PRAYER
Daily prayer makes sense of reality (Daniel J Brendsel at The Gospel Coalition): Daily prayer isn’t a spiritual technique to make life better. When we ask the Lord for his provision at the beginning of each day and thank him for his mercies at its end, we wind up with the surprise of joy. In 1 Timothy 4, Paul gives us a window into why.
PREACHING
The use and abuse of Scripture: How Christian preachers wield the sword (David Mathis at Desiring God): How might preachers today, both current practitioners and those who aspire, answer this timeless call to use the Book.
SPIRITUAL LIFE
What no eye has seen (Lee Hutchings at Gentle Reformation): Christ has already gone to prepare a place for us in going to the cross and bearing the wrath of God against your sins and mine. When all you can see is the fog in front of you, let your heart swell at the thought that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the hear of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) And when the inevitable experience of weariness and being heavy laden engulfs you, don’t forget we have a Lord whose yoke is easy and burden light.
Learning to speak Chickadee (Kevin Burrell at Ornitheology): The most often-repeated command in the Bible is “Fear not!” God has to repeat that encouragement to humanity from Abraham (Genesis 15:1) all the way to Revelation (Revelation 2:10), which says a lot about the propensity for false readings on our Dee-Meter. What brings you fear? Fear of loss? Fear of death? Fear of the unknown? Fear of failure?
EVANGELISM
Want to reach the world? Evangelize the church (Glen Scrivener at The Gospel Coalition): What is the church’s greatest need today? I imagine there are all sorts of answers. One of them, surely, is mission-centric: “The church needs the world to be evangelized.” And that’s true. But so is the reverse: the world needs the church to be evangelized.