Desiring Chick-fil-A More on Sunday Than Any Other Day of the Week

Another fun article from "Stuff Christians Like". The following point in his outline was my favorite:

Step 5: The Idea

Could you buy some Chick-fil-A on a Saturday and then eat it on a Sunday? Would that work or would that be like when the Israelites tried to gather up double portions of manna? Didn’t that work for them on Sunday? Are you really comparing Chick-fil-A to manna? Yes, yes you are and that feels about right.

Worth Remembering

This is a helpful line from Matt Chandler, which they use at the Village Church:

“It’s okay not to be okay—
but it’s not okay to stay there.”

He explains:

“If you create an environment where it’s okay not to be okay, you create an environment where the gospel is breathed in and out constantly. . . We want to constantly drive people back to the cross.

You come in feeling ashamed, you’re feeling dirty, you’re feeling overwhelmed? [God] knows! The whole point of the cross is you being where you are right now—so that you wouldn’t have to be there tomorrow if you submit your heart and life to the sovereign God. So it creates an environment where it’s okay to struggle.”

The Truth About Wikipedia

Tim Challies wrote a nice article connecting Wikipedia to how we see God and what we believe as truth.

A Prayer About Being Anxious and Trusting in Jesus

There is more to this written prayer on Scotty Smith's blog, but this part of the prayer really spoke to me:

...For the things that deeply grieve me, bring your tear-wiping hand. For the things that greatly offend me, keep me from a critical and selfish spirit. For the things that profoundly confuse me, grant me the perspective of heaven and gospel sanity. For the things over which I have no control, give me a fresh vision of the occupied throne of heaven. For the things I do have control over, grant me wisdom and strength to act accordingly. Please help me steward my anger, my sadness, and my weariness to your glory. I don’t want to waste this moment or these feelings.

Prayer Insults

This is an interesting article I picked up on mandolins and prayer insults. In prayer times with others, we've probably both been there AND done that...the prayer insult, not the mandolins....

Prayer for Days Filled with Blahs and Blues

Scotty Smith's blog is a series of daily prayers for a variety of experiences. If you're in a season of the "blahs" or the "blues" this prayer may help you express your heart to the Lord.

The Holy Spirit's Hidden Floodlight Ministry

This is a simple article credited to J.I. Packer on the role of the Holy Spirit. I begins this way:

The Holy Spirit’s distinctive new covenant role, then, is to fulfill what we may call a floodlight ministry in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ....

Prayer for Godly Vision

Sir Frances Drake is credited with this prayer of vision. May we as believers in Jesus Christ be bold enough to declare it, “Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.”

Mr Bean - Asleep in Church

It had been a while since I'd seen this one. Mr. Bean at church is worth the five minutes to watch.

Five Tips For Raising Godly Children

Five Tips for Raising Godly Children is an interesting series and worth the read. “Many folks who have read J.C. Ryle over the years have thoroughly enjoyed his writings, especially his well known works like Holiness, Knots Untied and his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels commentary set. However, many folks may forget that John Charles Ryle was not only a prolific writer and vigorous preacher in England during the 1800s, he was also a parent…to five children. [and widowed three times!]”

On Burning Religious Books

Justin Taylor pointed out a thoughtful post here from Tony Reinke on the religious book burning of Acts 19:11-12 in light of the unwise and unhelpful plan of a local church to use 9/11 as a “Burn a Qur’an Day.”

Tony concludes his analysis in this way:

These six points should make us very hesitant about burning other people’s religious books.

May God give the Church open doors to preach the gospel, and may he bless his Word with self-authenticating gospel fruit. If we take our eyes off the priority of the gospel, we will be tempted to settle for the sparks of a small bonfire in a church parking lot, a miniature replica of what happened in Ephesus. The true gospel spreads like a wildfire, if we are faithful to lovingly and boldly proclaim it.

UnCool (Just Like You)

Here's a fun music video produced by Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee. It was part of a sermon series on being authentic in our Christian walk.

No Need for God? Stephen Hawking Defies Divine Creation

With Stephen Hawking's new book, The Grand Design, being released amid much publicity, Al Mohler provides a helpful response in his blog and simple analysis.

Love Is...

We hear a great deal about what love is and what love is not. The word has lost its focus for us. Certainly, love finds a signficant number of inferior definitions. Justin Taylor, in his blog, broke things out this way (drawing mostly from 1 Corinthians 13):

What Is Love?

God and Love
God is love.
Love is a gift of God.

What Love Is

Love is patient.
Love is kind.

What Love Is Not

Love is not arrogant.
Love is not rude.
Love is not irritable.
Love is not resentful.

What Love Does Not Do

Love does not envy.
Love does not boast.
Love does not insist on its own way.
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing.

What Loves Does

Love rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things.
Love believes all things.
Love hopes all things.
Love endures all things.
Love lasts forever.
Love fulfills the law.

{1 John 4:7-8; 1 Cor. 13:4-8; Rom. 13:10}