Best of the Week: The Instagram Bible, The Election, and The Gospel Changes Everything

In our Best of the Week series we link to a handful of the best articles, videos, books, etc. that we have come across in the last week. We hope this will point you to some of the right places and give you tools and thoughts for life and mission.

The Instagram Bible

“Its perfect squares are friend to the proverb, the promise, and the partial quote, leaving laws, lists, land-allotments, and long-stretching lessons to languish off-screen. It comforts but rarely convicts. It emotes but rarely exhorts. It warms but rarely warns. It promises but rarely prompts. It moves but does not mortify. It builds self-assurance but balks at self-examination.”

Don’t run, men. This one is specifically addressed to “my daughters,” but it hits the nail on the head in how we should and should not intake the pieces of the Bible we see around the web.

Raising an Alien Child

1 Pet. 2:11-12 calls believers to live as aliens and strangers, in such a way that our unmistakably strange lives bring glory to God. As Christian parents, our greatest hope for our children is that they would grow to know, love, and serve God with everything they have. But those who grow to know, love, and serve God with everything they have don’t blend in.”

This is audio. It’s a talk given by Jen Wilkin (guess it’s Jen Wilkin week on Best of the Week), and it is well worth the time to listen to it.

You Don’t Need More Parenting Advice

“Whenever I travel to speak, I always have someone come up to me afterward asking for an effective strategy for this, a guaranteed formula for that, or a proven approach to some other struggle. I try to impart helpful guidance in the moments we have together, but what they (and I) really need is a big-picture, gospel worldview that can explain, guide, and motivate all the things that God is calling them to do.”

This is a good one in light of our series The Gospel Changes Everything. While we do need methods, principles, and specific answers to specific questions, if we don’t have a gospel-rooted approach to everything, we will always be looking to the next answer to our next question as our hope that things will change. And that’s a hopeless prospect.

Set Our Hearts on Fire Again

“‘They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). What set their hearts ablaze — in the language of Augustine, what captivated their affections — was an interpretation of Scripture that put Jesus and his finished work front and center. If worship is going to set our hearts on fire, it needs to do the same thing. It needs to put Jesus front and center, through the Scriptures.”

Another good one in light of our TGCE series. The gospel changes our worship, which is a novel concept, right?…especially in light of the modern worship movement, where many of our songs have become increasingly focused on us and how we feel. Our hearts burn within us to worship when we clearly see the glory of Jesus front and center.

Why (and How) Christians Should Still Vote

“The Constitution of the United States is a man-made document, but I believe it represents the greatest expression of the application of biblical principles to secular government yet produced.”

This is From J.D. Greear, and is a very insightful list of topics and questions to consider as we vote this election season. For Christians, the decision of how to vote is an important one, even more so this time around, and this article gives us some weighty things to consider before we make it.

Have a good week!

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