Five Star Links

Each Friday, we share links we found especially interesting or inspiring during the previous week. 

Persis:

Tim Bertolet writes about several heresies that arose in the early church. Why learn about them? "Sometimes, when we look at ancient heresies it helps us see with clarity errors in our own day. As we said, these specific heresies have long since faded into the dust of history. However, sometimes in our modern age you can find similar points of overlap."

Kim:

I really appreciate Mike Leake's writing. He is especially thoughtful regarding matters of mental health, He asks a very good question: "Where Does My Disability Come From?"

Here is my question. Is God the source of my mental disorder? (And frankly, I’m still not quite comfortable with that designation, but I’ll pick it up here for the sake of argument). And what if I extend my question out a bit further and ask if God is the source of physical and emotional disabilities as well?

Rebecca:

This is the story of the life of one Singer treadle sewing machine.

Therese Pierrot runs her hand across the splintered wood of her Singer sewing machine. 

She’s had it since she was 14 years old, working at a hospital in Aklavik, N.W.T.

For almost 70 years, Pierrot has used the machine to make clothes for her children and community, but with failing eyesight, she decided this year that it was time to let it go.

This piece isn't specifically Christian, but I do think it's the best thing I read online this week.

Deb:

This blog post from Jasmine Holmes hit home this week in many ways. Though I won't completely understand the details and unique parts of this story, so much of it is relatable for me - and I trust for most Christian women today. Excerpt:

"These few verses outline three immediate benefits of community: humility, right judgment, and fellowship.

Community enables us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. In fact, it calls us to be others-focused, thinking outside of ourselves more than in (Philippians 2:1-11). Without community, I become incredibly self-centered and self-deprecating. I fail to seek out ways to love others.

Community also helps us to have right judgment of ourselves. I tend to be a navel-gazer, and while self-examination is good (and biblical — 2 Corinthians 13:5), doing it alone is a good way not to be able to see ourselves clearly. Life on an island reinforces skewed self-perception.

And community enables us to take part in the fellowship that we were made for."

Read the entire article.

Five Star Links

Each Friday, we share links we found especially interesting or inspiring during the previous week. 

Kim:

Theology isn't just for men. For those who read here regularly, you already know that is how we feel here. This article "Why Women Should Be Readers of Good Books" explains that our knowledge of theology is important for others in our own lives, including husbands and children.

Be sure to click on the "open" icon to open the article.


Persis:

Simonetta Carr writes about Bathsua Makin (1600-1675) a champion for the education of women during a time when women were discouraged from reading studying and thinking independently.


Rebecca:

"The triune gospel is . . . God giving himself to you in creation and redemption. The same Son who was begotten by the Father before all worlds was sent by the Father into this world, to live and die for us and our salvation. And the same Spirit who proceeded from the Father and the Son from all eternity was sent by the Father and the Son into this world, to live inside us and bring us to Christ—and through Christ to the Father—so that we might be taken into his family, surrounded by his life and love, to glorify and enjoy him forever.

"This is the Holy Trinity. This isn’t just a doctrine; this is our life."

Quotes of Note

Each Monday, we share quotes we found encouraging, convicting, thought-provoking,  or all of the above.

Kim:

More good reading in Grant Osborne's commentary, Revelation, Verse by Verse. I really encourage you to try reading a commentary as you read any other book. Choose a book of the Bible, and find a devotional or pastoral commentary, and have your daily Bible readings and prayer in conjunction with a commentary. If you're ever looking for a place to find commentaries, try Best Commentaries. This site has many good suggestions, and indicate whether the commentary is devotional, pastoral, or technical.

In a passage discussing the church at Laodicea (Rev. 3:19-20), we learn about the redemptive aspect of God's wrath:

We are used to thinking of the wrath of God as the basis of judgment, yet God's love is shown to the spiritually defeated as well as to the victorious. All passages on judgment against God's people from the 40 years in the wilderness to the exile to discipline in the New Testament, are redemptive in purpose and meant to wake God's people up spiritually and bring them to repentance. For the righteous, God's discipline is a purifying process; for the weak it is a wake up call. Rebuke and discipline build on each other. The first connotes a reproof that points out a problem and convinces the person to act on it. The second refers to a punishment that corrects the error and trains the person in the right way to live for God.

Persis:

My pastor, Ryan Davidson, who is also a counselor, taught the adult Sunday school class yesterday on the Christian and Anxiety. He wrote a short booklet on the subject, which I am quoting here:

The Christian, including the Christian struggling with anxiety, is united to Christ (Rom. 6). Christ is our redemption and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30) and the Lord will complete the work He has begun in us (Phil. 1:6). Therefore, in our continual wrestling with fear, worry, and anxiety, we need to constantly remember, that we are assured resurrection and ultimate freedom from every sin and infirmity on the last day. Our struggle must be framed with the reality of who we are in Christ. This One, who will not bruise a tender reed (Jer. 42:13), is the One to whom we are indivisibly united. 

Rebecca:

James M. Hamilton on God's design for work in his creation as it was before the fall:

In the very good world as God created it (Genesis 1:31), prior to the entrance of sin (cf. 3:1-8), God gave man marriage to enable the completion of God-given and God-sized responsibilities. This is true in merely logistical terms—without the woman the man cannot be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. What the narrator draws our attention to, however, is the more significant relational blessing that God's gift of the woman was designed to be. God said that it was not good for the man to be alone (Gen. 2:18), and he created a very good companion in the woman (2:22). This means that the fellowship and companionship and soul-deep oneness in the marriage of the man and the woman (2:23-25) were given to make the filling, subduing, and ruling over the world a delightful adventure undertaken together. [Work and Our Labor in the Lord, page 20.]

Of course, we live after the fall, so this picture of work and marriage is not our reality. But this is how it should be: shared responsibility and shared joy in work that fulfills God's purpose for us as image bearers.

Five Star Links

Each Friday, we share links we found especially interesting or inspiring during the previous week. 

Persis:

Are women inherently less wise than men? Is this just an issue of gender or is the root deeper than that?  Rachel Darnall takes the issue back to our understanding of "the nature, source, and purpose of wisdom."

If women are barred from understanding the things of God based on our sex, then we are indeed to be pitied, but not because our folly disqualifies us from standing behind a pulpit. A pulpit is a nothing more than piece of wood, and it is of little eternal consequence whether one stands behind it or sits in front of it. What matters is eternal fellowship with Christ; and if we do not have the mind of Christ – which is the only way to be wise – then we do not have Christ.

Kim:

I remember being very unprepared to answer this question from my own children: "How do we know the Bible is authoritative?" I'm pretty sure many people ask that question. Here is a helpful article which discusses 7 Things You Should Know About the Formation of the New Testament:

We have over 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. The second closest ancient text is Homer’s Iliad. We possess less than 2,000 copies of this work. The works of Aristotle, Plato, Herodotus, Tacitus, and many others are even more poorly preserved; and yet, no one doubts their authenticity. 

Rebecca: 

Do you have a family member who is apostate? Many of us do.

Here's some good advice on how to respond when a family member—or friend, for that matter—leaves the faith.

Five Star Links

Each Friday, we share links we found especially interesting or inspiring during the previous week. 

Kim:

The way we conduct ourselves online is something I think about quite a bit. Karen Swallow Prior has a lot of wisdom in her post 9 Ways to Make Social Media More Christian

The world is watching, too. And there is likely nothing more representative of the spirit of Christ in this narcissistic world than genuine spirit of humility. Sadly, this spirit is too rare on social media, even among Christians.

Rebecca:

Diane Bucknell shares the story of the mystery woman who told her the Good News at the Minneapolis Bus Depot. Her seed eventually bore fruit, but there's even more to the story.


Persis:

Some wisdom from Pastor Sam Powell on the importance of listening -

We are OCD with theological error. We completely miss someone’s trauma, but woe to the uninformed that uses the word “potluck” (you mean “pot providence”) or “My father was a good man” (THERE IS NONE GOOD; NO NOT ONE!) Just like Mr. Monk, if all of the theological ducks aren’t neatly lined up to our liking, we shut down... There is a time and place for correcting theology, but remember that we would be in a far better place to do that if we first learned how to listen.