purity culture | Stray Thoughts

Some of the good reads found this week:

So Many Dumb Ways to Die. “By my count, the song offers 21 ways to die, each one dumber than the last. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, for there are many more ways to die than these—some avoidable or dumb, some unavoidable or heroic, but all tragic. Sadly, humanity has never come to the end of the ways we can die. Yet there is also a sense in which there are merely two ways to die: There is the death of the righteous and the death of the wicked.”

Help Please: The Christian’s Ceaseless Plea, HT to the Story Warren. “Though made in the image of God, these little dustlings are largely helpless, so it’s no wonder they continually ask for help. What should come as a surprise is that we, the ‘grown-up’ children of God, do not avail ourselves of the same ceaseless cry.” This article not only shares wonderful truth, but it’s a lovely piece of writing.

8 Gentle Truths for Exhausted Hearts, HT to Challies. “Do you feel weary from carrying too much? Here are 8 notes I wrote to myself during my 3 month Sabbatical, where I was reflecting on my habit of over-functioning—of being a daughter, wife, mother, worker, church leader, and pastor’s wife who is often driven by an urgency to do better, do more, and do it all.”

Advice on How to “Preach the Gospel” to Yourselves. We used to hear that phrase often, without any explanation as to what was actually meant. I appreciated this unpacking of its meaning and application.

The Gratitude Shift. “It’s a simple concept. In fact, it almost seems trite. How many times throughout life have we been told to be grateful for what we have? Yet, gratitude, even in its most elementary, basic form, works. It causes us to think about our blessings and the Source of our blessings, and in those thoughts we find true affection for God and all that He’s done.”

Is Your Women’s Ministry Accessible to Single Moms? HT to Challies. “When I became a single mom, going to church was the hardest part of my week. After juggling everything for the previous six days, I’d do the heavy lifting of getting to the Sunday morning pew, only to be asked questions about my husband. If I wanted to join any other aspect of church life like a Bible study or ministry team, I felt like I had to move mountains. So when I read that only one in four single moms attends church regularly, I wasn’t surprised.”

In Defense of Purity Culture. “No good deed that a culture or subculture sets out to perform will be without flaw. There were excesses in the movement, and those excesses resulted in real hurt to real people. But I think purity culture was a net good. I think it was on the right track, and I think that the best parts of purity culture should be and have been absorbed by the church as we hold up purity as an ideal for the next generation.”

He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made, or the only saint he ever loved. Approach him and be at peace. Charles Spurgeon

Here’s my latest collection of good reads found online.

A Better Love Song: Suffering and God’s Great Love For Us, HT to the Story Warren. “Do you pluck from the circumstances sent by our heavenly Father to determine whether he loves you? Some circumstances feel loving, others don’t. When he makes you lie down in green pastures and leads you beside still waters (Ps. 23:2), do you sing, ‘he loves me!’? When he calls you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23:4), does your heart whisper, ‘he loves me not’?”

How Do I Know I’m Really Repentant? HT to Challies. “What does a repentant heart look like? Does it just look sad? Timid? Is it simply agreeable? How would we discern the difference in ourselves between a heart turning from sin and one seeking simply to manage or alleviate the consequences of it?”

Bible Interpretation Is More Than Stacking Verses, HT to Knowable Word. “We cannot merely stack up Bible verses, making biblical claims based on a handful of verses that are isolated from their immediate and broader biblical contexts. We must interpret the Bible rightly. . . Satan shows us that quoting out-of-context phrases and sentences that seem handy in the moment can be a dangerous game.”

Context Matters: The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. “This is no inspirational teaching, so you won’t spot it on posters or mugs. But I see this verse dashed into arguments like salt in soup. Are we using using this verse properly? When we learn to read the Bible like a book and not as isolated bullet points, we’ll see that some familiar phrases don’t mean all that we’ve always assumed.”

Your Suffering Is Valid Even When Others Have It Worse, HT to Maree. “I understand what we are trying to do when we play down our troubles because they are small in comparison to what others are experiencing. We’re trying to put things in perspective so we can be grateful, avoid feeling sorry for ourselves, and be compassionate to others. However, I think minimizing our troubles can sometimes be harmful. It leads us to ignore our feelings, which can increase our stress, cause feelings of self-doubt, harm our self-esteem, and heighten our anxiety.”

Did We Kiss Purity Good-Bye? HT to Challies. “Calls for sexual purity were (and are) biblical and needed. Even in the midst of the good that was done through lots of preaching and discipleship during those years, several lies seemed to spread in the renewed emphasis on purity — each laced with enough truth to be taken seriously and yet with enough deceit to lead some astray.”

4 Traits of an Emotionally Healthy Ministry Worker, HT to Challies. “If you’re serving in ministry, you have likely been encouraged to prioritize your spiritual health. You may have been exhorted to pay attention to spiritual disciplines that will shape you into the best possible leader, teacher, or minister. All of this is good. The Bible implores us to pay careful attention to ourselves (1 Tim. 4:12–16). But spiritual vitality is not the only area of health ministry workers need to pursue. Your emotional health is also essential.”

Can Christians “Do Business” With the World? HT to Challies. “People on both sides of this issue believe that we may not compromise the holy standards of God. We all agree that we must not capitulate to our culture’s definition of right and wrong, and that we must resist calls for Christians to redefine biblical ethics. However, it is one thing to stand strong on what God defines as sin, but it is another to say this requires us to boycott any business that is involved tangentially with sin.”

How to Avoid Misinformation and Disinformation Online, HT to Proclaim and Defend. “God’s ninth commandment—do not bear false witness—is being obliterated by social media (Ex. 20:16). Where untruth takes root, social trust declines. Friends begin doubting friends because we increasingly agree, ‘I can’t tell what’s true anymore.’”

The Surprising Value of Reading Fewer Books, HT to the Story Warren. “Reading more books doesn’t make us (or our kids) a more well-read person. You’re not more well-read than someone who read three books carefully and well if you speed-read ten in the same amount of time. You’re not getting more out of your books simply because you’ve read a taller stack of them. The number of books that our kids read and that we read matters a lot less than the quality of our reading.”

Finally, this adorable kitten reminds me that even though we might not reach a goal on the first effort, each try strengthens us, and one day we’ll get there.