Weekly Once-Over (11.21.2013)

Weekly Once-Over (11.21.2013):

5 Things Mistaken for Evangelism: In the matter of evangelism, I’m concerned about a number of things that people take to be evangelism that aren’t. And this case of mistaken identity can have consequences more serious than mere embarrassment. Let me mention five things mistaken for evangelism.

How To Live In A Secular Culture: How should Christians relate to a secular society that does not know Jesus? Paul’s letter to Titus sheds light on this scenario, showing us how God’s grace should motivate Christians to be good citizens and neighbors.

Intolerant Tolerance: Today morality is more like wine tasting than banking. In banking, there is a right and wrong answer. If you deposit a thousand dollars in a new bank account and a week later try to withdraw eighty dollars, you would not be willing to agree to disagree when the teller says your account is empty. But we don’t see morality like banking anymore. Instead, we see it more like wine tasting. In wine tasting, everyone has their favorite blends and no one is necessarily right or wrong—it all depends on individual palates. No one has the right to declare as an absolute truth that simply because they prefer a specific grape or vintage, it is superior to all other wines. The problem is, the God of the Bible sees morality like banking, not wine tasting. 

The Cure For Backsliding: All Christians are sinners, but not all Christians are currently backsliding. Backsliding is not the loss of one’s salvation (this is impossible), nor the loss of God’s love and care (his faithfulness endures forever). To say it simply, a backslidden Christian is one whose communion with Christ is waning and whose faith is weakening. I shared what some potential symptoms of a backslidden condition look like in a previous post on my site. Today, I would like to point us to the cure for a backslidden heart.

Why You Can't Push Your Kids Into The Kingdom: Children are a divine stewardship. They are not for us to own, but for us to love, carefully guide, and then release to God’s provident care. We cannot pressure, bully or force them into faith. We parent, not with anticipation of some promised outcome, but out of faithfulness to Jesus, leaving the outcome to him.

The Idol Of Hospitality: My husband and I host people in our home all the time. We are called to live in community with one another. We strive to live in community on a regular basis, but with that community comes hosting duties. As a hostess I provide food, entertainment, and above all make sure my house is clean. These three things can become an obsession for me, so much in fact that I find I never leave the kitchen. It’s unbelievably easy to get wrapped up in the details and not enjoy our company. We get so distracted with preparing that we leave little time for fellowship and gospel-intentionality.

This is Discipling: What would it look like if, as leaders, we focused less on the things that make our churches entertaining and more on making disciples? The video below gives a great simple look at what discipleship looks like.