That Happy Certainty - Gospel | Culture | Planting
  • Writing
    • Not in Vain: 1 Corinthians Devotional
    • Explore Lamentations
    • eBook: Good News People
    • eBook: Filtered Grace
    • Gospel Coalition Articles
    • Church Society Articles
    • Threads Articles
    • Explore Ecclesiastes
    • Explore Galatians
    • Evangelicals Now Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Join Us
Writing
    Not in Vain: 1 Corinthians Devotional
    Explore Lamentations
    eBook: Good News People
    eBook: Filtered Grace
    Gospel Coalition Articles
    Church Society Articles
    Threads Articles
    Explore Ecclesiastes
    Explore Galatians
    Evangelicals Now Articles
Book Reviews
Interviews
Join Us
  • Writing
    • Not in Vain: 1 Corinthians Devotional
    • Explore Lamentations
    • eBook: Good News People
    • eBook: Filtered Grace
    • Gospel Coalition Articles
    • Church Society Articles
    • Threads Articles
    • Explore Ecclesiastes
    • Explore Galatians
    • Evangelicals Now Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Join Us
That Happy Certainty - Gospel | Culture | Planting
Refill

The Sunday Refill – 7 Links for Your Weekend (27/1/19)

Seven up…

1) What stops people believing? Some informal market research – Jeremy Marshall shares from his own experiences of talking to people about the Christian faith.

2) Pink is for Death: New York Abortion Laws – This week NY state significantly expanded ‘abortion rights’, meaning that right upto just before birth, as, one critic put it, “the ‘attending physician’—in real life, very often an abortionist with a financial stake in the decision—can always say that in his medical judgment, the abortion was necessary to preserve the woman’s emotional ‘health,’ especially considered in light of her ‘familial’ situation.” Though there is real forgiveness available for those who have been part of abortions, as Christians we hold that the image of God is stamped on all – those outside and inside of the womb. It was horrific to see the way this was celebrated. Of course, as Francis Schaeffer showed, such developments aren’t a surprise once a culture has asserted atheistic foundations. And in this video Rachel Jankovic challenges us for using very similar ‘me first’ thinking within Christian culture.

3) Interactive Martin Luther King Jr. Speech – After MLK day this week, you might enjoy this interactive page weaving audio and images from the I Have A Dream speech, with context and history from the event – produced by a dedicated team from Stanford University.

4) Letter to House of Bishops re: their Transgender Pastoral Guidance – A growing and unprecedented number of people have signed this letter to the House of Bishops urging them to “revise, postpone or withdraw” the ‘Pastoral Guidance’ they issued just before Christmas, and spelling out a number of critical concerns with the document. The signatories include over 800 clergy, including area deans, archdeacons and retired bishops – and myself – as well as 700 lay members, including members of General Synod, Church Wardens and PCC members. As Ian Paul has said, “this is an area of debate that people are very cautious about commenting on. The fact that so many, from a wide range of traditions in the Church, have been prepared to ‘put their heads above the parapet’ is an indication of the strength of concern expressed here.”

5) Two questions to help your meetings work – Always good to be regularly made to think about how we do meetings – after all, most of us have enough of them! Thanks Chris Green.

6) Success and the Church Planter: A Response to This American Life – The popular secular podcast This American Life recently aired an episode looking at the rise of church planting in the US (this was after another podcast, Start Up, began a series following an individual church plant). But as this response article suggests, “perhaps Christians should take time to consider, lament, and repent” of the ways in which we have let the church-planting phenomenon at times become married “to American capitalistic ideals, creating a syncretism in the church that allows us to be evaluated by a secular audience as the “Christian version of Silicon Valley.” Some helpful checks.

7) Why Am I So Proud When I Finish a Candle? For something a bit different, I enjoyed this brief musing on millennial life.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
January 27, 2019by Robin Ham

About Me

Hello, my name is Robin. Welcome to That Happy Certainty, where I write and collate on Christianity, culture, and church-planting. I’m based in Barrow in South Cumbria, England, where my family & I are part of Grace Church Barrow.

‘Not In Vain’ – 1 Corinthians 31-day devotional

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Top Posts

  • "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience"
    "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience"
  • The Sunday Refill - 7 Links for Your Weekend (28/2/21)
    The Sunday Refill - 7 Links for Your Weekend (28/2/21)
  • 23+ Easter Videos for 2018
    23+ Easter Videos for 2018
Refill on inspiring Christian links each week and join 1,022 other subscribers...

Thank you for subscribing! Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No connected account.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to connect an account.

“If we could be fully persuaded that we are in the good grace of God, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the Spirit of Christ, that we are the beloved children of God, we would be ever so happy and grateful to God. But because we often fear and doubt we cannot come to that happy certainty.”
- Martin Luther

© 2018 copyright That Happy Certainty // All rights reserved //
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.