As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Marriage is not a picture of the Gospel when it is permanent. Marriage is permanent when it is a picture of the Gospel. A man physically, emotionally, spiritually or sexually abusing a woman (or child, or anyone) is preaching a FALSE GOSPEL.” - SBC Voices
“To what extent do we, American Christians especially, allow our Christianity to be shaped and re-shaped by contemporary American culture? Are we supposed to stand out rather than (just) fit in? To what extent?
“In many schools, meditation advocates have reframed religious practices such as meditation and yoga as secular to avoid legal challenges.” - RNS
“Integral to these findings is that people who engage the Bible one to three days a week indicate basically the same effect on their personal lives as those who do not engage at all. The deceptive reality is that they can feel good about their activities without any sustainable results.” - LifeWay
For many of us it was never about fear. We wore masks. We social-distanced. We avoided gatherings. We encouraged people to consider participating in Sunday school and worship over Zoom or Facebook Live. We respected the officials who—for better or worse, correct or incorrect—made the tough calls and closed businesses, limited gatherings, and recommended or required masks.
We were not “afraid.”
We didn’t choose “fear instead of faith” and certainly didn’t choose “fear instead of science.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Surely, one of the greatest failures by all of us as believers is our repeated failure to pray to God that He would preserve our entire *bodies* blameless unto the coming of Christ.
Ask yourself, “When was the last time that I specifically prayed for God to do that for my entire body and for the entire bodies of those whom I love?”
“While the recently signed legislation, HB 377, does not ban the teaching of critical race theory, it prohibits all public schools, including institutions of higher education and school districts, from teaching that ‘any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.’” - C.Post
“When we fight back—instead of seeking to defuse the situation by not responding or by answering gently—we condition ourselves to reject all critique, even the kind that is fair. When we do this, we harm everyone including ourselves.” - Scott Sauls
“The prayer of His people is one of the means He uses to bring things to pass in this world. So if you ask me whether prayer changes things, I answer with an unhesitating ‘Yes!’” - Ligonier
“The first thing to do is: Turn to the Scriptures. Yes, turn to John Owen (never a bad idea!), or to some other counselor dead or alive. But remember that we have not been left only to good human resources in this area. We need to be taught from ‘the mouth of God’ so that the principles we are learning to apply carry with them both the authority of God and the promise of God to make them work.” - Ligonier
Discussion