The Sunday Refill – 7 Links for Your Weekend (5/4/20)

The Sunday Refill – 7 Links for Your Weekend (5/4/20)
Mininalist shot of coffee cup

Seven up…

1) The Comeback – Loved this spoken word piece for Easter from Phil Knox: “So thine be the glory, death’s lost its sting. Here’s to Jesus, the comeback King.” Great for sharing this week.

2) Trusting God In Suffering, Sacrifice, Disease and Death: A Lost Art? – This article by Peter Adam reflects on the attitude of Christians of previous eras who seemed to have a more positive attitude to facing suffering, disease, and death.

3) Building Stronger Marriages During the Coronavirus Crisis – Last week we shared some thoughts on caring for those who are single in lockdown. Here’s a helpful conversation for couples in lockdown.

4) Pastorally Speaking the Deep Things of the Cross: Tim Keller, What Christ Lost, & How to Talk About It – With Good Friday coming up, this article Is pitched at church leaders to get us thinking about the language we use to describe the mystery of the cross.

5) Zoom, Zoom, Zoom – I’m guessing we’ve all see the hilarious mock-up of Da Vinci’s Last Supper as a Zoom call? Susie Leafe has put together a very helpful guide for churches on ‘building church using Zoom’. And this is a fascinating Twitter thread on why everyone’s so exhausted after video calls: “It’s the plausible deniability of each other’s absence. Our minds tricked into the idea of being together when our bodies feel we’re not. Dissonance is exhausting…

6) Where is God in a Coronavirus World? – Here’s a preview of John Lennox’s new book on this subject. You can also listen in to him talking with Collin Hansen on the new Gospelbound podcast: “It’s the tale of two crowns: the so-called coronavirus that looks like a crown under the microscope, and Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. Can God be good when thousands around the world get sick and die from something they cannot even see? Where is he, and what is he doing?”

7) Mummy, Mummy, Mummy in a Lockdown World – For something a bit different, this is top class home-schooling…

Bonus link: You can download the NIV Audio Bible App, read by legendary actor David Suchet, here – it’s currently free to download – until tomorrow I think! Amazing!

Quote of the Week:

“Change like we are going through affects us in different ways. It can be stimulating, to be problem-solving, facing new challenges, and rising to them. It can also be very draining, as plans change, precious resources dwindle, relationships feel poorer and more distant. It’s easy to grow a very strong relationship with change – thinking about it, processing it, resisting it, driving it – and then much of your heart suddenly belongs to a faceless power that sometimes drives and often drags us..”

Andrew Nicholls