Best of the Week for April 17
In Best of the Week 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 gospel-rich tools and thoughts for life and mission.
What You Never Know You Miss by Skipping Sunday Morning
“Quite honestly, I didn’t think missing a Sunday was a big deal. Then I had a baby. And I went on maternity leave. And I started to participate in our church community like most people do. And everything changed.”
Sunday attendance statistics aren’t the measure of faithfulness, for sure. But a lot happens when we gather. In our day, even the most faithful are around less and less, and when we miss all that happens when we gather, we do miss a lot.
Two Obstacles That Keep Us From Loving Our Neighbors
“For many of us, the problem is not that we don’t have a desire to help. It’s that we haven’t left any room for it. Our heart may be in the right place, but our calendar isn’t.”
Both of the obstacles J.D. Greear gives here are real for almost all of us, and it’s not enough just to acknowledge they exist. When they keep us from what God has specifically told us to do in Scripture, we sin. Let’s together tackle them and obey.
The Seed of Divorce
“The world, the flesh, and the devil are all committed to the destruction of marriage, and each of those enemies brings its own evil seeds. The question is not whether those seeds are or will be present in a marriage, but what we will do with them.”
Our marriages (and even our future marriages) are never safe from the seeds of divorce. There’s just too much evil against us. Marriage is a constant cultivation project, and there are incredibly powerful consequences for how we guard our garden or we don’t.
10 Ugly Numbers About Porn Use in 2017
“61% of pornography is watched on a mobile phone. In the United States that is as high as 70%. Significance: Pornography is as mobile as our phones, and people consume it in complete privacy.”
Porn use statistics are scary, and they should be. It’s a rampant, epidemic disease that thrives on the almost unlimited access the internet has given us to it. We MUST take this seriously and take immediate and specific steps to guard ourselves, each other, and our children from its devastating effects. (For more help on this issue, please check out joshproctor.com.)
Dads, Be Tender With Your Children
“Dads, be tender with your kids. Yes, discipline them…but, don’t lose your tenderness toward your silly, awkward, messed up, mixed up, attitude-ridden kids. They need to see the love of Christ demonstrated through your tender daddy heart.”
If we’re honest, most of us dads struggle with tenderness. We may like playfulness or kindness, and we almost certainly like discipline and structure and RESPECT. But our kids need our tender responses, our patience, and our vulnerability. They don’t just need teaching and instruction, they need us…every part of us.
Don’t Be a Man-Pleaser
This is a video–it’s a little over 2 minutes long–and it is a necessary exhortation (maybe rebuke) for most of us. If we constantly have an eye to how the world, our friends, the twitterverse, or any one of the rest of the long list will think about us, we will never live the bold lives Jesus calls us to live. Who do we love most?
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