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When All Else Fails — Pray the Gospel
Practical Shepherding is staying strong as one of the few blogs I read on a regular basis. This wise and experienced pastor is ministering to many other pastors, I am sure. But as a sheep, I love it too! Not only because it (hopefully) helps me to be a better sheep (and help / encourage / pray for my leaders), but also because the lessons are so often transferable to situations in my own lay-person life. Take this post: What Can I Pray When Praying with the Sick in the Hospital? Yes, this is great advice for pastors. But isn’t it great advice for ALL Christians? I mean, how many…
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But I Don’t Want to Act in a Loving Manner …
We are continuing through Paul Miller’s A Praying Life in our women’s study and I’m glad we are. My prayer life truly has changed throughout the course of our time together. I am definitely listening more to God and sharing more of my heart with Him as I go throughout my day. (The subtitle, “Connecting With God in a Distracting World” is a great one—very accurate.) Plus, I just know that if it weren’t for the study, I would never actually FINISH the book. (I start a lot of books but don’t finish all of them.) In addition to the substance of the study, it’s also been good to be…
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What Did You Expect?
I just snatched Paul Tripp’s latest book (What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage) from WTS for practically FREE by redeeming my Challies Friends of the Blog WTS credit before their huge sale ends (a hardcover book that I wanted to buy anyway for only $8.99!). Combine that sale with my $10 Challies credit so I’m just covering like $2 in media mail shipping?! Hooray! What a deal. Just wanted to be sure you knew about it too … 🙂
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Every Human Wish or Dream That is Injected into the Christian Community is a Hindrance to Genuine Community
I awoke this morning thinking about some real-life situations in my real-life Christian community. And then I was encouraged by this Bonhoeffer quote (from Life Together): “Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a…
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Would you like to be a published author?
If you’ve ever thought about publishing a book, Tim Challies has an exciting announcement for you: Announcing Cruciform Press Proposals and manuscripts are invited! I encourage you to check it out. The men involved in the creation of this company sound top-notch. And of course, we’re huge Challies.com fans around here. Blessings to you as you seek to serve through the written word! Yours, Tara B.
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Consider Becoming a Friend of Tim Challies’ Blog!
Tim Challies has a great offer up at his blog: Become a Friend of The Blog For $39 you get a TON of great resources immediately, the chance to win a Kindle, and I’m sure more great offers will come soon too. I was going to buy the Tim Keller DVD series anyway, so that alone practically pays for the subscription. Well done, Challies.com! Hope you all enjoy— Yours, Tara B. PS This is the list of current goodies: – A $10 gift certificate from Westminster Books – A $20 gift certificate from ChristianAudio (for the first 250 Friends only so don’t dawdle! They will go fast.) – You choose…
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That the Glory of God Would be Shown
A beautiful read over at Wrestling with an Angel: A Birthday Letter to My Son And a frighteningly must read by Jared Wilson re: p*rn consumption in hotels when Christian conventions are in town: Your Private Life Gives Public Witness If you enjoy theology, you’ll enjoy this lovely regular post from Rebecca Writes (this is a link to her category archive): Theological Term of the Week And hooray! HT: MIS! More Paige Benton Brown teachings here.
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Do All Pastors Need to be Administrators / Organizers?
Hmmmmm … interesting post by Chris Brauns (currently guest posting over at TakeYourVitaminZ): Do All Leaders in the Local Church Need to Be Gifted Administrators/Organizers? The answer may surprise you. It did, me. But upon further reflection, especially thinking through the various church conflicts I’ve either been involved with or assisted with, I have to say, “Yes. That’s right.” (How many church splits can trace their initial trajectory to a miscommunication / someone dropping the ball and really hurting someone by letting them down / leaders who scare their sheep by not keeping them informed, etc.) Plus, this highlights yet another wonderful practical reason for learning to enjoy—and benefit…
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Just Let It GO! (Oh my ….)
Chris Brauns is guest posting over at TakeYourVitaminZ and his post is worth the read: Have You Ever Made a Big Deal Out Of Something That Wasn’t a Big Deal? Read this post. It might help you to drop stuff in the future. We’re doing OK here. Kind of a long night, but today’s a new day! Great news: The vet said that Lili did not decline further in the night. They’re going to keep her on fluids and gradually introduce foods and see how she does. This morning Soph and I wrestled through subdividing some complex rhythms in a violin piece. Like so many musicians, she plays very well…
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From Bad to Worse (with moments of grace …)
Just a quick update on my, ummm, challenging day. THANK YOU for praying and for the kind emails/fb comments/blog comments. I truly appreciate it. My day was certainly a challenging one to begin, but I had a lovely conversation with a friend mid-day, so that was great. But my dental work was excruciating and still is—plus, it’s now morphed into a throbbing, blinding, nauseating migraine. No fun. But the girls and I are getting through it. (Soph did our Bible reading tonight. 🙂 ) The most stressful part of my day is related to my sweet Golden, Lilikoi: I’m just SO grateful that I followed my instincts and took her…
