Articles and resources to help you help people connect to God.

Here are some posts from around the world wide web that you may find interesting this week:

The Most Important Time To Go To Church – David Gunderson – The author opens with the punchline, “The most important time to be at church is when you don’t feel like it.” It’s worth reading the whole thing though!

Ten Abilities of Emotionally Healthy People – Jimmy Evans – I don’t think we fully appreciate the importance of our emotional health. As the author of this article notes, “Your relationship with your spouse will never exceed your individual emotional health.”

Being Right In Relationships – Ed Welch – In conflict, there is a more important question to ask than, “Am I right?” The better question is, “Did I love?”

Three Reflections After My First Year As A Christian – Eleanor Dell – It is so easy to lose sight of the importance of evangelism and forget the joy of coming to know Christ. That is what I appreciate like this one so much.

When Google Met God: Billy Graham’s 1998 TED Talk – Daniel Motley – I was surprised to learn that Billy Graham once gave a TED talk! There is so much good to learn from this example. Here is a quote from Graham’s talk, “We can’t get along with other people, even in our own families. We find ourselves in the paralyzing grip of self-destructive habits we can’t break. Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death. Even the most sophisticated among us seem powerless to break this cycle. I would like to see Oracle take up that, or some other technological geniuses work on this. How do we change man so that he doesn’t lie and cheat and our newspapers are not filled with stories of fraud in business or labor or athletics or wherever?”

The Friday Five is back after a long holiday break! Here is a collection if interesting and possibly useful articles from around the inter-webs.

Why Most People Miss Out On Being Led By the Spirit – Ben Sternke – Here is a helpful look at some obstacles to avoid as you try to follow the direction of God’s Spirit. “God gives his people both a promise … and a command …. Both are needed for the people to be successful in their task. … Our lack of progress in faith typically comes from a failure to embrace both of these realities, focusing instead on one to the exclusion of the other. When we hear the promise but don’t take action, we live in fear, and the promise remains unfulfilled. When we take action but aren’t really listening for the promise, we live in our flesh, aimlessly kicking in all directions at once and never really bearing fruit.”

Not Having Enough Isn’t An Excuse To Not Tithe – Jesse Carey – It is interesting to look at our finances from a global perspective. This article also links to some useful resources. “If you have access to clean water, never fear going hungry and have a place to live, on global terms, you’re actually doing really well. And if you have a Netflix account and a smartphone, you are one of the more privileged people on the planet. In fact, not only do one in 10 people currently survive on less than $1 a day but, if you make more than $32,400 a year, then you are in the top 1 percent of earners currently alive.”

Digital Technology Is Killing Our Minds – David Murray – Modern technology is changing fast, and it is changing us. Technology is changing the way we think, hurting our concentration and imagination.

Creative Ways to Hear God – Cath Livesy – Are you listening for what God is saying? “Every Christian can learn to know and listen to God’s voice; the promise of Jesus is for all of us. But to grow in our ability to hear God requires active engagement and intentional pursuit. In a world full of competing voices and a myriad of distractions we have to take the time to create the space and to learn the disciplines that will help us tune in.”

Do You Want the Friends You Need? – Greg Morse – This article makes an interesting case. What if the friendships we resist are just the ones we need the most? “If you do not have these friends (for they can be rare these days), pray for them. And invite brothers and sisters in your life to be more earnest with you. Begin by being more earnest with them. Often, it takes one person to go deeper for others to follow. True friends, as with true joy, are never less than serious about things worth being serious about. Although they are not always the friends we want, they are always the friends we need.”

Here are some interesting and useful items from around the web this week:

Three Challenges to creating a Gospel Culture in Your Family – “Can we ingrain the gospel so much in the way that we talk, think, discipline our children, or converse around the dinner table, that it’s part of our very fabric of living, and not just an occasional topic of conversation?”

Tips and Tongues – “The gift of tongues, or (as I prefer to call it) the gift of languages, is the most controversial of the all the spiritual gifts we find in the New Testament, and that’s saying something. It attracts more extreme comments than any other gift, from both sides of the aisle. Many Pentecostals regard it as the sine qua non of Spirit baptism, and many conservatives regard those who use it (or claim to) as emotionally suggestible, unbiblical, or perhaps even demonic; damned if you do, damned if you don’t. In between, a huge number of Christians—especially, it seems to me, in North America—are open to the gift of tongues in theory, but extremely cautious (or even frightened) in practice, not least because it is so often practised in sub-biblical or even downright bizarre ways. As someone who writes a lot about theology and prays in languages most days, I have a few thoughts about that.”

Welcome in Christian Community – “Can we truly welcome strangers as they are, if we have not welcomed the community as it is and the members as they are? If we are angry with the community and its members, we risk using strangers to compensate for our anguish. That is not welcome.”

When it comes to Christmas, are you a “get to-er” or a “get through-er”? – “But imagine if Christmas could be rescued from the stress or sadness of just getting through Christmas. Imagine if January could be rescued from the disappointment if your joy was in getting to Christmas. Imagine if there were a joy that lasted—that endured through January and that wasn’t dented by reality. That kind of joy would be worth finding, wouldn’t it?”

The Value of the Word – “I was shocked to discover the cost of a New Testament epistle. According to scholars, the apostle Paul would have spent $3,000 in today’s dollars for the materials to write the book of Romans.”

Here is this weeks collection of interesting links and articles from around the internet:

Six Questions to Ask When Studying the Bible in a Group – “Reading the Bible in community can be challenging, but it can also be deeply rewarding. The Bible gives us resources for the relationships in our groups that we would never have otherwise. It speaks into Christian community with unparalleled authority and relevance.”

Be With and Become – “Unfortunately, most people’s experience of Christians or pastors has repellent effect. We can tend to be overly talkative, pushy, judgemental, and lousy at being present and truly listening. Francis Schaeffer said, “If I have only an hour with someone, I will spend the first fifty-five minutes asking them questions and finding out what is troubling their heart and mind, and then in the last five minutes I will share something of the truth.” We need to cultivate an ability to be truly present with people and really listen.”

The Deadly Truth About Loneliness – “We continue to underestimate the lethality of loneliness as a serious public health issue. Contemporary tools such as social media, while seeming to promote social connection, favour brief interactions with many acquaintances over the development of fewer but more meaningful relationships. In this climate, the challenge is to address loneliness and focus on building significant bonds with those around us.”

Gospel Gratitude Through Panic Attacks – “In a hotel gym while on vacation with my family, I stepped down from the treadmill to stretch, and found myself flat on my back—vision blurred. I reached for my phone to ask for help—thankfully I could. My sister helped me unglue from the ground and wobble to the elevator. Physically, I was not hurt—just weak. But mentally and emotionally, I had suffered from the incessant message from my body that my time on earth must surely be over soon, and from sudden lack of ability to fully direct my mental state. I had experienced my first and worst panic attack.”

Transitioning to a Spiritual Conversation – “God has placed you — deliberately, with intentionality — in proximity to people He is seeking to restore to Himself, people He wants to be developed to their full potential, so they can take part in His plans for the world around them.”