As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
Periodically, throughout the years, I’ve re-visited the “when can Christians legitimately divorce” issue. First time was before seminary, when someone asked me if she had biblical grounds to leave a spouse who beat her. Second time was at seminary, where I was taught the “only for adultery and desertion” approach. Third, fourth and fifth times have been over the past decade-ish, since I’ve been a pastor.
Well, I come before you to declare I’ve figured everything out …
Just kidding.
I believe that wrong views about God as the Creator of all things, the image of God in man, and “common grace” plague multitudes of believers today. We will never have the unity among God’s people that He wants us to have until these false views are rejected.
These wrongs views are one of the leading reasons that “the worship wars” have not been resolved among God’s people. These wrongs views are especially prevalent concerning what instrumental music God will accept for use in worship.
“Around the world, the number of professing Christians is on the rise. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity now estimates that the number of evangelicals and Protestants will grow by 50 percent from nearly one billion to more than 1.5 billion by 2050.” - Ligonier
“Today, homeschooling in conservative evangelical communities is a key conduit for ideas that feed into Christian nationalism. In March, Charlie Kirk, a conservative Christian activist who has publicly downplayed the events of Jan. 6, rolled out a new education initiative that offers curricula and training that promises an ‘America-first education’ for K-12 students.” - RNS
“Right now America is in a permissive mood that is legalizing controlled substances, legitimizing prostitution as ‘sex work,’ embracing gambling as economic stimulant, and accepting pornography as harmless pastime. This permissiveness will run its course, until its excesses will provoke a new more restrictive era. Social Puritanism may recede for a season but it never disappears. Often it just morphs into new arenas.” - Mark Tooley
“This book is really, really good. It is based on a series of 21 sermons that you can listen to online….the audio quality is not great, but if you are in a quiet place or you have noise-canceling headphones you’ll be able to get a sense of the man behind the book.” - Tim Augustyn
“…we have had a presidential task force that looked specifically at policing; a presidential commission that examined the entire criminal justice system; multiple investigations, reports, and assistance programs from the Department of Justice; and numerous joint efforts by police and civil rights organizations ….However, during this same time, a time of profound national need, the United States Congress has done nothing.” - IACP
“Comparison eats at pastors. We tend to to measure other pastors, categorize them in our minds, and rank ourselves accordingly. This leads to viewing other pastors and their ministries through a lens of either condescension or envy.” - Dean Taylor
A sermon delivered on Sunday, May 20, 1855 by C.H. Spurgeon at Exeter Hall.
“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”—Isaiah 43:25
“The following theses are from Craig Carter’s new book, Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism (Baker Academic, 2021). These theses are a corrective to the relational theism so prevalent in Protestantism, and serve to help evangelicals today return to the biblical, classical, and Nicene doctrine of God.” - Credo
“The idea for prayer posts grew out of the myriad ways users have connected over Facebook while distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the spokesperson.” - RNS
“The contemporary environmentalist movement has often been flawed and clumsy and sometimes evil, as any movement made up of fallen sinners tends to be. But, at the core of it, is a concept Christians ought to recognize. It is that of creatureliness, and dependence, and longing for the permanent things.” - BPNews
Bahrain, the Central African Republic, and Sudan were dropped from the list of oppressive countries. - C.Today
“…most of us really do love people. A lot….If one expectation you have of love is talking a lot, you’re going to be disappointed at times. But, this may help to know—for some introverts, one expectation we have of love is giving the people we love time to not have to talk.” - C.Leaders
“What can a pastor, elder, or Christian leader do—besides continue to faithfully pastor and proclaim the law and the Gospel—to encourage and help police officers do their jobs faithfully in the fear of the LORD? One option you might consider is volunteering as a police chaplain.” - Ref21
“The new April 2021 issue of Themelios has 256 pages of editorials, articles, and book reviews. It is freely available in three formats” (Article Summaries at TGC)
The Scriptures constantly remind us to fear God (Leviticus 25:17, for example), and we find out that such a fear is the “beginning of knowledge” (ESV, Proverbs 1:7), while the fear of man “lays a snare” (Proverbs 29:25).
Many who choose to honor God struggle over what it means to “fear” God. Should we be afraid of him? Or does it mean we reverence him? Or some of both? Even believers in Jesus need to fear God in the sense that we fear his wrath, discipline, and displeasing him. We remember, as the writer to Hebrews reminds us, that our God is a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). Yet we can call God “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15), a term of endearment.
“The pre-Chauvin trial/Daunte Wright riots threaten justice longer-term, as well: They discourage anyone from joining the police force. Some 200 officers have quit the Minneapolis Police Department or taken extended leave due to last year’s BLM riots. Who wants a modest-paying, potentially deadly job where you are regularly accused of genocidally ‘hunting’ black people?” - Acton
“Have we tamed the tongue too much? Christians work to recover a biblical understanding of harmful hearsay vs. healthy criticism.” - C. Today
“Faithlife, the church technology company and makers of Logos Bible Software, [yesterday] released the newest, first-of-its-kind online integrated ministry platform, Faithlife Equip” - RNS
“By all means let us continue to be passionate for the truth and to use rhetoric and hyperbole when it is appropriate. But let us also lower the temperature so that we don’t attack others with rhetoric and hyperbole that will embarrass us on the last day.” - Thomas Schreiner
“The College of the Ozarks, a four-year liberal arts college in Point Lookout, filed a lawsuit in response to a February order from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that forces any entities that receive federal dollars covered by the Fair Housing Act to place transgender-identified biological males into female dormitories and assign them as females’ roommates.” - C. Post
“Pro-life activists have responded after Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson denounced the organization’s founder, Margaret Sanger, and accused the head of the abortion giant of attempting to undertake a ‘fake reckoning’ regarding Sanger’s ties to the eugenics movement.” - C.Post
Also at Christianity Today: What Pro-Lifers Can Learn from the Planned Parenthood Apology
“The common thread in all of these movements is that congregations are becoming more local. Fewer people desire to drive a long distance to attend a worship service. To state it more positively, people want to attend a house of worship that represents the neighborhood or locale where they live.” - Rainer
“When the only function of work is profit-centered—for personal gain and wealth—versus the recognition of the divine privilege of expressing the qualities and character of God who granted it, work becomes far less satisfying and far less beneficial to the society and the context in which the work is done.” - IFWE
“If your worldview isn’t robust enough to account for what we’re seeing all around us, then it makes sense to be frustrated and angry. Why won’t people listen? Why won’t they do the sensible—and virtuous—thing? Why?” - Olinger
Read Part 1.
Basically, this is a prayer for spiritual restoration. The psalmist has strayed from the “paths of righteousness,” and he cries out for the Great Shepherd to rescue him. He wants forgiveness, and he wants to know again the joy of his salvation. As he makes his petition he’s conscious of at two realities:
