This Week’s Good Reads

Here’s this week’s collection of interesting articles from around the web:

1. “The Cost of Caring” by Jennifer Murphy

This is good reminder that ministries of mercy and long-term compassionate care can take a toll on those who serve if we are not proactive about our own emotional, physical, and spiritual health.

2. “Your Best Story, Now!” by Stephanie Phillips

“Here’s how I know God exists: he ruined my life. Multiple times. The guy can’t seem to nail my happy ending!” This is a BEAUTIFUL piece of writing. Phillips attacks the false ideas we have about God’s responsibility to meet our agendas. She more or less renounces the “best life now” theology, and instead points us to something bigger. Your best “story” now. As in God is weaving us into a story that communicates the Gospel and communicates Himself to us in the midst of challenges and difficulties. I loved this piece.

3. “Your Obedience is Not Just About You” by Erik Raymond

This piece from TGC exposes how our sometimes lackadaisical approach to holiness is deeply sinful. We tend to think of it in more harmless terms, but, as Raymond points out, our obedience is about God, the church, and the world around us.

4. “Star Wars: Episode IV – The Scale of Hope” by Josh Larsen

This is a theology and Star Wars nerd’s dream come true: a theology of star wars. In this article Larsen explores how “the movie consistently defines its vision of hope in terms of scale.” He observes the how various elements of the film utilizes scale to contrast hope with “objects of oppression.” He turns this into an interesting theological reflection, then, and takes the usual “Theology in Star Wars” theme to a new place.

5. “Analytic Theology and the Doctrine of the Trinity” by Edward Brooks

Brooks reviews William Hasker’s new work Metaphysics and the Tri-Personal God. As a new work advancing a new approach to the classic doctrine is worthy of some consideration. There are definitely some issues I have with the work if Brook’s review is accurate, not the least of which is the authors dismissal of divine simplicity, but it is a n interesting contribution to ongoing discussion about the philosophical/theological explanation of the diversity in unity of the Godhead.

6. “We are all Parisians Now: A Christian Response to Global Terror and Radical Islam” by Ed Stetzer

Stetzer gives us three things that Christians should do in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, and three things we should not do. His main emphasis is to remember the uniqueness of our faith: Christians love their enemies.

7. “Pastors in Paris: Opposing Terror with Love” by Ryan Hoselton

Ryan has done a great job of collecting some interviews of Parisian Pastors who are, on the ground right now, seeking to love their city with the gospel through this difficult time. Read the prayer requests of these dear brothers and pray for them and their congregations, and for the Parisian people themselves.

8. “Joining in Life and in Death” by Martyn Wendell Jones

My friend Martyn has written a beautiful reflection on death here in Image Journal. I absolutely adore Martyn’s writing and this is just one example of why.