Weekly Brain Food

Some stuff I read this week, that I absolutely loved:

  • "If you're strong, be a protector. and if you're smart, be a humble influencer" - Chris Pratt.
  • "[O]ur effort must be yoked to God’s purpose in order for it to bear fruit. Sin inspires us to build our own kingdoms; God commands us to advance his." Read more here.
  • We should be like Paul: lavish in affirmation, direct in criticism. "What we want to see in others, and have in ourselves, is a kind of wholeness that can be blunt and forceful and corrective when necessary, but that also has a peaceful pattern of encouragement and affirmation and kindness." Read more here.
  • "Biblical knowledge is far better than gold when it fuels our trust in God, because it fuels our intimacy with God. But when biblical knowledge replaces our trust in God, it only fuels our pride." Read more here.
  • "The core of the gospel is that we have nothing, contribute nothing, bring nothing to God — we are rescued by grace alone through faith — asking — alone. It should not come as a shock that prayer, which is made possible by the gospel and shaped by the gospel, works exactly the same way. But on another level, this is completely revolutionary. It sets Christian prayer — and its gospel-shaped invitation — apart from any other kind of prayer in the world." Read more here. 
  • "'The compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, and you will end up feeling like a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is . . . they’re unconscious. They are default settings.' Paralyzing fears over poverty and aging and weakness and exposure and countless other threats are due, ultimately, to disordered doxology. Our worship is misplaced. Rather than enjoying God in his rightful place—the sun around which everything in life orbits—we dislodge him and replace him with a mirror. And without him as our gravitational center, everything spins off in a thousand directions. Such is the insanity of idolatry. No wonder life feels so chaotic, so exhausting." Read more here.
  • John Piper's prayer model:
    • I, Incline my heart to your testimonies (Psalm 119:36).
    O, Open my eyes to see wonderful things (Psalm 119:18).
    U, Unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11).
    S, Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love (Psalm 90:14).

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