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Loving Those Who Don’t Love You
Just got back from a brisk walk with Lilikoi and WOW! Was I blessed and challenged by a Ligon Duncan sermon: “Loving Those Who Don’t Love You.” I truly wish that my Ipod/mp3 skills were better and I could figure out how to give you a link to the exact sermon—but the best I can do is direct you to a page of a zillion of his sermons and tell you that it’s number 26: First Pres Sermons I think I’m going to ask Fred to teach me how to load all of them onto my Ipod-thingamajig because I really want to continue to work through them. Thank God for…
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Become What You Are
Justin Taylor hits it out of the park with his recent post on GOSPEL CHANGE: Imperatives without Indicatives = Impossibilities Please read it. For yourself, your spouse, children, friend, pastor, sheep. If only we could really GET THIS and live it out! Oh, the sweetness of grace that would overflow in our own lives, families, churches, workplaces, communities. Let me tempt you with just a snippet: “The dominant mode of evangelical preaching on sanctification, the main way to motivate for godly living, sounds something like this: You are not _____; You should be _________; Therefore, do or be ________! Fill in the blank with anything good and biblical (holy; salt…
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Shepherding a Church Member Who Doesn’t Like You
Brian Croft’s blog (Practical Shepherding) is quickly becoming one of my must-reads each day. This post is one example of why: How Do I Shepherd a Church Member Who Doesn’t Like Me? His first point is CLASSIC: “1) Take an interest in what they love and enjoy. I confess I have walked an indoor track with elderly ladies, gardened, played with rabbits, visited people in the hospital I didn’t know, ate food still unidentifiable to me, all to take an interest in what they love so to communicate love for them. Even if they don’t receive it well, this act of humility will sanctify you.” SO true. And SO wise.…
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Looking for a GREAT Mother’s Day Gift? Buy this book! Real Love for Real Life (by Andi Ashworth)
My gracious event host in Tennessee gave me many treasures this past weekend, but one that I am just beginning to open up and enjoy is this book by Andi Ashworth: Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring (That’s the link to its Amazon page so that you can read all about it, but you’ll definitely want to buy it here from her husband (Charlie Peacock’s) online store to avoid the $38 Amazon price. Yowza! It’s $10 on his site.) I’ve only gotten into the first couple of chapters, but already I’m thinking of many “unpaid caregivers” (her words) whose work is “fundamental to sustaining the…
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WHOOPS — That’s “D.Min.” NOT “Demon”
Falling squarely within the “let’s tighten up that wording next time, Tara, so that you communicate in such a way that you CANNOT BE MISUNDERSTOOD” category … Today a woman (so gently and graciously) asked me to clarify what I meant when I said: “My pastor is a demon.” OK. Seriously. I’ve been asked a LOT of questions over the years at women’s events and I have to say, to a certain extent, I’ve kind of felt like I’ve heard them all. At least in a big-brushstroke-kind-of-way. But this? (Oh! She was SO sweet and SO kind.) “It’s just not clear to me, dear, what you meant by saying that…
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All I Have is Christ
I’ve watched this video a few times in the last week (well, technically, I had it playing in the background—I’ve never actually watched the video, I just appreciate the words and music). Each time, I’ve been tremendously blessed to be drawn by the Holy Spirit into intimate, abiding worship of the Triune God. I hope it likewise helps to lead you by the Spirit to the throne room of Christ our King and God the Father. What a Savior! What a God.
