Thanks so much for all of the comments and facebook notes and emails too. My dad passed about an hour ago. It’s a strange and sad day of course. Really appreciate all of your kindnesses—   Yours, Tara B.  

Pastor Brian Croft continues to share solid gold nuggets of pastoral wisdom over at Practical Shepherding. Don’t miss today’s post: What is a common, yet unbiblical, way that a pastor evaluates his ministry? As always, he is specifically speaking to pastors, but I can’t help but think of how his insights apply to every Christian ministry. Yes, we laypeople will not be called to give an account for the souls of people because we do not hold ecclesiastical authority over them. But still, we have duties to our leaders and duties to our fellow church members. God calls us to pray for, bless, serve, encourage, bear with, protect, help, forgive,…

This (insightful!) CCEF article is about a mother of a groom, but really? It’s about every single one of us. We all have fears and idols and escapist tendencies. We all struggle with guilt, envy, and pride. And some of us are prone to “wining” (to quote the author—“no typo”). Read it and be blessed: The Emotional Life of the Mother of the Groom   (HT: my FaceBook friend and real-life friend, Bobbi M.)  

I really appreciated Pastor Anyabwile’s summary of these excellent articles by Ligon Duncan: The Gospel and the Local Congregation What is Evangelism? And What is the Gospel? I encourage you to read the entire articles themselves (or at least Thabiti’s summary), here are just a few excerpts to tempt you: “By [gospel culture] I mean: – that your whole congregation would be able to articulate the Gospel, personally, in a compelling and understandable way; – that your whole congregation would deeply care about conversions (and I would lay stress here, that we are talking about real conversions, not numbers; but disciples, not decisions; but changed lives); – that your whole…

No matter what is on your heart as you wake up this Monday morning, I bet these 3 minutes and 49 seconds will help to reorient you to a God-centered focus that  says, “Yes! This is true. Thank You, Lord, that this really is true.” (HT: The Gopel Coalition Blog)  

This will give some of you the heebie-jeebies, but others may enjoy it: Getting Things Done to the Next Level If you already feel disorganized, overwhelmed, and that you’ll never be able to get a handle on everything in your life, I encourage you to not read it. Instead? Spend time with a friend who LIKES to organize things and can gently, calmly, help you to take one little step at a time into making order out of chaos.   But if you LOVE “GTD” or if you just enjoy order and tasklists, etc. etc., enjoy! It’s quite a read. (HT: Challies.com)  

Our mini-vacation with the Lyndes in beautiful Butte, Montana is coming to a close. We’ve had lots of fun at the An Ri Ra Irish Festival, including a dance class with the internationally renown Chicago-based Trinity Irish Dancers: A visit to the Berkeley Pit: And mostly just hanging out together, having fun:   Back to the real world soon! Hope your weekend is a blessed one— Yours, Tara B. PS Here are the two photos that Samaralara likes the best. Especially the second one:  

Kevin DeYoung quotes Charles Spurgeon and makes me cringe (and pray that I will speak LESS!): “Above all things beware of letting your tongue outrun your brains. Guard against  a feeble fluency, a garrulous prosiness, a facility of saying nothing … My brethren, it is a hideous gift to possess, to be able to say nothing at extreme length.”  

So intense. (A little too rocky music-wise for my simple ears.) But SO good too: HT: TakeYourVitaminZ  

Would you like to be encouraged this morning? Enjoy these reflections from Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile on his recent trip to The Legacy Conference: Random Reflections on the Legacy Conference Wow! The ministry of the Church in urban settings is amazing. (I’m getting a big dose of that through my Tim Keller podcasts.) Plus? That city of Chicago has got it going on! Totally reminds me of going to the ol’ Moody Bible Institute Friday Sing as a brand-new (teenage) Christian. ‘Course, I’m sure the music at this conference was a little different from the Gaither songs, hymns, and 1980’s (brand-new) contemporary Christian songs we sang, you know, 25+ years ago.…