Best of the Week for September 4
Happy Labor Day! 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.
The Monumental Problem: Hashtag Activism and Covert Racism
“Cries of racism can be heard at every turn and yet a great silence ensues concerning a multimillion dollar company (Planned Parenthood) capitalizing off of dead black babies? Hmm . . .”
People get uncomfortable when you connect the abortion industry (and it is an industry, with marketing, representatives, and profits to be made) to racism. But make no mistake, people are getting rich preying on minorities.
The Day I Learned to Mourn
“The weight for me had been the costs of following and serving Jesus, heavy, because I’d tried to carry it without complaint, without shedding a tear, without acknowledging my own mourning…On the beach that day, in the midst of my tears, with unfixable things left unfixed, I began telling God about the rewards of following and serving him. They far outnumbered all that I mourned a few moments prior, and I’d only seen them so clearly after my lament.”
Many of us have not experienced the full grace and presence of God in our suffering or sorrow because we have not been honest with him about it. He already knows. He wants us to be fully honest with ourselves and with him, so that he can meet us there and carry our burdens, reminding us of so many reasons for hope in the midst of our sorrow.
God’s Subtle Work in Your Bible Reading
“It’s as if the Holy Spirit is a skilled craftsman who pushes the mortar deep into the cracks and crevices of my heart…God uses your regular exposure to the Word of God to mold you into the image of his Son. Your faithful reading of and meditation upon the Bible makes grooves. And the wheels of your life ride along in these tracks.”
I love that last line! Even though we don’t feel something every time we read or meditate on Scripture, God uses our consistent regularity to press the ideas deep into our hearts over time, and that quantity and consistency is what leads to quality and understanding as we persist.
Sovereign and Smiling
“My personal delight in God’s sovereignty, and my wonder that he would save me, should work in me a joy so powerful that it cannot be shut up and silenced, but must escape out as a general call to all sinners everywhere to repent and turn from their sins to Christ.”
Many who do not fully understand how the sovereignty of God plays into our salvation will argue that this sovereignty cools the urgency to share the gospel. But it’s the exact opposite. It’s precisely because we know that God is sovereignly saving people that we are compelled to share. We know the fruit is coming.
UberChristian
“Upon arrival each driver will send you off with a sidehug of encouragement.” Yes!
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