Can We Still Weep Together After Orlando?
It seems now, though, that there’s rarely a time of grieving together. The time of lament morphs almost immediately into arguments over what the President should have said or whether this validates or annihilates someone’s views on guns or immigration or whatever. Some of that, of course, is just the speed of social media. People are able to discuss, rather publicly, issues much quicker than they could before. But there seems to be more than that.
Politics aren’t Worth Your Friendships
The coming days will undoubtedly be filled with much pain and confusion. My prayer is that we’d be the Church. And that those who look in will know that we are His disciples because of our love for one another (John 13:35). This election season will divide our culture. The Church can reveal something different – the unifying power of the Gospel. This will take the power of God and His Spirit. God can show us, if needed, where we have been tempted to self-righteousness and abandonment. He can and will give us the wisdom and strength to be faithful to one another.
Chick-fil-A restaurants opened Sunday to serve Orlando residents
Chick-fil-A may have a strict “no business on Sunday” policy, but the company threw it out the window in order to serve Orlando residents affected by terrorist attacks on the gay community.
The Future of Southern Baptist Evangelism: A New (Closing) Series
[Tim’s comment: For my Church of Christ friends, just replace Baptist with Church of Christ; what’s said here fits us well.]
The fact is, we seem to have lost our passion for evangelism. Baptists love evangelism as long as somebody else is doing it.
Baptists love baptisms so much that we named our denomination after them. Yet, there are fewer and fewer. Evangelism, and the baptisms that flow from Gospel proclamation, must be our focus again or we need a new name that does not involve the waters of biblical baptism.
Neo-Reformed Theology and Suffering: What Happens When God Becomes a Math Problem
And when you think of God like a math problem you end up with issues like those we observe in how Neo-Reformed theology tries to tackle the problem of suffering. Specifically, for Neo-Reformed theory to be logically consistent you have to reach the conclusion that God ordains suffering. The internal consistency of the system demands it.
Again note well: the Bible doesn’t demand it, the system demands it.
And when you privilege a theory over the Bible, like the Neo-Reformed often do, you pride yourself on defending the logic of your system to the bitter end, leading you to logically consistent but monstrous results.
5 Things People Blame The Church For…But Shouldn’t
- The church didn’t stop you from growing spiritually
- The church didn’t burn you out
- The church didn’t make you cynical
- The church didn’t cause your unforgiveness
- The church didn’t make you lose your faith
Fearfully and Autistically Made
Once he was declared autistic, it didn’t feel like our relationships were narrowing; it felt like they were expanding—making room for a God-knit little boy who isn’t typically developing. I felt relieved. My heart swelled with joy for who my son is. We felt peace.
It’s not particularly challenging to pray for those you love or with whom you share sympathetic ideas. The next level involves praying for those who make you really angry – the ones you have little connection with, the ones that if they were to disappear from your feed, you wouldn’t even care. Before you block or unfriend, pray. It requires a level of wondering about what drives them, pondering where they are in life and how they got there. It is about praying beyond the labels we stick onto people (liberal, conservative, bigot, naive) and seeing them as a beloved child of God. Just like you.
Being willing, able, and available to the wrecks around you can be frustrating. It means that you will have lots of situations that you aren’t sure what the answers are. Learning to love, care and point to God might seem too small to you, but it is great in the lives of the fallen.
Christian Funerals Can Be Too Happy
Sometimes our Christian funerals are too happy. Yes, we believe our loved one is with Jesus. Yes, we believe that he or she will rise again. We do not grieve as those without hope. But we still grieve. If Jesus weeps for Lazarus, who he knows will not stay dead for long, it is appropriate that we weep for those who have died. They are with Jesus, but we will not see them again in this life. We will not speak with them or embrace them again here. It is right to grieve — with hope, yes — but still grieve.
Here’s The Bridge That Is So Scary, People Have Panic Attacks Driving On It.