Aaron Armstrong

bloggingtheologically.com

Easter

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Blood Work

Reformation Trust has made Anthony Carter’s Blood Work: How the Blood of Christ Accomplishes Our Salvation free for the next few days.

The discernment blogger who cried, “Wolf!”

Good thoughts here from Dan Cogan:

After the stranger shared a link to a discernment blog which cried wolf, I sent the stranger a note that simply said, “Hey, I’m definitely in favor of calling a wolf a wolf.  I’ve gotten in trouble for doing so not a few times.  But I think you’re wrong calling him a wolf.  Won’t debate with you.  Just asking you to slow your roll and pray for him and don’t take everything the Christian gossip rags say as gospel.  Peace.”

Boy was I asking for it.  And I should have known.

And if you’re interested, here’s something similar I wrote a while back in the midst of another church controversy.

Stop Slandering Public School Teachers

Tim Challies:

We are now in our twelfth year of public schooling, and between our three children we have totaled twenty-two school years of public education. This has taken place in a limited context, of course: one primary school and one high school in one school district in one town in one province in one country. I have written elsewhere about how and why we made the decision to educate our children this way and do not wish to cover that ground again today. What I do wish to do, though, is to reflect on the way that Christians speak about public schools and, even more so, about public school teachers. The last ten years have made me realize that many Christians speak unfairly about public school teachers. They may even speak slanderously.

Why Would a Church Support Abortion?

Russell Moore:

This year my organization joined with our Roman Catholic allies in filing a legal brief with the Supreme Court asking the court to uphold Texas’ laws regulating the abortion industry. That isn’t all that surprising. After all, Catholics and evangelicals have been working together for decades to uphold the sanctity of human life. What was surprising was that an opposing brief, filed by a Baptist church, argued that legal abortion is moral and just.

Holistically Pro-Life

Trilia Newbell:

These are some of the big questions with which we must wrestle when considering the pro-life position. Being pro-life is often exclusively linked to being anti-abortion. It isn’t less than that, but it’s so much more. The pro-life position encompasses all of life. It recognizes that babies are created and important in the womb, but it also upholds the dignity of every person throughout every stage of life regardless of disabilities (Ps. 139:13). Being pro-life means remembering the orphans and widows (James 1:27) as well as the elderly (Acts 20:35; 1 Tim. 5:1–8). Being pro-life also informs our views on suicide and assisted suicide. To be pro-life is to hold to a belief that all of life matters.

The Kiss That Heals The World

Trevin Wax:

I find that explanation much too narrow and unimaginative. I suppose there is a kernel of truth in the idea that a parent’s affection for a child is a way of showing compassion – a way of minimizing the pain and fortifying a kid for future endeavors.

But what if there is more going on in this simple act of love?

An Open Letter To That Fourth Sermon Point

The open letter that needed to happen. Maybe.

From Divine Kings to Doctor Who

Rusty Osborne:

In ancient times, cultures spanning the globe viewed their kings as divine, or at least uniquely chosen by the gods to represent divine interests on the earth. From the banks of the Nile to Mesopotamia to the Amazon Basin, people desired a king that could unite the unsurpassable chasm that spanned heaven and earth. In some cultures the king was truly divine and a member of the pantheon, while in other cultures he simply portrayed the image of the patron god on earth. In both cases, the king functioned simultaneously as insider and outsider. He was one of the people, yet substantially other, and it is this unique status that afforded him the sacral function of religious leader and divine protector. The divine king was an alien savior who protected kingdom boundaries, ensured crop production, and united the people and with the gods, maintaining the supposed divine world order through their reign.

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Kindle deals for Christian readers

Todays’ Kindle deals include:

The Image of God

Great new video from The Bible Project:

Even Tyler Perry Can’t Improve on the Greatest Story Ever Told

Brandon Smith:

Modern remakes of timeless stories, like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet or Sidney Lumet’sThe Wiz! may not always be particularly masterful in their storytelling, but they do provide fresh, modern takes on stories that can benefit from being told through different lenses.

Because of this, I found myself intrigued when I heard that FOX would air a live presentation of Tyler Perry’s spin on the Passion of Christ. This version takes place in New Orleans, presents the viewer with a Jesus who has expertly crafted hair and modern clothes. Judas is played by American Idol-born pop star Chris Daughtry. A series of pop songs originally composed with a spiritual bent originally composed by bands with names like Hoobastank and Evanescence convey the inner-most thoughts of Jesus and his disciples.

I Am Barabbas

Michael Kelley writes about this man who appears briefly in the Bible, but whose single appearance is perhaps the most perfect illustration of the gospel. Dave Miller also has written an excellent piece with the same title.

Four things to remember in seminary

This is an older article from Trevin Wax, but it’s worth reading if you missed it the first time.

Freedom from the Performance Treadmill

Paul Tautges:

I had been finding myself constantly frustrated and, at times, depressed. I thought of myself only as a constant failure who could never measure up to my perfectionist expectations and, therefore, did not feel fully accepted by God. Oh, I knew I was born again. There was no question in my mind about that. But I found it almost impossible to simply rest in my acceptance with God. So, He sent Jerry Bridges to me as a faithful counselor to help me see the cause of my frustration: I had shifted the basis of my acceptance with God from His grace alone to His grace plus my daily performance for Him.

We Find Rest Rejoicing

Lore Wilbert:

Choosing to not praise or forgetting how or simply not having the energy or desire to do so—call it what you will, the words of praise are foreign to my lips these days. I should be embarrassed to write it, to say it, to put it out in public places in public ways, but I think desperation knows no shame. I take comfort in the laments of David these days. His soul felt so taken from him sometimes he had to search to find it and command it to worship.

What Should I Preach Next?

Julius Kim ask, “How do I choose the text or book I should preach next? Are there important factors to consider in choosing a text?”

Four Kinds of Churches on the Attractional Spectrum (Where Does Your Land?)

Eric McKiddie:

Rather than discuss that polarization, I’d like to take a moment to look at the four places churches land with respect to attractionalism. Most articles ask, “Are you attractional, or not?” I’d like to ask, “Since every church is attracting someone, do you know who you’re attracting and why?” I suspect that most churches (in the US at least), fall into one of the following four categories.

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Kindle deals for Christian readers

Crossway’s weekly deals are focused on prayer, with three great options for $4.99 each:

We Talked to Jesus in An Inside Voice and He’s Going to be Nice Now

Owen Strachan:

We think we’ve got Jesus figured out today. We read about him turning tables in the Scriptures. But now he’s nice. Now he’s calm. Now he sits by himself, drinking tea, interrupting his repose to grant us whatever we want. He doesn’t ask us to change, and he doesn’t want us to do any heavy lifting. He makes life easy for us.

5 Ways Not to Tell Your Wife about Your Porn Addiction

Brad Hambrick:

There is not a “good” way to tell your wife; if by “good” you mean she won’t feel hurt. But there are ways to tell your wife that are “bad;” meaning they exacerbate the damage of your sin by how you communicate the information. The purpose of this post is help you avoid five common mistakes in talking to your wife.

Stop pitting pro-life causes against one another

Dan Darling:

Why this tension between two groups fighting for human dignity? I think much of it is owed to our increasingly tribal and fractured culture. The coalitions assembled to fight abortion often have little overlap with the coalitions assembled to fight racism. Many who have spent their lives working for racial justice may have little interaction with those who have spent their lives working to end abortion on demand.

Praying to Make the Most of the Grieving Process

Kevin Halloran:

The past five months have been very difficult for my mother. Her battle against cancer intensified this past October, and she has been feeling physically beat up, has been in and out of the hospital, and has had every tube known to man connected to her body to nourish her. And last week, she began hospice care.

Needless to say, this has been a difficult time for my family. We, as believers, take great comfort in knowing that she is a believer and that we will see her in heaven, but the sorrow remains. Jesus wept for his dead friend Lazarus moments before He raised him again. Why should it be different for us as we await the future resurrection?

The Strange and Wonderful Ride

David Mathis:

The long-awaited Messiah comes not in human glory, but peculiar glory — the glory of strength in weakness, the glory of indomitable joy in excruciating pain, the glory of the Lion of Judah who gives himself as the Lamb of God. He comes on a donkey’s colt to be the stone the builders will utterly reject on Friday, and that God himself will unveil as the very cornerstone on Sunday morning.

The One Gift Every Pastor Must Have

Jason Allen:

For pastors, preaching and teaching God’s Word has a way of stripping us all bare; it exposes us and puts our gifting on public display. You can’t finesse your way through a sermon with polished appearance, warm people skills, or seminary credentials alone. In the moment of truth, your ability—or lack thereof—to teach and preach God’s Word reveals much about your calling.

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