“In All Things Charity”: Sunday Share from Mark Ross

While any religious slogan or motto has its shortcomings (we wouldn’t need a Bible with 1,189 chapters if one sentence would do), some can summarize a lot of good truths.  Recently in Sunday School a phrase I used a lot during my college years came back to me:

“In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity”

Nobody in the class knew the phrase, and I couldn’t remember exactly where I learned it, so I found and forwarded this article which explains the saying and its origin. Like many things, the phrase has been mis-attributed to well-known figures in Christian history, but it actually is a quote from Rupertus Meldenius, a relatively unknown seventeenth century theologian.  I’ve found it useful in striking a balance between doctrine and love, and hope you will too.

This week’s Sunday Share is an old article from Mark Ross at Ligonier Ministries, available at the link below:

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/essentials-unity-non-essentials-liberty-all-things

What do you think?

The Only Difference That Matters – Sunday Share from Pastor David Garrison

This Sunday Share is from David Garrison, pastor of Northminster Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Madison Heights, Virginia.  David also happens to be an old friend of mine, and I’m delighted to share this Easter-appropriate post – “The Only Difference That Matters” – from his Pastor’s Corner blog.  From 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, he explains why the resurrection is essential to Christianity.

You’ll find it at the link below – it’s worth the short read!

Midlife, Christ Is: Sunday Share from Jared Wilson

Today’s Sunday Share comes from Jared Wilson on the For the Church website of Midwestern Seminary.  Wilson turns the cliché of midlife crisis into “Midlife, Christ Is” for those of us solidly in middle age.  He writes that “while I have no illusions about having the strength and energy I did at 25, I have no doubts that my friend Jesus is as strong as he’s ever been, and wherever I have to go, I know he will go with me.”

Read more at the link below. (Estimated reading time 3 minutes)

Betrayed With a Kiss: Sunday Share from Charles Spurgeon

Today’s Sunday Share comes from Charles Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening devotional.  The entire morning entry for March 25th is copied below:

“Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” —Luke 22:48

            “’The kisses of an enemy are deceitful.’ Let me be on my guard when the world puts on a loving face, for it will, if possible, betray me as it did my Master, with a kiss. Whenever a man is about to stab religion, he usually professes very great reverence for it. Let me beware of the sleek-faced hypocrisy which is armour-bearer to heresy and infidelity. Knowing the deceivableness of unrighteousness, let me be wise as a serpent to detect and avoid the designs of the enemy. The young man, void of understanding, was led astray by the kiss of the strange woman: may my soul be so graciously instructed all this day, that ‘the much fair speech’ of the world may have no effect upon me. Holy Spirit, let me not, a poor frail son of man, be betrayed with a kiss!

But what if I should be guilty of the same accursed sin as Judas, that son of perdition? I have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus; I am a member of His visible Church; I sit at the communion table: all these are so many kisses of my lips. AM I sincere in them? If not, I am a base traitor. Do I live in the world as carelessly as others do, and yet make a profession of being a follower of Jesus? Then I must expose religion to ridicule, and lead men to speak evil of the holy name by which I am called. Surely if I act thus inconsistently I am a Judas, and it were better for me that I had never been born. Dare I hope that I am clear in this matter? Then, O Lord, keep me so. O Lord, make me sincere and true. Preserve me from every false way. Never let me betray my Saviour. I do love Thee, Jesus, and though I often grieve Thee, yet I would desire to abide faithful even unto death. O God, forbid that I should be a high-soaring professor, and then fall at last into the lake of fire, because I betrayed my Master with a kiss.”

Suffering Proves We Are Real: Sunday Share from Marshall Segal

Today’s (early) Sunday Share comes from Marshall Segal, writing at desiring God.org on Romans 5:3-4, which says: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

Segal asks “how we can rejoice even while still in the midst of our sufferings,” and notes that “suffering in itself does not produce hope from scratch. Suffering will not create hope where there is none. But it can serve to strengthen and refine an already living hope.”

Full article linked below. Check it out.

(Estimated reading time 7 minutes)

Click Here for Full Article