Tag Archives: walking with God

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I have several good reads to share today:

Hope In Hindsight: Navigating Unexpected Journeys, HT to the Story Warren. “Just as Stephen looked to the stories of Scripture to remind him of who God is and what he has done, we can do the same when we face uncertainty in our futures. When plans are interrupted, when hardship comes, and when we’re confronted with the reality of sin and death in a fallen world, we can look to the story of Scripture and the story of our life and see the goodness of God woven throughout.”

Maybe You Don’t Need a Therapist, HT to Challies. “I’ve found that for a growing number of people there is an assumption that to be a human is to need therapy. We’re all maladjusted, and the purpose of therapy is to adjust us so that we’re high-functioning members of society, living flourishing, mentally healthy lives. In this model, therapy is something like a weekly medicine we all need to mentally survive a hostile world.” But such an approach raises concerns, which the author discusses.

When Spiritual Disciplines Took Over My Life, HT to Challies. “Scrupulosity can be jaw-droppingly deceptive. Spiritual disciplines are essential for growth, and we want to encourage one another to practice them. But there’s a difference between healthy spiritual practice and someone who’s struggling with OCD. Since the outward behaviors may be the same, we need to look below the surface to identify scrupulosity.”

On Biblical Mandates and Cultural Expectations, Part 3. “Once we’ve invested the time and effort it takes to be informed about what the Scripture says, and what the law requires, and what the culture expects, we need to get down to the business of making decisions about how we respond to specific demands from those authorities.”

The Rise of Hyperpleasures, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “If humans experience pain and pleasure on a 1-10 scale, then hyperpleasures are those activities which take us ‘off the scale,’ so to speak. They give us experiences that make us feel like a 20, 30, 100, 1,000, and so on. The particular number is arbitrary, of course, but the principle remains — these are pleasures that go far beyond the ordinary range of enjoyment, principally by removing those discomforts we experience in our ordinary pleasures.”

It Takes Years to Grow, HT to Challies. “We think transformation will be quick, and sometimes it is. But generally speaking, God isn’t in a rush. There’s a certain kind of holiness and beauty that develops only after decades of walking with God. You can’t microwave it. But when you see it, it’s a beautiful thing.”

Mom and Dad: Show Your Need, HT to Challies. ““I have one regret of how I parented . . . I wish I would’ve shown my kids my need for Christ more. I worked so hard to show them my godliness that I didn’t show them my need. I should have been more transparent. I should have shown them just how much I needed Jesus.”

To Everything in Motherhood, There Is a Season. “It would have been impossible for me to explain my grief in that moment. I was missing something. Not people necessarily, but a time of life with those people. . . Yet, each new season brings new joys.”

People Who Were Bookworms As Children Often Display These Seven Unique Traits, HT to Linda. “Many of us were those so-called bookworms as kids, and it’s fascinating to see how this early love for reading has shaped us into the adults we are today. You see, spending all that time with our heads buried in books did more than just help us ace our English tests. It subtly carved out traits within us that are not only unique but pretty advantageous, too.”

Do Quests, Not Goals, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “The conventional term for this sort of personal campaign is a ‘short-term goal.’ But I suggested to OBW participants that they drop the G-word in favor of something more fanciful: the quest. If that sounds a bit whimsical, hear me out. Whereas ‘goal’ has become a tired and bloodless descriptor for the (supposed) intention to do something great, the word quest instills the right mentality for achieving a real-life personal victory.” I’ve never thought of a “goal” as tired and dull, but the quest mentality does have some good points.

This is a good time for my occasional reminder that linking to a site doesn’t mean 100% endorsement of everything on that site.

Any theology that minimizes God’s holiness and tolerates people’s deliberate sinfulness
is a false theology. — Warren W. Wiersbe,
from Be Decisive (Jeremiah): Taking a Stand for the Truth

Laudable Linkage

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This has been a light blog reading week for me, but I did find a few things I wanted to share:

What I Long For More Than Miracles. “I suppose it is possible that I have witnessed a miracle in my lifetime, but if so, I’m not aware of it. . . . And if I’m honest, this doesn’t bother me in the least. It doesn’t bother me in the least because on many occasions I’ve witnessed something I count equally significant or perhaps even more so: I have witnessed the evidence and the intricacy and the perfect timing of God’s providence.”

Stooping to Filthy Feet, HT to Challies. “The man on his knees, rinsing sweat from Peter’s athlete’s foot and getting between Judas’s toes to wipe away the dung was our Creator, who is before all things and in him all things hold together; the hands that washed those verrucae and blisters would one day be the only ones qualified to break the seals and open the gates to the New Jerusalem.”

Winning Your Child’s Heart With Winsome Words, HT to Challies. “My years as a parent have helped me understand that my words do more than guide my children through their day. They shape how they think about themselves, other people, and how the world works. Most importantly, my words are one way my children learn about the gospel.” I wish I has this to read 40 years ago.

Bible Reading and Vain Vows. “We know the history of the people who made that vow at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Almost all of them ended up dead for disobedience and never set their feet in the promised land. They swore to do everything God told them to do, then they didn’t do it. We also know our own history when it comes to New Years Resolutions. These aren’t necessarily ‘vows,’ unless we actually vow something to the Lord, but we know that we are as frail as ancient Israel was. The spirit might be willing, but the flesh is exceedingly weak.” Includes several Bible reading plans.

Two sides of the issues from the same blogger: 3 Reasons Why You Should Make New Year’s Resolutions and 3 Reasons You Should NOT Make New Year’s Resolutions. HT to Challies.

I’d like to leave you with the last half of a poem by John Newton titled “At the Close of the Year.” (You can find the whole poem here.)

And since his name we knew,
How gracious has he been:
What dangers has he led us through,
What mercies have we seen!

Now through another year,
Supported by his care,
We raise our Ebenezer here,
“The Lord has help’d thus far.”

Our lot in future years
Unable to foresee,
He kindly, to prevent our fears,
Says, “Leave it all to me.”

Yea, Lord, we wish to cast
Our cares upon thy breast!
Help us to praise thee for the past,
And trust thee for the rest.

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Thank you so much for your kind thoughts, comments, and prayers regarding my post yesterday about being in the hospital. We got home mid-afternoon yesterday, and I have follow-up appointments in the next couple of weeks.

Here are good reads collected through the week. I used to make a list of these as I found them, then would have to turn them into a blog post. Now I open a draft and list and format them as I come across them through the week, so by Saturday the post is almost completely ready to go.

“What Do You Want From Me, God?” Part 4: A Humble Walk. “Isn’t it remarkable that the God of the universe, the One who is perfectly satisfied in himself, to whom we cannot possibly be intellectually stimulating, comes to us every morning and asks, ‘Do you want to go for a walk?’”

Enjoying Imperfection, HT to Challies. “Only God does all things perfectly. In a world that has written God out of the story, we have written ourselves into the role of perfection-attainment. And it is killing us—our dusty little frames, our finite abilities can’t handle it.”

The Local Church Was Made To Serve The Christian, Not The Christian The Local Church. “If we judge our faith or our spiritual maturity or our commitment to the local church by the quantity of activities we participate in (or choose not to participate in), we are judging ourselves not by the freedom of the gospel but by the captivity of the law.”

When Your Mother Grows Old: Open Letter to Younger Believers, HT to Challies. “Being old is a topic that Scripture does not shy away from. Proverbs, for example — such a valuable book for young people — addresses it directly. As one who is both learning and observing a mother’s experience of growing older, I want to ask you to think in particular about old women, while you are young — in order to encourage clear vision now, and farsighted vision for the years ahead.”

In Support of Our Law Enforcement Officers. “That’s what police officers do. They keep the rest of us safe. They are the representatives of human government that enforce the law and protect citizens. Saved or not, believers or not, they put their lives on the line on a daily basis in order to provide for us a peaceful society in which we can live, work, worship, and pray.”

C. S. Lewis and His Stepsons, HT to Challies. “While the relationship between Lewis and Joy Davidman has been a matter of endless fascination to Lewis fans and academics alike, many have ignored the fact that the marriage made Lewis a stepfather.”

How to Run a Good Meeting–And Why it Matters More than You Think, also HT to Challies. Spirituality and efficiency are not mutually exclusive (though God’s idea of efficiency may differ from ours). I appreciate these evaluations of the best way to conduct necessary but numbing ministry meetings. I’d add a sub-note to his last point: don’t have a meeting if an email can take care of the meeting agenda.

Finally, I think I’ve seen all of these at a potluck (minus the alcohol).