Like many of you, I’ve been thinking a lot about our world: our changing culture, our shifting political landscape, our land that speaks (shouts?) a whole lot, yet never listens to one another. How can we as Christians be different? What could help point us toward being disciples of Jesus who show our neighbors what our Master is like?
This week, we’ll hear from three helpful voices…
- “Welcome to Exile: It’s Going to Be Ok” In this article by Alistair Begg, we are challenged to take the Lord’s perspective – as revealed in the Scriptures – on what it means to live faithfully during trying times: “We have seen more than Daniel could. We know the name of the rock; we can look back in history and around in our world and see how the rock became a mountain. Yet we find ourselves complaining about everything, looking back to the good old days and worrying that the church cannot survive the empire of an aggressively secular post-Christendom. Too much of the public face of evangelicalism is characterized by angry venting or panicking—rather than prayerful, humble, calm, and confident belief in a sovereign God who is in control of things.” If you find Begg’s comments helpful, the book that is referenced at the end of his blog post is available in our church library.
- “How to Weather the Worsening Trust Crisis” Brett McCracken has written a very helpful book (also available in our church library) on what wisdom looks like in practical terms. This article gives a good appetizer for what trust looks like – and what it doesn’t look like: “In a sped-up world where the #breaking buzz of the moment occupies a large portion of our knowledge diet, slowing down is essential for wisdom. The test of time is a rigorous test. It allows reporting to be verified, facts to be checked, sources to be investigated, reasoning and tone to be considered. Given the choice between a hot take on a complicated subject and a decades-old book, article, or documentary that’s still cited and celebrated, go with the latter. A med student’s health advice will naturally carry less weight than a doctor who’s been practicing for 30 years. An engaged couple’s marital advice should be taken with bigger grains of salt than a couple that’s been faithfully wed for 40 years. As a general rule, trust the older over the newer and the slower over the faster.“
- Lastly, from the first chapter of J. C. Ryle’s Knots Untied, a quote about the trustworthiness of the Scriptures and how we who are Christian are called to cling to them in a world that looks anywhere and everywhere else…
