Friday, September 28, 2012

Take Up and Read

First, why should we study eschatology? Why should we care about the end of the world and the millennium, etc? Ligonier Ministries gives six good reasons.

Glenn Stanton gives an eye opening look at divorce statistics in the church. He points out that active conservative Christians are 35% less likely to get a divorce than the average non Christian. The nominal Christian is 20% more likely to get a divorce than the average non Christian. The way to get less divorces among Christians is to move more Christians from the nominal to active category.

At our church we confess our sins every week. We kneel down and ask the Lord to forgive us. It is a great practice and one I would highly recommend. But it is not magic. Our hearts can stray even while we are doing this. Toby Sumpter explains how weekly confession of sin can be corrupted.  It is a good reminder that liturgical practices are no automatic blessings. They are only blessing when they come with real faith.  Those of us who love liturgy need to keep preaching this to ourselves.

While you are over at Toby's site you should read his post on how contemporary music preaches a false gospel of the cross by glorying in false suffering. We all need to be redeemed. The question is will we choose the cross as our redemption or some other path.

Here is a wonderful reflection on some of the problems with the way church has been done in the last few decades. He is talking about youth ministry in particular, but it can easily be applied to other areas of church life. Note that he sees the main problem as giving people what they "prefer." This comes straight back to the elders. Elders are supposed to lead according to God's Word. They are not supposed to take surveys and then give the people what they want.

I really enjoyed this interview from Sinclair Ferguson. The last section is best when he discusses the discouraging and encouraging signs he sees in American Christianity.

Finally, Gene Veith gives a report on President Obama and Mitt Romney's campaign strategies in his state where he lives, Virginia, which also happens to be one of the battleground states.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Peter,
Thank you for linking to my blog. I appreciate the traffic. You have a lot of good stuff here.

Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud on their beds, let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind the kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. Psalm 149:5-8