5 to Live By: The Top 5 Christian Blog Posts of the Week
Linking you to the top 5 Christian blog posts of the week—posts that provide robust, rich, and relevant insights for living. 
Should a Pastor Evaluate His Ministry By Numbers?
Pastor Brian Croft provides a biblical answer to the question Should a Pastor Evaluate His Ministry By Numbers? Here’s his intro:
“There is an epidemic in the American Church. It is an obsession with basing fruitfulness in ministry on a numbers game. The American way is bigger and better and I am troubled that the church in many ways has bought into this method of evaluation, and continues to do so.”
Read the rest here.
36 Purposes of God in Our Suffering
Paul Tautges collates 36 Purposes of God in Our Suffering from Joni Eareckson Tada’s book When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty.
Some Sympathy for Atheists?
David Murray raises an intriguing and perhaps controversial question…and then provides wise, relevant, biblical answers in Some Sympathy for Atheists?
When in Any Church Savagery Erupts
Michael McKinney at 9Marks quotes from and links to Ray Ortlund’s talk at the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference in When in Any Church Savagery Erupts. In part we read:
The Galatian churches were unstable to begin with, because the reassuring finality of “It is finished” had been eroded away by the acids of self-justification. Insecurity, anxiety, fear and anger had entered in. How could it be otherwise? Self-justification cannot create anything but an unsatisfiable demandingness, for Christ is not its satisfying provision. No matter how well a person has been raised to be courteous, self-justification must generate finger- pointing and accusing and slandering and dividing. Whatever the outcome, no one wins.
When in any church savagery erupts, the problem is not personal, a lack of niceness. The problem is theological, a lack of gospel. But where Jesus reigns by his gospel, love reigns as “a mutual protection and kindness” (Calvin). Paul was a man of courage, forthrightness and apolitical independence. He was also a man of love, humility and warmth: “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:13-14). Strong principles and humane relationships, together simultaneously, mark a church as faithful to the gospel.
The Trinity and Me
At the Crossway blog, they list 11 Ways That the Trinity Practically Applies to Your Life Today.
Join the Conversation
Which post impacted you the most? Why? What blog posts have you enjoyed this week that you want to share with others?
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