I’m still behind on my blog reading due to last week’s busyness. But I did find a few thought-provoking reads I wanted to share:

Break Shame’s Chains Through Christ, HT to Challies. “Self-shaming is a defense mechanism rooted in the belief that we’re unlovable to God and others. We voice the harsh words we fear others are thinking—as if beating them to the punch might soften the blow or inspire us to change. Ironically, self-shaming doesn’t protect us; it only perpetuates harmful lies and keeps us in bondage.”

The Spiritual Discipline of Remembrance, HT to Challies. “Over and over, God commands his people to remember how hard, dark, sad, and ugly things were. And then, to celebrate the incredible contrast of his love, goodness, and might that rescued them from adversity of all kinds. The remembrance we’re called to isn’t a ‘focus on the positive’ outlook that skims past the hard and onto the happy ending. In order to truly understand the depths from which we have been saved, we have to admit how deep those depths were.”

Love Is Patient, HT to the Story Warren. “It’s tempting to approach marriage with a renovation mindset—seeing our spouse as a project to be improved upon. We’ve all heard women say things like, ‘It took me years to train him.’ While usually meant to be humorous, such comments reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of God’s work in marriage. Our spouses don’t need to be trained—they need to be encouraged and supported in their sanctification, just as we do. Love is patient.”

Pray for Protection for your Missionaries Today, HT to Challies. A good list of ways in which missionaries need protecting.

Don’t Let Your Fears Hold Back Your Children. “As Christian parents, we want to discern not only what is safe for our children, but also what will strengthen them spiritually. Kids need to have enough freedom to learn reliance on God, and maybe that is where the line gets fuzzy for us at times: what is healthy freedom, and what is reckless?”

The Conundrum of Celebrity Christians, HT to Challies. “We must first proceed with some degree of caution when a celebrity professes faith in Christ. While this principle is true no matter who claims to have recently been converted, it is especially true when dealing with someone who is a high-profile new believer.”

Straining gluten-free and non-alcoholic gnats whilst swallowing camels, HT to Challies. “It is the rankest of hypocrisy to be splitting hairs over whether gluten-free bread and non-alcoholic wine are quite bready and winey enough for us to use in communion, in the face of genuine needs amongst our people, and claim it overturns ‘settled church positions’ when much bigger, gospel-denying positions that overturn not just the formal teaching of the Church of England held throughout its history, but that of all churches since the Apostolic-era, can be adopted.”

The Blender, the Toaster, and the Body of Christ. A nice fable with a good application.

No, I Don’t Want AI to Write for Me, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “But AI writing feels very different from using a calculator to help us multiply things. When a piece of software takes what you have written and completely changes it, you may end up with something that is technically perfect. But you lose yourself—and more importantly your voice—in the process.”

Prayer is the greatest power God has given us.
Use it with great assurance, for it brings us into alignment with His will and purposes.
–Mary Slessor