Jen Hatmaker and the Power of De-Conversion Stories
De-conversion stories are designed not to reach non-Christians but to reach Christians. And their purpose is to convince them that their crusty, backward, outdated, naïve beliefs are no longer worthy of their assent. A person simply shares his testimony of how he once thought like you did but have now seen the light.
Eschatological Discipleship by Trevin Wax
I’m an advocate for making disciples in a way that helps followers of Christ navigate the darkness of our contemporary age. As people who recognise they are living in the kingdom of God, our focus should be on bringing the values of the kingdom that is soon to be established in all its fullness to our world and issues today. Trevin’s new book looks like a valuable contribution to this important discussion.
Counseling and the “Inconsonable Things”
At the close of 2017 and into the new year, I’ve been making more intentional efforts to establish some key relationships with trusted mentors and a spiritual director. There’s only so much growth that I can undergo on my own, and we were made for community. None of us will be perfect until Jesus comes again, but the great gift of his Holy Spirit gives us faith and strength to go into the ring; so we keep fighting the good fight.
Pursue God, Not Pornography
There are some great resources linked here, in what is still one of the most prevalent areas of ongoing sin—for Christian men as much as any other. This quote in particular demonstrates its destructiveness:
I am not being hyperbolic when I call porn use a civilizational calamity. The sexual revolution promised us more sex and more pleasure. It has actually delivered to us a generation of men who think of women as objects to be used and abused for their sexual pleasure. It has not given us men who know what virtue and honor are. It doesn’t teach men to pursue their joy in self-sacrificially loving and being sexually faithful to one woman for life. It teaches young men to use women for sex and then to discard them when they become unwilling or uninteresting. This means that it has given us a generation of young men completely unprepared for marriage and for fatherhood.
Countermoves: A New Podcast from ERLC
I’m always on the lookout for new podcasts that will stimulate, entertain, or grow me in my awareness of the world around me. This new monthly podcast from Andrew Walker (author of God and the Transgender Debate) seeks to provide a Christian review of ideas shaping church and culture, and I’m keen for the first episode any day now. Maybe it’s your thing too.
