Good morning from northern India! I am in India primarily to do research related to my EPIC project but I’m also spending a little time catching up with friends. Delhi Bible Fellowship South is hosting an lunch event beginning at noon on Sunday. If you’re in the area, I’d love to meet you there. I’ll try to post more information on it later in the week.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few noteworthy deals.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Folly Bound Up in the Heart of a Child)
Should Christians Withdraw from the World?
R.C. Sproul has an answer. “The church is not a ghetto or a reservation. True, the world wants to put us there, to force us out of the world into the four walls of the church building, outside of which we are never to speak of sin or the salvation that comes only in Christ. However, we don’t have to let the world do that. I fear that all too often we blame the world for our failure to engage it when, in reality, we are more comfortable hiding from the world’s hostility.”
The Nashville Statement Confronts Heresy
Denny Burk explains why the Nashville Statement was necessary and important. “Today Christianity is facing a conflict with the zeitgeist over sexual morality, and there are no shortage of attempts to ‘reconcile’ the faith with a revolution in sexual mores that is inherently incompatible with the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).”
Making Time for Family Worship in a Crazy, Busy World
“So how do we still have family worship throughout all the busyness? We’ve had to make it really simple. Here are a few of the ways you can include family worship throughout your day—no matter how busy and chaotic your life might be right now.”
China Bans Zion, Beijing’s Biggest House Church
Christianity Today reports. “Beijing authorities threatened to close Zion Church last month after the 1,500-member congregation, one of the Chinese capital’s largest house churches, refused to install surveillance cameras in its sanctuary. After services on Sunday, officials delivered on their threat…”
Servant of the Church of God
It’s always good to read an obituary of a believer. “Early on Friday 7 September one of Australia’s most brilliant biblical scholars and influential church leaders went to be with the Lord whom he loved and so faithfully served. If you are an Australian evangelical, you owe him a great debt, even if you’ve never heard of him. His name was Donald William Bradley Robinson. He was 95 years old.”
Is Anyone Born Gay?
Here is Christopher Yuan’s answer to a tricky question. “Sexual orientation seemed self-evidently true. But what truth did it reveal? Should we simply accept sexual orientation as the way things are, as the only terminology to describe enduring and unchosen same-sex attractions? Or should we step back and critically assess this idea in light of God’s truth about who we are? Honestly, we cannot begin to understand human sexuality until we first start with ‘theological anthropology,’ meaning what God thinks, and reveals, about who we are.”
Let Them Not Share in the Affairs of Life
“So, what did Christians do that caused such irritation in Celsus? In short, Celsus thought Christians were bad citizens. Job number one for any Roman citizen was to participate in the public, corporate worship of the Roman gods. And it was precisely this that Christians refused to do. After all, they were monotheists. They worshiped Jesus and him alone.”
Flashback: The Duty of Devotion
The Christian’s devotion to God is both duty and delight. It is an expression of the love we have for God and the loyalty we long to express to him.
The true gospel is a call to self-denial. It is not a call to self-fulfillment.
—John MacArthur
