As well as reading a lot of books, I also read a ton of articles every week. Here are some of the articles that I’ve read recently and have found interesting, helpful, challenging and encouraging. I hope that they will be the same for you, my dear readers…
C. H. Spurgeon on ‘top-down’ evangelism
Some insights from Spurgeon on the ‘top-down’ evangelism idea. I found this an interesting read. It’s helpful to asses the evangelistic foundation of your own church, is it top-down, or the other way around?
The Landscape Of Familiarity
“Prose is no barren wasteland of carefully assembled symbols on a page. Words and sentences wind and flow like a cataract of ideas, rushing toward the beauty of the whole. Yet even these small components assembled have a beauty of their own. So recently, when challenged to read a single book of the Bible repeatedly, every day for a week, I was amazed how much the familiar terrain altered as the days rolled by.”
Pastor, Find Your Identity in Christ
“Pastors are a motley group of souls. We represent different personalities and tribes, different methodologies and styles, not to mention denominations, traditions, and theologies. But there is something many of us have in common—a profound sense of insecurity for which the only antidote is the gospel.”
The Idolatry of a Stack of Cards
“Idolatry, it’s an interesting word. It’s a word that congers ideas of obvious sins. Sins that most people agree are sins. Idolatry could mean lust or greed, pride or power. But idolatry is also one of those things that we miss so often. We miss it because we don’t want to see it.”
Were the New Testament Authors Aware of Their Own Authority?
“Sometimes, even in the academic world, things get said so many times that people assume they are true. And when that happens, no one bothers to look at the historical evidence in a fresh way. One example, which is fairly routine these days, is to assert that the New Testament authors certainly did not think they were writing Scripture, nor had any awareness of their own authority.”
Keeping The Faith
“The more religiously committed parents are, the more they want their children to grow up believing and practicing the family’s religion. This is especially true of parents who are religiously traditionalist or conservative. The desire to pass on the faith to offspring in a world that does not seem to support that goal can put great pressure on religious parents not to “fail.””
Constant Danger
“The constant danger we are all in is that we give ourselves to exposure without putting effort into integration. We read the Bible every day, we pray before every meal, we attend church each Sunday, but we don’t do the hard work of actually integrating what we learn from these disciplines into our worldview. And then, like the physician and the lawyer, we grow unaware of our insensitivity. We become cold and callous to the actual presence of God, confusing our engagement with godly things as interaction with God Himself.”
Do You Want to Change? There’s Only One Way
“Are you stuck? Do you fear that you will never be able to change, never break free from the sin that has you in its clutches? You can change! I promise. No matter what the sin is, you can break free from its clutches.”
John Stott
This looks like a helpful resource that has great content from Stott. Well worth checking it out.
Ten Theological Topics for Parents of Modern Teens
This is a great list of topics to address with some good and helpful resources to go with each topic. A good place to start 🙂
Chalmers' Blog 