Greetings Church Family and grace upon grace to you.
I am excited to take a couple weeks away from Romans and look to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Seder Celebration this Sunday, Good Friday at 6:30p on 4/15 and Resurrection Sunday/Baptisms are sure to make the next couple weekends wonderful.
Don't get me wrong. I really am loving what the Holy Spirit is using the Apostle Paul to teach us in Romans. But is is a LOT of theology to work through. That is called 'exegesis'— to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
Even as we exegete the Word on Sundays, in our Daily Readings, through our D-Groups and at the Training Center, we need to EXEGETE the CULTURE too. Our theology is not meant to be informational but TRANSFORMATIONAL. And, as we engage with those the Redeemer places in our midst, we want to be used by Him to help transform them into His image too. We want to be like the 'men of Issachar':
"The men of Issachar had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." — 1 Chronicles 12.32
To that end, here are a couple of resources I have been encouraged by just in the past few days. Use your time to fill your soul with things that will make you more useful to the Savior.
Here is a short article by Carl Truman called '3 Advantages to Understanding Identity Politics.' It discusses his new book 'Strange New World' which is a shorter and simpler version of his great work 'The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self' that I encouraged everyone to consider reading back in 2020.
Here is an excellent podcast by Alisa Childress where she interviews Frank Turek on "I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist" (her website podcast). It is an excellent discussion on ways to address common questions or arguments people have against our theology.
Kevin DeYoung, pastor and one of my favorite authors, reads a short 5 minute satirical piece he wrote called 'We Live in Confusing Times' where he strings together so many of the conflicting cultural narratives of our day into a sadly humorous thought. I think you will enjoy it.
These are just 3 of the most recent things I have been reading and listening to. I hope that they encourage you all the more to make the most of the time as we see His Day drawing near.
MUCH love!
doug