A long but worthwhile read for the weekend. Carl Trueman argues the massive change to attitudes about gay marriage and LGBT+ recently are symptoms of changes in attitudes about what it means to be a person.
Regardless of what you believe about these issues, this is for Christians struggling to understand, and love, this world that Christ died for. Trueman’s 6 suggestions for Christians and the church largely fall under what C.S. Lewis might call Mere Christianity, and applicable to many situations.
This was shared by my former pastor on his personal page. It took me a few days to find the time to read it, but I didn’t give up…
(Estimated reading time 20 minutes, but worth it!)
Over a month ago, I re-blogged Part 1 of “Driving Toward the Morning Sun” but not Part 2. After a discussion in church this week about what “Sing to the LORD a new song” means, I decided to come back to it. Part 1 explained why the blog is named after an obscure song reflecting the struggles of finding meaning without God. Part 2 explains that true meaning in living comes from knowing we have a Maker and King, and therefore a meaningful origin and destiny. We are not random accidents with no design.
Every Christian should “Sing to the LORD a new song” in their own way. We were designed to have Christ’s character and to express it through the creative power given to each of us. The only way to guarantee failure is to “Shy Away” from the work before us. Therefore, I keep writing, and I hope to encourage others to find their “new song” every day.
More “Rewind Wednesday” to come!
(Estimated reading time 7 minutes, more if you listen to the song (and you should…))
Last June, I posted “More Than Truth” about how the media are “trying hard to weaponize you and I” with their own particular, filtered versions of what they call truth. Proverbs 14:21 says “Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor,” yet we are bombarded by stories grouping people into neighbors we should love and those we shouldn’t because they’re somehow causing the problems of the world through their political or other affiliation. I struggle with the right balance, and I know others do as well, especially when the voices get louder. The “Us vs. Them” mentality is everywhere, and while I generally stay away from commenting on daily news flow on this blog, this one couldn’t wait until Rewind Wednesday.
How should the gospel of the kingdom of God impact how we live in this bitter and chaotic environment? Please read “More Than Truth” which is linked below, which makes a case that we must prioritize some truths over others, and that we also must not allow ourselves to “weaponized” by particular versions of truth. Proverbs 14:20 – “The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends.” – is as true as Proverbs 14:21, but it too can weaponize if taken out of context and used as a prescription, not just a description. “The wrong truth can make us despise our neighbor, or to support the wrong gospel.”
Don’t let the daily roar of news distract you from the love God has for you and for the people you will interact with face-to-face today. Instead, pray that you may bring the eternal love of God into the pain of today’s world in a very real way.
Eternity matters, but life is hard. Therefore encourage each other today!
This Rewind Wednesday not only revisits an old post about a cornerstone, but also provides a capstone for the series on “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” the third Beatitude from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. “Creation vs. Anti-Creation” was first posted on May 28, 2021, as the second-ever post to this blog. In it was an as-brief-as-possible history of creative forces working with and against God in this world but culminating when “All God’s people will inherit a perfect heaven and earth” where “All creative forces will be aligned to achieve perfection.”
The Beatitudes tell us the meek are blessed, but also why they are blessed: because God will give them the earth as an inheritance. Not this stinky one, but a perfected one. Heaven will be full of people made like Christ, who perfectly follow His law of self-sacrificial love. Both creation and character will be made whole. However, if we don’t agree on His definition of “perfect” then neither will we humble ourselves and be meek, nor will we inherit the earth.
Even if our early efforts at following Christ are imperfect, without those early efforts the later efforts may never happen. What can you build on the cornerstone of Christ?
Read “Creation vs. Anti-Creation” at the link below! (Estimated reading time 10 minutes)
With the blog now in year 2, I’ve added Rewind Wednesdays – a look back at older posts. The first Rewind revisited the first post, and this one, originally posted 3 months later, picks up from a footnote in that first post. My two teenage kids and I both love the band twenty øne piløts, and this post looks at their song “Taxi Cab” and how it creatively weaves the story of the gospel into its lyrics. “Driving Toward the Morning Sun (Part 1)” explains some of my reasons for blogging, the name of the blog, and the importance of both truth and tone in writing. Even in sharing the gospel, we should obey the gospel.
More “Rewind Wednesday” to come!
(Estimated reading time 6 minutes, more if you listen to the song)
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 