Here are some of the noteworthy reads found this week:
Was It All a Waste? HT to Challies. "Maybe you know the crush of rejection, the feel of wasted effort and time. Possibly, you know the sting of unappreciated labor."
What Makes for a Rich and Meaningful Devotional Life? "One of the most frequent questions I've been asked over the years (and one I struggled with myself as a young woman) is this: 'I know I'm supposed to be having a devotional time with God every day. What does that look like?' The short answer is that there's no short answer to that question!"
How Not to Apply the Bible, HT to Challies. "Here are four questions that will help you arrive at reliable applications of any section of the Bible."
On the same topic, Examples of Wrestling through the Prescriptive/Descriptive Debate. "Is this passage prescribing something we should imitate (or avoid), or is it simply describing what the characters did in their setting? I proposed that we can often eliminate the need for such a debate if we focus on applying the passage's main point."
Wherever He Leads, He'll Go, HT to Challies. "I nearly invited him to test me, telling him in a long, journaled prayer that wherever he led, I would most certainly go. I banked on my obedience. I would be stalwart, no matter what came. But life came. And the Lord led me to places I longed to escape from."
5 Ways to Personalize the Lord's Prayer. "Prayer can feel difficult sometimes—knowing how and when to do it or what and how to say it. We can find comfort in knowing we aren't alone with our uncertainties and questions. Even Jesus' disciples asked Him how to pray and He provides a direct answer—what we know as the Lord's prayer."
7 Parenting Errors That Can Influence Adult Children to Leave the Faith, HT to Challies. "When we married back in the 1980s, we dreamed of imparting a lifelong faith to our children and thus helping sustain Christ's kingdom for the next generation. But it didn't work out that way." This is a multi-faceted issue. Children have their own will, and no parent is free of mistakes. But the errors mentioned here are worthy of consideration.
Order, Preparation, and the Spirit's Leading, HT to Challies. I've heard exaltation of spontaneity over preparation as more spiritual in activities besides preaching and worship as well. I appreciate what Jacob says here. "Why don't we see that a pastor's careful pouring over the Scriptures in prayer and quiet meditation as just as much the Spirit's leading as a passion-filled moment in the pulpit? How do we think the depths of Scripture are plumbed? 'These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God' (1 Cor 2:10). Planning and preparation are not enemies of the Spirit."
Such changes are for us decreed;
Believers have their winters too;
But spring shall certainly succeed,
And all their former life renew.
--From the hymn "Though Cloudy Skies and Northern Blasts"
by John Newton
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