Grace and peace to you today, my friends.
Today’s Kindle deals include Jon Nielson’s reader-friendly introduction to systematic theology and Abbey Wedgeworth’s compassionate book for women who have suffered a miscarriage.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Victim of a Grave Injustice)

There is a lot of merit to this—to not making jokes about the ways kids make our lives difficult. And I think the same should be said of husband/wife jokes.

Why is God’s name “hallowed” as we say in the Lord’s Prayer? “Because his fatherly hand touches everything. Because he fathers-forth the entire universe without being seen. Because his wildly creative and loving care is imprinted on mussel shells and magpie nests. God’s holiness is always wrapped up in his fatherly care—a mysterious love that goes before us and beyond us.”

Go beyond knowing Jesus saved you to having a lived experience of him–of enjoying him and being a joy to him, of loving him and being loved by him. Find out more in Tim Chester’s new book, Enjoying Jesus. Get 25% off with code ENJOYJESUS. (Sponsored)

Christianity Today has a long and interesting article about the Gettys and the modern hymn movement they have helped build and steer. (You should be able to read it, though you may need to register for a free account.)

Now that I consider it, it seems to be the case that internet culture is increasingly becoming the culture. “Christian thinkers and writers recognize the power of the internet and have been at the forefront of writing about the dangers of smartphone addiction, excessive social media use, and internet pornography. But where secular internet culture writers often approach their topics from a live-from-the-scene-of-the-crime perspective, Christian writers are frequently on the outside looking in. Both perspectives are important, but if we want to seek and save the lost where they are found, we cannot approach internet culture solely from the safety of the sidelines.”

Marty Machowski expresses how important it is that we teach our children not only to read but to value reading.

Karen considers the slow work of sanctification. “After we accept Christ, he places us on the potter’s wheel. For the rest of our lives, the wheel spins as God shapes us into the best version, the Christ-like version, of ourselves. The version he created us to be. Our hearts and souls are shaped as we live through experiences over time under the guiding hand of God.”

If we live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven—which is to say, if we live like Jesus—we will be out-of-step with the values of the kingdom of this world and people will hate us for it.

Fighting sheep are strange animals, and fighting Christians are self-evident contradictions.
—C.H. Spurgeon

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals are headlined by Tim Chester’s A Meal with Jesus and Megan Hill’s A Place to Belong.
Book Brief When the Sea Came Alive by Garrett M. Graff is a riveting oral history of D-Day told from the perspective of those who were there. It’s very much in the vein of his equally riveting The Only Plane in the Sky which is an oral history of 9/11. Both are highly recommended.
(Yesterday on the blog: Your Best and Worst Days)

“Crow bait. That’s how many people treat the search for truth. They pick and choose from the scraps of spiritual roadkill that has been leftover from the centuries.” I’ll have Clint explain that to you.

“The ultimately breaking of one part of God’s good intention for marriage. Every part of the marriage debate/debacle over the past few decades has been to destroy the God-givenness of it. Not to destroy God of course. But to become gods ourselves. And the more godlike we become the less like God we become.”

Kevin DeYoung explains why it’s impossible to make every issue “your thing.” That’s very freeing! “Only God is able to handle 8 billion people making requests to him. Only God is able to comprehend and handle an entire globe of joys and catastrophes and needs. The human psyche isn’t meant to bear that.”

Matt Smethurst offers some excellent guidance on identifying a great deacon—a crucial responsibility for every church. “So if eyeing future deacons, look for godly saints who see and meet needs discreetly (they don’t need or want credit), at their own expense (they sacrifice), and without being asked (they take the initiative to solve problems). Warning signs in a candidate, then, will include not merely a tendency to be quarrelsome but also a tendency to be disorganized or unreliable.”

“It is rare for anyone associated with the United Nations to take a stance against any aspect of the Sexual Revolution, and thus a recent report by Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on the causes and consequences of violence against girls stating that prostitution ‘reduces women and girls to mere commodities’ and ‘hinders their ability to achieve true equality’ is very encouraging.”

There’s an important principle behind the ancient proverb. “When life is going well, we can get complacent. People who get everything they want and have everything just the way they like it sometimes start to feel entitled. Though we know we need God’s grace and help in every circumstance, we feel our need of Him more during trials.”

The great daily challenge is, on the face of it, so very simple: to think like a Christian, to speak like a Christian, to act like a Christian. 

Joining a local church isn’t simply one aspect of your Christian life. The local church is the primary context where you live out your Christian discipleship.
—Sam Emadi

In my travels, I encountered a man whose work is demolition. When buildings are old and decrepit, or even when they just need to be removed to make way for others, his job is to destroy them and haul them away. New or old, big or small, plain or fancy—it makes no difference to him. He will blow it up, knock it down, or dismantle it piece by piece.
“Why are you in demolition?” “Because it’s a whole lot easier than construction. And it pays better too.” Fair enough. It’s good and honest work, that. Sometimes it’s necessary for the sake of safety—to remove what might collapse, injure, or kill. Sometimes it’s necessary for the sake of beauty—to remove eyesores that blight a cityscape. Sometimes it’s necessary for the sake of progress—so the old can make way for the new, the ancient for the modern, the broken down for what will soon be built up. Demolition can be good and honest work.
Later, I found myself thinking about how much more difficult it is to build than to destroy. Building is exacting work that depends upon precise measurements and careful craftsmanship. Demolition is brusque work that depends upon brute force and blunt strength. I found myself thinking about how much faster it is to build than to destroy. It may take years for a building to be constructed but just hours for it to be demolished. And I found myself thinking about how strange it is that this man had become wealthy by tearing down what others had so carefully built up.
There is a lot of that in the Christian world—a lot of demolition. In fact, there are many people who make a “ministry” out of demolishing what others have constructed. I have often cringed as I’ve seen people of little character and no accomplishments attempt to destroy what has been built by people of great character and substantial accomplishments. These people intuit that it is faster and easier to create a platform for themselves by destroying than by building—that they can earn a reputation for themselves by demolishing another person’s reputation, that they can gain a name for themselves by dragging another person’s name through the mud. The devil gives them the inspiration, the internet gives them the reach, and we give them the attention.
I’ve seen people of little character and no accomplishments attempt to destroy what has been built by people of great character and substantial accomplishments.Share
Of course, some ministries, like some buildings, deserve to be demolished. Some are so dangerous, so hideous, or so abhorrent that their loss is the church’s gain. Some ministers and some personalities ought to have been silenced and exposed long ago. But I have learned to be wary of those who make it their ministry to demolish people and organizations, for I have learned that they are often untrustworthy, unreliable, and unqualified. Demolition may be honest work in the world of business, but I’ve yet to see it form the basis of a valid ministry within the church.
The man whose business is demolition can surely find fault with every building and propose a reason to tear it down, for its loss is his gain. And the same is true of those who make a ministry of destruction. To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and to the person whose ministry is demolition, every word rings with heresy and every person resembles a heretic, for their loss is his gain, their destruction is her path to clicks, views, power, and self-importance. They have no need to commit themselves to the laborious work of putting on godly character, growing in leadership, casting vision, and persuading others to catch it. They need only dig for dirt, cast aspersions, and delight in destruction.
A lesson I have learned through long observation and hard experience is this: be wary of those whose life’s work is destruction and whose legacy is demolition. Be warier still of those who consider it their ministry and who conflate discernment with destruction. For it is hard to construct and easy to destroy. It is slow work to build up and quick work to tear down. And there are many who understand that the easiest way to gain a platform is to build it upon the rubble of someone else’s ministry or someone else’s reputation.