Here are some good reads found this week:

What to Do When You Really Mess Up. “Have you ever really blown it–made a sinful choice with the potential to destroy your life and possibly the lives of those around you? The story of David in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 offers insight into what we should—and should not—do when faced with our own moral failures.”

When Faith Seems to Fail. This is the summary, outline, and transcript of a message by Adrian Rogers that I heard parts of this week on the radio (the overview and audio are here). The part that especially grabbed my attention was how in Hebrews 11, the first part of the chapter tells of the faith shown by Abraham, Moses, Noah, and others. But then verse 36 says “Others suffered . . . ” mocking, flogging, imprisonment, stoning, death, wandering. Verse 9 says all of them were commended through faith. As Rogers put it, “Some escaped by faith. Some endured by faith.”

We Don’t Hate and Then Harm–We Harm and Then Hate, HT to Challies. “We live in a world of ceaseless conflict. And when we look for the source of that conflict, we often assume it’s hatred. We hate people and then treat them poorly. It’s because we feel contempt toward others that we sin against them. But that’s only half the story. Often it’s the other way around. First, we hurt someone, and only then do we begin to hate them.”

6 Expressions of God’s Kindness in the Prodigal Son Parable. “The father’s response in this parable overflows with compassion, forgiveness, and generosity and mirrors our heavenly Father’s heart toward all of us. No matter the depth of our wandering, God rejoices when we come home. The father’s kindness isn’t expressed in a single moment but unfolds again and again in deliberate and tender ways throughout the story. Jesus gives us a picture of what God’s kindness looks like in motion, revealed through the father’s actions.”

The Gift of Finitude, HT to the Story Warren. “You might accomplish a few more of your goals with a sensible routine in place. But you still can’t do it all. And that’s ok. Finitude is not fallenness. Adam and Eve were created with finitude, and they were declared good. Finitude isn’t a bug of being human; it’s a feature.”

Technology Is Fast, Sanctification Is Slow, and Claude Can’t Do It for You. “What if the inefficiency of creativity is a benefit rather than a drawback, a feature rather than a bug? What if the purpose of creativity is greater than merely generating the output? What if creativity fosters a kind of inner formation that is every bit as important as the work that eventually results from it? What if we turn over to AI a process that is an important part of what it means to be human, and one that is genuinely good for us?”

In It Together. “Almost everything that men and women experience together, we experience differently, but through patience and understanding, listening and talking, through expressing care in all the ways we can think of when we just don’t know how to help each other, we continually send the message, over and over again, through all kinds of trials and troubles: I’m here. We’re in this together.”

Making Family Devotions Work. “While my parents often prayed with us before bed, for the most part anything beyond that wasn’t a part of our normal rhythm of life. I never really understood why not, until I had a family. Then I realized how challenging it is to maintain family devotions.”

10 Phrases to Eliminate from Your Bible Teaching. These are good reminders not only for teaching Bible, but for any kind of speaking or writing and even everyday conversation. Of course, we need to be gracious listeners. Some of these phrases sneak in unaware when the speaker is trying to gather his thoughts. But when we can eliminate them, we make ourselves much easier and more interesting to listen to.

A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there,
but a guiding light whose love shows us the way. Author unknown.