Laudable Linkage

Posted on October 17, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Here are several good reads found this week. I hope you find something of interest!

What Draws Me Back: 3 Arguments for Faith on the Days I Doubt, HT to Challies. “I can’t point to a time I considered myself agnostic or atheist, or even on the fence about Christianity. Though I’ve known seasons of suffering and disillusionment, I have no story of losing, then regaining, my faith. I first believed the gospel as a child, and my earliest confession of faith has only deepened over time. But even if my testimony isn’t as dramatic as some of my friends’, it isn’t the case that I’ve never dealt with doubts about God and the gospel. I have. I still do.”

How to Deliver a Difficult Message by Speaking the Truth in Love. “God has placed us in the body of Christ (a.k.a. the Church) so we can help one another mature and grow in Christlikeness (Eph 4:14–15). Often growth involves hearing hard truths. Sometimes we need to have difficult conversations, such as when a spouse does or says hurtful things, a close friend makes harmful decisions, or an employee isn’t performing to standards.” I especially liked the questions concerning whether we need to say anything at all.

Not All Christian Websites are Good for your Health, HT to Challies. “I wonder what the Apostle Paul would say about online Christian discourse? What kind of encouragements and warnings would he give followers of Jesus as we hear and discern and collate the vast quantities of religious speech that’s available on YouTube, Facebook and X?”

We Cannot Afford to Weaken Each Other. “hortly before England’s entry into World War II, Winston Churchill said, ‘We are so few, enemies so many, the cause so great, that we cannot afford to weaken each other in any way’ (The Gathering Storm, p 331). When I read Churchill’s words, I immediately was struck with it’s applicability to our spiritual warfare. It is an easy thing to weaken each other as Christians with verbal sparring.”

Three Steps Forward in Your Walk of Faith. “As women, we find ourselves pulled in a thousand directions as we juggle the demands of family, work, church, and friends. We want to honor God and others, and we want to grow in our relationship with Christ, but frankly, we’re struggling to do it all. We read Isaiah 40:31 about mounting up on wings like eagles, running and not growing weary, and walking and not fainting, but it feels like we’re walking and fainting more than running and flying. But we know the Bible is true, and God never lies. So there must be a way to walk in faith. How do we access this superpower God promises to believers?”

Are We Raising Pharisees? HT to Challies. “Each of these decisions involves different considerations, varying degrees of wisdom, and answers that may differ from family to family. Some decisions have clear biblical implications, but Scripture does not prescribe one specific answer for every situation. You can make all the ‘right’ choices and still miss what matters most.”

Parents, Meet Your Gospel Tutor, HT to Challies. “Compliant kids make our parenting look strong. They make us feel competent. On Sunday morning, our family beams like an online advertisement for biblical parenting. But then God gives you another child. A different kind of gift.”

Are You Being Discipled by Your Device? “I don’t walk with the wicked, stand with sinners, or sit with scoffers, right? But the truth is even if you’re surrounded by solid Christian friends in real life, the media you consume online may well be the counsel of the wicked.”

A Testimony of Spiritual Mothering. “When I left my hometown and moved to Knoxville, I left behind a host of spiritual mothers, many I had known my whole life, including my own mom. I still had them of course, but I prayed before the move that the Lord would prepare a place for us in Knoxville and by a place, I meant a people. He slowly began providing this through friends at work, friends in my grad school program, and eventually in a church home. But the absence of a spiritual mother lingered. Spiritual mothers are people you can melt into. They are safe women, honest women, wise women. Women who feast on the Word and women who battle for you in prayer. Their presence is life-giving, so their absence is noticeable.”

What Are the Noahide Laws? I had not heard of these and didn’t know there was a controversy about them, apparently sparked by something Ben Shapiro said. But Ben Hicks explains them well.

Thank You, Lord, for My Local Pastor: Thirty Reasons for Gratitude. October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and this article presents many reasons to be grateful for the gift of a godly pastor.

Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you.–J.C. Ryle

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Some of the good reads found this week:

Is God the Father Like My Father? “I was 25 years old before I could say the word ‘father’ while praying. The word was foreign to me. It didn’t roll off my tongue the way it did for many of my Christian friends. It felt like a word from a foreign language. In one regard, it meant nothing. It was jibberish. But in another, it meant a world of things. Amid the cultural barriers, it still struck a nerve, because while it meant nothing, it meant everything. It meant broken things. Scary things. Hurtful things.”

Don’t Make Friends with Doubt, HT to Challies. “That believers don’t believe perfectly isn’t the question. The question is, How do we respond? When we discover ourselves doubting God’s goodness or power, do we resist it? Do we pet unbelief in self-pity? Is it safe for us to doubt the Lord, his promises, and his cross?”

Because Jesus Said So, HT to Challies. “One of the mistakes I think we evangelicals sometimes make – with our entirely legitimate and proper focus on the cross – is to confuse understanding the means of salvation with actually being saved. We can confuse understanding the theology of the cross with believing in the actual object of our salvation.”

Triggered: How to Overcome Destructive Obsessions. “In our journey through life, we all experience moments when something sets us off — when an event or interaction triggers us into anger, depression, or destructive behavior patterns that we know aren’t God’s will for our lives. These triggering events can create compulsions or obsessions in our minds, driving us toward actions we cannot stop in our own power.”

Three Ways Weakness Is a Gift, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “In 2 Corinthians 12:10, the Apostle Paul wrote one of the most counter-intuitive sentences ever: ‘So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’ This sentence makes absolutely no sense. Who takes pleasure in things like weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, even if they’re for Jesus? We normally try to avoid these things, and if we end up suffering them, we don’t usually take pleasure in them.”

Twice-Healed: The Blind Man at Bethsaida, HT to Knowable Word. “Mark is the only evangelist to record the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida (8:22–26). What makes this miracle instructive, even odd, is its two-staged nature. Let’s consider why this healing at Bethsaida is central to Mark’s Gospel and how believers can draw comfort from it.”

Happy Father’s Day to the dads tomorrow!

“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” — George Herbert

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.”