Weekly Roundup For Your Weekend Reading – July 28


What Is The Unforgivable Sin?

Surely you’ve asked this question before? This little video helps us think well about an important question.


The Gospel Is Like An Old Hymn

Just like the title suggests, this article is about the gospel and the songs we sing. However, it may not  be about those things in the way you may think. Read on to find out…

“The gospel is an old hymn. The gospel is sheet music printed in antiquarian typeface on a yellowed page in a dusty book. It’s the “old, old story” and the “old rugged cross.” It is four verses–and please don’t skip the third verse to expedite the invitation! The gospel is an invitation to a bygone time that feels new again, even in our age of ever-dawning progress and modernity. The gospel gets “dug up” and “trotted out” and sung ironically and apologized for by leaders too clever for their own good. But then it lands in the ears of those led as sweetly familiar, warms their souls like celestial comfort food, and it always gets sung louder than those Jesus-is-my-boyfriend ditties….”


How Can I Forgive Myself?

This is a popular concept in our culture (even the church), and I have heard it said too many times to count. I think people find this concept of “self-forgiveness” so elusive because it isn’t anywhere to be found in the pages of scripture. I appreciate the author’s take on this.

“The most faithful response to this question is to reject it as an illegitimate question….”


Uncomfortable Grace, How Sweet The Sound

God’s grace comes to us in many ways, there is no singular way that we experience God’s grace. His grace often comes to us in ways that we would not choose for ourselves. However, while there is no singular way we experience God’s grace there is a singular purpose…His glory and our good.

“When we think of God’s grace, we typically think of blessing, humanly defined: the savings account is full; the church is responding well to our leading and preaching; the children are excelling in school, music, and sports; there are backslaps and smiles all around for our competent service of God’s church. And yes, those things sometimes happen and are products of God’s loving-kindness. But there’s a side to grace we seldom celebrate, a side that seems a little too dark for rejoicing. But God is light and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). And in a day when a demonic prosperity “gospel” is spreading worldwide, we desperately need to recover a theology of uncomfortable grace….”


 

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