The Problem With Spiritual Tips
I’m a sucker for tips. I love reading articles with titles like “50 Ways to Make Your Life Better Without Even Getting Off the Couch”. If you write a blog post entitled “7 Secrets For a Successful Garden”, I’m all over it. And I hate gardening.
I can get sucked into “Christian Tips” as well. “Five Ways to Dive Deep In Prayer”, “Three Ways To Get Your Holiness on In 2K9″, etc. Some of these articles really are valuable. Some are fluff.
But here’s the thing: my spiritual growth in 2009 isn’t going to be the result of finding the right tip list. Growth is the result of prayerfully wielding the word of God …
Worthless bum!
“Could you spare 35 cents for a sandwich?” A worthless bum, standing amongst the city’s downtown club scene, asked us for money. We knew where the money would go — probably for cocaine. Worthless bum.
– wait a minute –
I’m no better! …
James White: Is Mormonism Christian?
Not everyone is adopting a formalized Bible-reading plan for 2009
Jordin Sparks, Corbin Bleu and other young stars narrate New Testament
Thinking About a New Year
I was very proud of myself on New Year’s Day because I accomplished a great deal. Being productive is a great way to start the new year, I told myself. It sets the right tone and all that.
Then I opened my fortune cookie at dinner. It was empty. Nada. Nothing. At last the fortune cookie industry is recognizing the truth: No one knows the future except God. I ate that cookie with great satisfaction …
Billy Graham affirms, we will be reunited with loved ones in heaven
10 questions to ask at the start of a new year
Don Whitney (HT: Justin Taylor)
Study finds ‘religious belief and piety promote self-control’
NY Times story by John Tierney (HT: Rod Dreher)
‘10 Reasons to Pray the Scriptures’
Pray with others, not just for others
Christopher Hitchens’ god is not Great
Review by Aaron at twoorthree.net
‘A New Year’s Prayer for Our Nation – 2009′
By Ben Witherington
“Lord God, maker of all that is good, and true and beautiful, all that is right, and righteous, and holy, all that is giving and forgiving and merciful, we entreat you on this day to have mercy on our nation America.
We confess to you that we have been self-centered, self-seeking, self-indulgent, self-absorbed. Sometimes we have even assumed that we are your favorite people, but Lord in our better moments we know that arrogance and ignorance dull our spiritual senses and cause us to over-estimate our standing with you, over-compensate for our own sense of being a young and inexperienced nation, and over-react to those who would do us harm …”
Things that happened for the first time in 2008
A list by FellowElder at Pure Church
Merry Christmas from The Daily Scroll
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Galatians 4:4-5
