A short but meaty list of good reads from this week:

There Are No Shortcuts to biblical discernment. HT to Challies.

A Christian Response to Riots Left and Right. “Peaceful protest is a protected right in this country, rioting is not. Let’s set the politics aside and consider the biblical principles for a moment.”

More than Sexual Purity, HT to Challies. “The unintentional message over time was that this was spiritual maturity: consistent devotions and sexual purity. By setting such a low bar for men, though, we inevitably train men to be lazy, selfish, insecure, and ambitionless. We raise a generation of men to check spiritual boxes and then live for Xbox. But men are capable of so much more in Christ than Bible reading and self-control (not to diminish either).”

When Your Identity Becomes a Liability: 4 Responses to Unjust Suffering. I fear the days are coming when we’ll need this.

An Illustration of Repentance, HT to Challies. I found this helpful in understanding why there’s not always instant outward change when we seek repentance.

Dignity Beyond Accomplishment, HT to Challies. “She loves her life. She loves her life even though she will, like most Americans, never finish an Ironman. But that does not finally matter. Human life is good and worthy of dignity not because of accomplishment, but simply because it is loved into being by God.”

Though I don’t like parents lying to kids, even for fun, I love this little boy’s response to hearing that his mom ate all his candy. I wonder, though, what the mom was expecting and why she would do this.