Weekly Roundup: 2019.04.01
J.C. Ryle on prayer, Kevin DeYoung about feeling bad about stuff (shame), Carl Trueman on what miserable Christians are to sing, Clint Archer on the cost of Christianity, and Albert Mohler on Azusa Pacific’s flip-flopping.
Resources
We Are Supposed to Feel Bad About Stuff | Kevin DeYoung | TGC
But just because you found a hammer does not mean the whole world is actually a nail. To be sure, the Bible knows of misplaced shame, and it is a deep and perpetual problem. But the Bible also knows of well-placed shame. There is no honest way to read the Bible and escape the conclusion that there are a lot of attitudes, practices, and behaviors we are supposed to feel bad about. When our sense of embarrassment and humiliation is tied to disobedience and objective guilt, we should feel ashamed.
What Can Miserable Christians Sing? | Carl Trueman | 9Marks
…a high proportion of the psalter is taken up with lamentation, with feeling sad, unhappy, tormented, and broken. In modern Western culture, these are simply not emotions which have much credibility: sure, people still feel these things, but to admit that they are a normal part of one’s everyday life is tantamount to admitting that one has failed in today’s health, wealth, and happiness society. And, of course, if one does admit to them, one must neither accept them nor take any personal responsibility for them: one must blame one’s parents, sue one’s employer, pop a pill, or check into a clinic in order to have such dysfunctional emotions soothed and one’s self-image restored.
Go Big or Go Home: The Cost of Christianity | Clint Archer | The Cripplegate
Imagine the 600 men standing on the beach watching their only way back home burning to ashes. No matter how fierce the fighting would be, retreat was not an option.
Sowing Confusion on The Christian College Campus: A Troubling Sign from The West Coast | Albert Mohler
The biblical worldview does not allow for same-sex or LGBTQ romantic relationships. APU has adopted an explicit contradiction of the scriptural understanding of marriage, sexuality, gender, and romantic relationships between men and women. You cannot compartmentalize romance. Romantic relationships are themselves deeply moral and they imply the fulfillment of the sexual. Any construct contrary to the Bible’s clear teachings about sex, gender, and romance is by definition unbiblical. No Christian can live in logical consistency with the biblical teachings regarding marriage and simultaneously celebrate same-sex couples and homosexual displays of affection.
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