Weekly Wisdom [06.01.18]

Need some Weekly Wisdom?  Here are my favorite resources of the week.

VERSE OF THE WEEK

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified [1 Cor. 9:27].

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

Most of us believe in God’s grace—in theory. But somehow we can’t seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet.

Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we’ve done. We come to Him as ragamuffins—dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His “furious love.”

  1. My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it (27).
  2. Something is radically wrong when the local church rejects a person accepted by Jesus… (30).
  3. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly.  When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconnected and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited (45).

PODCAST OF THE WEEK

All Social Media All the Time by The Happy Rant Podcast

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas help listeners with some pressing problems. In this day of social media pervasiveness people have developed some bad habits. This episode seeks to correct and instruct. They discuss the following:

  • What is the proper ratio of selfies to other photos for men?
  • Why do Christian ladies use “come hither” photos as avatars?
  • People’s use and abuse of the word “humbled”
  • Retweeting compliments

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Every Christian must be fully Christian by bringing God into his whole life, not merely into some spiritual realm.  –Dietrich Bonhoeffer

SONG OF THE WEEK

Willie Neal Johnson and the New Keynotes laying down “Just a Rehearsal.”

“This is just a rehearsal, when we get to heaven, we gonna really sing!”

POST OF THE WEEK

Give Your Mornings to Jesus by Ronnie Floyd

In 1980, at an evening session of the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference in Dallas, I heard the late and great W.A. Criswell challenge pastors to give their mornings to God. The following Sunday, I stood before the small church I pastored, the First Baptist Church of Milford, Texas, and announced my decision to give my mornings completely to God for prayer and study. All these years, I have lived by this firm commitment. I can tell you this: Nothing has ascended my spiritual life and level of leadership more than this allocated time each morning.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Act Like a Kid on Vacation.  We had a wonderful week of vacation at the beach as a family.  One thing I realized is that I need to act more like a kid.  They don’t worry about if the water is cold, if the sand “gets everywhere,” or how long the action might take, they just plunge in and enjoy.  Slow down, have fun, eat something new, and say “yes” more than you say “no.”

I still have lots to learn from these kiddos and thankful they are still taking me to school!