caring for aging parents | Stray Thoughts

Here are some of the good reads found this week:

A Biblical Message for Children of Aging Parents. “What I’ve seen time and again is that even the most loving, conscientious children are often riddled with guilt — especially when decisions feel impossibly hard. But Scripture offers clarity, comfort, and guidance for those walking this sacred path.”

To Be Almost Saved Is to Be Completely Lost. “I sometimes wonder how many people in your church and mine have heard the gospel, have thought about its claims, and have perhaps even found themselves agreeing with many of them—yes, Jesus existed; yes, he died for sins; yes, he died for people like me—but have still refused to trust in him. It is one thing to assent to facts, but an entirely different thing to trust in Jesus.”

Learning to Have Conversations with God. “I have often spoken to people who struggle to know how to integrate prayer and Scripture in such a way that they can carry on a conversation with the Lord.” Tim Challies gives some tips for doing that.

One Pentecost Was Enough, HT to Challies. “The lyrics repeatedly declare, ‘We need another Pentecost.’ This simple refrain raises an important theological question: Is this how we should think about Pentecost? Should Christians be praying for another one? Or has God already given us what we’re asking for?”

6 Ways to Lead Better Bible Study Discussions, HT to Challies. I wince when the primary question in a Bible study is “What does this passage mean to you?” This article shares better ways of thinking through the text and drawing out its meaning.

Am I a Mission Colonizer? HT to Challies. “Many people believe that a missionary should never go in the first place. Or that if he does, his work should only be humanitarian. He should never dare to try to persuade someone to change their beliefs. That’s sort of the mantra of our culture today, isn’t it? You can believe whatever you want as long as you don’t impose it on someone else. Kind of ironic, actually. The people who say we shouldn’t impose our beliefs on other people are, in fact, imposing that very belief on other people. They are making personal autonomy the highest value. But who gets to decide that’s the highest value?”

How to Execute: The Discipline of Following Through, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “Most people can make a plan. Planning is fun. You get to dream, scheme, and visualize a future where everything is awesome. But executing plans? A lot of people struggle with that.”