"Early Americans bore energetic witness to bodily suffering. What can their example teach believers today?" - C.Today
"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
"1. Do I want to glorify God or to glorify myself? Edwards’s fourth resolution is 'never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.'" - TGC
"Lives are changed when we see ourselves as stewards committed to a greater purpose than self, a greater cause than self. It all changes when our worldview and mindset commit it all to a greater purpose and something eternal." - TIFWE
"...the Christian hope of the Gospel reframes our sense of what matters most. In contrast with the secular zeitgeist, Christianity refuses to reduce everything to politics or to try to politicize everything. As we seek to be faithful citizens and to steward our freedoms well, we are also mindful of our status as “elect exiles” who await the consummation of Christ’s kingdom and our eternal home." - Matthew J. Hall
By M.R. Conrad, reposted from Rooted Thinking.
Bathe the children. Cook three square meals. Weed the garden. Repair the fence. Beat back the vines of the encroaching jungle. Unclog the outhouse. Patch the hole in the roof. Help the neighbors. Such was the life of missionary Mary Slessor. Far from the conveniences of her homeland, this Scottish woman found the mundane chores of daily life in Nigeria consuming her time. Is your life similarly filled with repetitive, mind-numbing tasks? Do you feel there is little value in the mundane?
As a child listening to missionary stories, I never saw this side of Mary Slessor. Yes, Slessor saved infants from being murdered. She rescued slaves and battered women. She calmly knitted while armed chiefs raged at one another. Most importantly, she introduced the gospel to areas few missionaries dared to go. However, biographies often leave out the boring parts of everyday life. They must, or you wouldn’t keep reading!
In her correspondence, Slessor candidly reported the mundane tasks that consumed most of her days. Summing up, she wrote, “So, you see, life here, as at home, is just a record of small duties which occupy the time, and task the strength without much to show for it.”1 Years passed, and her work remained a mostly domestic affair with no churches planted in her region and few converts to report.
"What Hoerr’s encouraging words reminded me of, though, is that God has known all along that the risks presented by the novel coronavirus awaited us this year." - IFWE
