Pastor Steve shares these links to stimulate some Thursday Thoughts…
Renew Your Mind … Tim Challies writes an article aimed at men (a part of a series: Run to Win!) but the application reaches every Christian. Will you conform? Or will you be transformed? Tim writes: “Another of these contrasts is found at a key point in the book of Romans. For 11 chapters Paul has expounded on the gospel, describing what Christ has accomplished for Jews and Gentiles alike. Then he confronts his readers with a contrast and implies they must make a choice: “Do not be conformed to this world,” he says, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (12:2). There are only two options: conformity or transformation. You can be conformed to this world or you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The choice lies before you every day.” You can read the rest HERE.
God’s Leading is Often Surprising … Evangelical Magazine posts an article by David Donegani; some very encouraging and challenging truths here. David writes: “Sitting in a hospital consulting room and learning that two of our four children would probably only live into their teenage years was not what we imagined we would be doing that Friday morning – but that is what was happening to us just over twenty years ago. As we look back we see that God has been making us more like Jesus. He has used the unusual events of our lives to do this. The circumstances and trials others face will be different but whatever they are, He wants each one of us to depend on Him through the difficulties and to be transformed by them. Challenging circumstances need not be the things that get in the way of growing in Christ. Instead they can be the very things that make us run to Christ and grow in likeness to Him.” You can read the rest HERE.
Video Games Did Not Ruin Your Life … This is a post from the Smithsonian about something I heard as a youngster – and have repeated to my children over the years. Perhaps we were exaggerating just a bit. Michael Newman writes: “This moment in the history of pop culture and technology might have seemed unprecedented, as computerized gadgets were just becoming part of the fabric of everyday life in the early ’80s. But we can recognize it as one in a predictable series of overheated reactions to new media that go back all the way to the invention of writing (which ancients thought would spell the end of memory). There is a particularly American tradition of becoming enthralled with new technologies of communication, identifying their promise of future prosperity and renewed community. It is matched by a related American tradition of freaking out about the same objects, which are also figured as threats to life as we know it.” You can put down your Candy Crush and read the rest HERE.
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