Five Star Links

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

Persis:

This is another letter in the Seven Letters Seven Dangers series - The Doctrinaire Church, a post that hits close to home. How easy it is to love the truth but fail to love the Giver of truth. This shows in how we use the truth.

You are right to pursue truth and know the Scriptures. But be on guard against being doctrinaire. Our brother Paul said “watch your life and doctrine closely.” Our temptation is to use our doctrines in ways that is cold, dry, or even forceful, hurtful and graceless.

This is also another thought-provoking post - On Being the Church for the Weak. When the goal is tp be a "church for winners," does that create real community? Or is it enduring together knowing full well that we are weak and broken?

Even my own life is full of habits of being that pursue prominence and push away vulnerability. The church is a profoundly painful place because we all have ways of hurting each other by our very ways of being...

So why do I choose church membership again and again? The church is the place where the Lordship of Jesus Christ is confessed and enacted week by week. The church is the place where I can climb down the ladder to meet him as he reaches down to the dust to heal the weakest.

Rebecca:

On putting a theology degree (or even just some solid knowledge of theology) to work in unexpected places. 

Could a theology degree equip you to produce a blog, newsletter, curriculum, or podcast to serve your local church?

Could a theology degree allow you to answer the complex questions of younger women?

If you’re a woman with a theology degree—or just a solid foundation through your childhood, church, or college ministry—you are needed.

And one more for good measure: Jared Wilson shows that Job 31:13-15 tells us at least three things about the unborn.