doesn’t Always Turn Out Like We Thought It Would. My son recorded that interview for me and made it linkable. You can listen to it here if you’re interested.

My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.
From the September 25 reading from Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 15, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Even though I’m a little behind on my blog-reading, I found some great articles in the time I did read:

God . . . the Father? “As a dad, I don’t want my presentation of fatherhood to hurt my kids’ ability to see God as their heavenly Father. But it’s perhaps more important that we help our children recognize the foundational truth here: that God, in all His power and glory, is best understood as a loving, intimate Father.”

Don’t Give Up Dad. “‘Don’t give up dad.’ I remember looking into the mirror and saying those words to myself one dark Father’s Day, years ago. And I was about to give up.”

Fighting for Faith When Doubts Abound, HT to Challies. “There’s a pervasive belief that subtly infiltrates my thought life. One that, deep down, still believes God would keep me from harm and rescue me from pain if he truly loved me. And if he’s truly in control, and a good, loving Father, why does he answer other’s prayers, but continue to seem silent to ours?”

God’s Heart for the Elderly and Infirm Reminds us of the Sanctity of Senior Life. “One of the many problems facing Western society is that we worship youth and make the elderly disposable. Euthanasia, which is legal in my home state of Oregon, is simply abortion of the elderly, disabled, and terminally ill. The same logic and arguments and appeals to ‘compassion’ and quality of life and financial concerns are used for both. God’s perspective on the elderly is vastly different.”

The Incredible Blessing of My Father’s Difficult Final Months, HT to Challies. “The agony of watching Dad suffer like that was unbearable. I begged God to give him a quick end. But Dad was otherwise robust and exhibited a fierce will to live. The doctor said that death did not look imminent. I absolutely did not want to hear that. How could someone live in such a state? But God had an important lesson in store for me. Dad lived for nine more months, and we would have missed an incredible blessing had he died when I wanted.”

Antihistamines for Your Soul. “You don’t HAVE to memorize or read this much to follow Jesus. It’s also true that you can be in the Word every day and still not be anything like Jesus. But the subtle lie underneath is that you can ever have ‘too much’ Scripture in your life. Friends, you CANNOT overdo it on God’s Word and fellowship with him.”

Observation: The First Step in Bible Study. “The first step in studying God’s Word is to carefully observe what the passage is saying. In the observation stage, we give our complete attention to the text to find out what’s there. We must investigate the passage in the same way that a detective investigates a crime scene. How do we do that? Get the “big picture” and then discover the little details. Ask questions… lots of them! Look for certain key clues to discover meaning. See how the little details relate to the big picture.”

Use Discretion (& a Bucket). We’re told to be discerning and compare what is taught with Scripture. But no writer or speaker will be completely without sin. God works through fallen people, and we miss a lot of goodness if all we can see are the flaws.

Paul’s Shocking Ideas About Marriage. “In the typically patriarchal culture of Paul’s day, what he says to wives may not sound that new except for the key point he emphasizes—the motivation and means for being a wife is centered on Christ. Everything Paul says to husbands, however, is very different from what they would have heard from their society. So Paul needs extra time to impress these differences on them.”

A Christian perspective on the new Twitter / X adult content policy changes, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “In May 2024, there was a policy change on adult content, making it acceptable to share adult content. . . . So, with these recent Twitter policy changes, what should we do as Christians?”

Happy Father’s Day to the dads tomorrow!

“To be popular at home is a great achievement. The man who is loved by the house cat, by the dog, by the neighbor’s children, and by his own wife, is a great man, even if he has never had his name in Who’s Who.” Thomas Dreier

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 8, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I have a short but good list of links to share from this week’s reading.

Between Faith and Doubt: Five Questions for Our Skepticism, HT to Challies. “I sympathize with doubters who may feel drawn to Christianity but find plenty of objections to keep them at arm’s distance. If you’re drawn to the message of Jesus but can’t seem to get past your doubts, perhaps it would be helpful if I share how I worked through some of my doubts.”

The Sanction of Sin, HT to Challies. “Does a wolf in sheep’s clothing know what he’s doing? Of course. That’s what makes it so terrifying when you catch the glint of teeth inside the fleecy face. He came to eat sheep. But he knows if he comes leaping and snarling, his targets will scatter. He has to look nonthreatening. He has to look like one of them. He has to earn their trust.”

Lessons From a Job Season, HT to Challies. “In my own recent Job season, I yearned for answers that did not always come and prayed for relief that often seemed long delayed. But there were also plenty of ways in which I saw God’s hand clearly at work, and I want to share just a few of them.”

Is the Trend Reversing? “Where I live, in Scotland, for at least the last 75 years, Christianity has been in decline. (I wrote more about it here.) . . . It’s hard to imagine and sad to see how far we have come. However, over the last six months or so, I’ve had a growing sense that maybe things are changing, maybe the trend is starting to reverse. I’ve seen too many things and heard too many stories recently to reach any conclusion other than: God is doing something in Scotland!”

While it looks like things are out of control,
behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered authority.
A. W. Tozer

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here is some of the good reading that caught my eye this week:

You’re Gonna Lose Everything, HT to Challies. “Pursue life apart from Christ and you will lose your life. But if you lay it all down, you will find life indeed. And this is the turning point for us. As we call others to follow Christ at the expense of everything else, we are calling them not to poverty, but to unsearchable riches: Yes, you’re gonna lose it all, but you have everything to gain.”

The Actual Divisive Ones, HT to Challies. “The divisive ones are those who reject what God has revealed in Scripture and through the preaching of the apostles. Being able to properly label the divisive ones is important.”

What to Do With the Nice Things People Say, HT to Challies. “Because just as we have blindspots that keep us from recognizing our weaknesses, some of us have trouble seeing the good God has entrusted to us and the good he is doing in us. Thus, humility here might look less like deflecting encouragement and more like saying, ‘Perhaps what I am seeing when I look at myself is not the most accurate picture.’ Growth then might begin with learning to believe trustworthy people when they tell us things about ourselves that we wish were true, but we’re not sure are.”

Be Quick to Listen, Slow to “Therapy Speak,” HT to Linda. “But all of us, and Christians in particular, should be careful about overrelying on therapy speak to describe our relationships with others. This language has consequences—not only for understanding our own lives rightly but for living together as the body of Christ. How we speak shapes what we do, and therapy speak might be limiting our ability to love our neighbors well.”

3 Things to Consider Before You Pick Another Fight. “A quarrelsome spirit never stays slow and steady. Unchecked, it becomes a torrential downpour of misery, soaking a home in resentment, pettiness, and frigid silence.”

Parents, Are You Raising Angry Partisans? HT to Challies. “Christian parents are called to raise our children ‘in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4). Our children, in other words, should be able to look to us to see what a life submitted to Christ looks like. We should live in a manner that makes the gospel more intelligible to our children. I wonder, however, if our angry partisanship models the way of the flesh more than the way of Christ.”

What Does “Train Up” Mean in Proverbs 22:6? “Probably the most quoted verse in Proverbs is 22:6. Over the years, the verse has held as a precious promise to parents that if they do everything right, their kids will turn out right. It has also been used as a guilty club to beat up parents who are feeling defeated over the choices of a rebellious child. Both responses are a misinterpretation and a misapplication of the text.”

King Crimson—my thoughts on that portrait, HT to Challies. A thoughtful analysis of King Charles’ portrait in red, by someone who has actually seen it in person.

How the Legal System Enabled—and Will Curtail—the Transgender Movement, HT to Challies. This is both scary and hopeful.

There are rare Christians whose very presence incites others to be better Christians.
–A. W. Tozer

Laudable Linkage

Posted on May 25, 2024 by Barbara Harper

There was quite a bit of good reading posted this week:

The Power of Prayer, HT to Challies. “Sometimes, to protect a passage of scripture from the abuses it receives from those who twist it, we add so many qualifications that we eliminate not only the false teaching but also the profound truth it communicates. We find one such passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matt. 7:7).'”

The Missing Years, HT to Challies. “We were preparing for our daughter’s wedding when she called me one day in a slight panic, ‘Mom, I have no pictures of myself from 2009-2011! What happened?’ ‘What happened’ was, I was in the “desert years’- both literally and spiritually.” This is a lovely piece of writing as well as a comforting truth that God can redeem our “desert years.”

Too Much Times, HT to Challies. “Everyone experiences what I call Too Much Times,’ perfect storms where our most demanding challenges meet our most significant weaknesses and can lead to our lowest moments. Too Much Times are days, weeks, or whole years marked by too many demands, responsibilities, and burdens and not enough internal and external resources to keep all the balls in the air.”

On a Christian Approach to Education. “A materialistic worldview reduces education according to its usefulness in the here and now. But as Christians, we walk by faith and not by sight. We believe in the ‘deeper magic,’ the unseen things that are often more true than the seen things.”

Counseling Children Who Have Already Professed Faith in Christ. “I asked my children if they had any prayer requests. One of them responded, ‘Daddy, pray for me, that I would believe in Jesus and be a Christian.’ This wasn’t the first time that my son has mentioned this request. Like many children who’ve grown up in a Christian home, my son professed faith in Christ at an early age. But, like so many other young people who profess faith early, he struggles with doubts.”

Raising a Leader: 3 Leadership Qualities Your Kids Need. “Regardless of our personal style or our leadership resume, as mothers, we sit in the seat of influence with our kids. How we respond to their initiative, their creativity, and their all-pervasive energy in our home goes a long way in defining our children’s confidence.”

You Are an Influencer, HT to Challies. I appreciated this thoughtful, reasonable take on influencing, curating, and social media.

Don’t Complain; Be the Light. “Instead of moaning about the darkness, look to the light. The solution to a dark, crooked, perverse generation is not to complain and argue with them, but to keep being the light. To keep on being pure and blameless and harmless. To keep living in your identity as a child of God.”

Going to the Party. “Christians faced with terminal illness or imminent death often feel they’re leaving the party before it’s over. They have to go home early. They’re disappointed, thinking of all they’ll miss when they leave. But the truth is, the real party is underway at home—precisely where they’re going. They’re not the ones missing the party; those of us left behind are. (Fortunately, if we know Jesus, we’ll get there eventually.)”

Monday, the US celebrates Memorial Day to honor those who have died in the service of their country. On Sunday evenings before Memorial Day, I enjoy watching the National Memorial Day Concert to be reminded of what this day means.

Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country
can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude.
– President Harry S. Truman

We take this day to mourn for those
Who suffered fates of ills and woes,
For those who fought until the death,
Who gave this nation their last breath.
To these passed on—we now salute.
Their legend we will ne’er dispute,
And as they sleep let us bestow
The highest honor that we know.

Author Unknown

Laudable Linkage

Posted on May 18, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I have just a few good reads to share this week:

God is SO Good! “It is a vice—not a virtue—to add to Scripture’s rules our own ascetic prohibitions: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch,” and “Do not marry” (Colossians 2:21; 1 Timothy 4:3). Such rules may appear to be ‘super holy,’ but they are an offense to God, substituting legalism for the simplicity of the gospel. They deny the very pleasures God created us to enjoy.”

We Are Standing on Holy Ground. “It’s so sweet to walk into a church and know that God’s people are gathered for worship. Of course He is near. A holy moment. But isn’t it a holy moment, too, when you are sitting in a doctor’s office, holding hands with your faithful wife, enduring the bad news with faith? As believers we tread on holy ground in every school building, nursing home, leafy forest floor, and in every possible scenario we could dream up. Isn’t it just so thrilling to know that when we praise Him He is near, and when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there too, there especially, He is wrapping us up in His presence. Carrying us. Seeing us through. Never leaving, never forsaking.”

Who Can Understand Sin? Deep Mercy for our Dark Insanity, HT to Challies. “As Christians, we have all looked at ourselves and felt sorrow over sin. But have we ever deeply considered why we do it in the first place? Why do we sin?”

God Will Give Us More Than We Can Handle—But Not More Than He Can, , HT to Challies. “The sufferer may object, head shaking and hands up. But you insist, ‘Look, seriously, the Bible promises God won’t ever give you more in life than you can handle.’ There it is—conventional wisdom masquerading as biblical truth. You’ve promised what the Bible never does.”

Our Skewed View of Wealth, HT to Challies. “These case studies show how money is a litmus test of our true character and our spiritual life. If this is true of all people in all ages, doesn’t it have a special application to us who live in a time and nation of unparalleled affluence where the ‘poverty level’ exceeds the average standard of living of nearly every other society in human history, past or present?” This was especially poignant to me since I just read a novel discussing wealth, All My Secrets by Lynn Austin.

Bad Therapy, HT to Challies. “To become a lover of pleasure is to prioritise ‘feel good’ throughout life. We want to feel good, and we want others to feel good too. This is the ethic. We abandon a moral view of reality in which there is a good and right way, outside ourselves, to which we should train ourselves and our children to live up to. All that matters is feeling okay. This is therapy culture.” This has devastating effects on child discipline, as the author shows.

When You’re at Your Wit’s End. “When he was at his wits’ end, he was not at his faith’s end.”

The end result of all Bible study is worship--Warren Wiersbe

“The end result of all Bible study is worship,
and the end result of all worship is service to the God we love.”
–Warren Wiersbe, With the Word

Laudable Linkage

Posted on May 11, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here’s another list of good reads found this week:

A Mother’s Day Message for the Childless Woman. “You probably won’t be publicly honored this Mother’s Day. You likely won’t get a card. But you are a spiritual mother and you are making an eternal difference. So here’s what I’d share with you if I was given the chance to write a Mother’s Day message to you, my Christian sisters without children of your own.”

For the Ones We Were Told to Abort. “On behalf of parents everywhere who did not receive the perfectly healthy baby they prayed for but did welcome into their arms a bundle of joy given by a generous God, here’s my letter to the doctor who told me to choose differently.”

A Response to Dr. John McArthur’s Statement on Mental Health, HT to Challies. “To be clear, this article is not an attack on the person or character of Dr. MacArthur, a Christian brother for whom I have much respect and who has been a bulwark of solid reformed theology for many decades. Nevertheless, there are several things within the statement that, as a professional working in Christian psychiatry I would like to address.”

Fear of Missing Out, HT to Challies. “FOMO gets a bad rap because it is often caused by envy—the feeling that others are enjoying things you are missing. My FOMO is less about envy and more about growth and opportunity. I fear becoming comfortable and complacent and missing out on what God has in store outside my comfort zone.”

Study the Bible in 5, 15, or 30 Minutes, HT to Knowable Word. “God isn’t prescriptive about this in his Word (Deut. 6:5–6; Phil. 2:16; John 15:4). He wants us to prioritize meeting with him through Scripture, however it looks. He wants us to hunger for him, the Bread of Life, not a formula. He wants us to pursue our perfect Savior Jesus, not a perfect quiet time, as if there were such a thing (John 5:39–40).” I love this, but I’d disagree with a bit at the end concerning church being our main spiritual meal in God’s Word. I agree that it’s vital, but I wouldn’t say it’s more important than regular time alone with the Lord.

Am I Out of Asks? HT to Challies. “‘Oh, but God,’ I muttered, ‘Please hear this one.’ I have experienced the Lord not answering my prayer in the way I hoped, so fear unexpectedly gripped my heart as I prayed, pleaded, doubted, and as I wondered whether I had used up my asks of God. But this is not the way our Father works.”

The Beauty of Intergenerational Friendship, HT to Challies. “We’re naturally drawn to people with whom we have much in common. Moms with young ones cluster together, sharing parenting tips. The silver-haired saints seek out the similarly crowned. And single women seek companionship among the unattached. Commonality eases connection. But when we step outside our comfort zone, we often find beauty, wisdom, and a connection that can be forged only by the work of the Holy Spirit.”