Americans have spoken. We don’t trust pastors. A recent Gallup survey found that only 27% of Americans ranked pastors as “high” or “very high” regarding their honesty and ethical standards. We are outpaced by accountants, bankers, and mechanics with those in the military or medical professions more than doubling our score. Twenty years ago, pastors were ranked among the very highest. Why the shift?
Over the past two decades, there has been a steady flow of news that has exposed leaders and institutions for sexual scandals and power abuses. Thus, this shift as disheartening as it is, is not very surprising.
Have you ever struggled wondering if your salvation is secure? Has anyone ever come to you wrestling with whether or not they are saved? How secure should we be in our salvation? It depends.
One of the most disturbing passages in all of Scripture comes at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus warns,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name….”
Why so many Christians never grow up: Christopher Cook says, “Sound doctrine without obedience leads to intellectual pride. Obedience without truth leads to misguided zeal. Community without truth becomes sentimentality. Truth without love becomes harshness. But when truth, obedience, and love converge under the authority of Christ, something remarkable begins to happen: believers begin to grow up.”
Spaghetti again: Andrea Sanborn reflects on the faithful life in the mundane. S
There is an ancient proverb that says, “The man who loves all women loves no women. The man who loves one woman loves all women.” There is real wisdom in that saying. True love is faithful and sacrificial; flirtatious love is selfish and shallow. We all know people who love the idea of love more than the actual people they claim to love.
There are several ways this disordered desire can show itself. Psychologists have described three common patterns: serial love addiction, seduction addiction, and limerence.
Serial love addiction is a compulsive pursuit of the experience of "falling in love" and the emotional high that comes with romantic excitement.
I love reading, but I especially love reading on vacation. There’s nothing quite like pulling out a book at a pool, on the beach, or with a view of the mountains.
If you are looking to dive into a pool and a book this summer, here are some suggestions:
Fiction:
Theo of Golden by Levi Allen: “A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.”
Why so many Christians never grow up: Christopher Cook says, “Sound doctrine without obedience leads to intellectual pride. Obedience without truth leads to misguided zeal. Community without truth becomes sentimentality. Truth without love becomes harshness. But when truth, obedience, and love converge under the authority of Christ, something remarkable begins to happen: believers begin to grow up.”
Spaghetti again: Andrea Sanborn reflects on the faithful life in the mundane. S
Hell to pay: what truly happened to Jesus on the cross? Nick Batzig says, “If Jesus wasn’t truly forsaken—if he didn’t really endure the equivalent of eternal punishment on the cross—then substitutionary atonement is a legal fiction.”
Before the snow returns: Andrea Sanborn with a brief reflection on “false spring” and the resurrection. She says, “This is the tug-of-war between the new life and the old, the cold bite of disappointment wrestling with the hope of better. Of more. Of failure and forgiveness, of discouragement and hope, of worry and contentment.”
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