Keeping the Faith but Losing Hope
And this is a longer post than most of mine, particularly because I really only want to make two points: First, if I may speak for my fellow young ministers, don’t be afraid of us losing our faith. Higher learning and critical study of the Bible have not caused us to lose our faith. Seeing the broken reality of the church, both in our experience and that of our mentors and predecessors, has not caused us to lose our faith; hearing the bitter testimony of ex-ministers and burned out leaders has not caused us to lose our faith. But, secondly, be afraid of us losing our hope: I worry that perhaps we’re losing hope that the church will care about these questions; hope that our doubts and anxiety will be anything but a burden on the church; hope that those questions about the church which direct us into scripture and into prayer will be regarded as relevant by those same communities.
Are Rewards In Heaven Based On Our Efforts Or God’s Grace?
I am not sure I have an answer right now. But it is an intriguing question. Nevertheless, I believe that justification is by grace alone without any regards to human effort. If human effort did play a part, grace is not grace. However, I believe that a theology of rewards must recognize that human effort plays a decisive role in the rewards we receive.
Seven Things to Pray for Your Children
So pray for your children. Jesus promises us that if we ask, seek, and knock the Father will give us good in return (Luke 11:9-13), even if the good isn’t apparent for 40 years. And because Jesus regularly asked those who came to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51), we know that he wants us to be specific with our requests.
Can’t I Just Skip Over the Genealogies in the Bible?
So when you read that Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, don’t glaze over, but thank God for His constancy in shepherding the inheritance of Abraham through the centuries. And when you read that some of the procreators were scoundrels or the relatives of scoundrels, rejoice that He can do great things with bad bets. There’s even hope for us.
5 Ways to Find Joy in a Job You Don’t Love
Scripture promises that we can have joy through any work. Ecclesiastes 2:24 says work is a gift of God, and it is good to “find enjoyment in [it]”—the Hebrew literally reads, “make his soul see the good in [it].” Some jobs will make this joy easy for us; some won’t. But God wills that we make our souls see the good in our work, whatever it may be. We may never become heel-clicking happy about our job, but it is possible for us to have robust joy in it.
The same is true of sermons. It may get off to a bumpy start. You may have to play catch up to stay within the allotted time schedule. The people on board may not like where it is headed. But all will be forgiven if you can safely land the sermon at its intended destination.
If my sarcasm always felt like a loving and innocent hug, there’d be no reason to question my heart’s motives. But when my humor feels more like a slap in the face, when people don’t “get” my sarcasm, and my jokes leave behind a wake of wounded brothers and sisters, I’m forced to dig a little deeper and face the facts.
You spend 23 days a year on your phone, survey says
The average answer is 90 minutes per day spent poking and prodding their blower. That’s 32,850 minutes a year, or 22.8 days. Over the course of the average person’s life, that’s 1,414 days — 3.9 years — spent squinting at a little piece of glass and plastic.
Bill would allow iPad use from takeoff to landing
McCaskill said neither members of the public nor lawmakers believe the FAA’s contention that regulations requiring passengers to shut off their devices during takeoff and landing “are any longer about safety.”
Tim, I like bar-be-q- sauce on my links :)
Finally! After 3 months, somebody caught the pun.