Wisdom for Your Weekend is your regular installment of what we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web. Presented to you by Chris Pappalardo, with guidance from Pastor J.D., this is our attempt to reflect Proverbs 9:9: “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.” While we do not always agree with everything these authors post, we share these resources because we find them challenging and enriching. As we often say around the Summit, when it comes to reading, “Eat the fish and spit out the bones.”
Articles of the Week
10 Tips for Reading in 2019, Jon Coombs. We’re nearly two weeks into the new year, so I (Chris) hope you haven’t already abandoned all your well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions for 2019. I also hope that one of those resolutions involves reading. If you’re a true bibliophile, you may not need rules to keep you meandering along the road of reading this year. But perhaps a few tips might help. Coombs has some good ones.
I’ve Only Got One Hour a Day to Read: How Much Should Be Bible? John Piper. Speaking of reading, Pastor John tackles an important question: How should our Bible reading stack up (Get it? Stack up?) against other reading? If you’re curious what proportion of your devotional time should be spent on Bible, this is a great approach.
A Day a Week, A Week a Year, Tim Challies. Let’s stay on the theme of reading for a moment, shall we? If you want to read more this year—and you do, I say!—you’ll need to craft some habits that keep your technology at bay. But Challies’ advice here is important for far more than the reading life. If you care about your mind, your health, your family, or your faith, you would do well to follow Challies’ pattern: Take a break from the digital buzz for one hour a day (my Andy-Crouch-inspired addition), one day a week, and one week a year.
10 Signs the Christian Authors You’re Following Are (Subtly) Teaching Unbiblical Ideas, Natasha Crain. The most dangerous false teachers aren’t those who overtly deny Christian teaching. In general, we know what to do when someone says that Jesus never claimed to be God, or that the way to be saved is to work real hard and hope for the best. No, the most dangerous false teachers are those who sprinkle their winsome words with subtly unbiblical ideas. The more subtle, the more dangerous.
52 Ideas for Inviting Someone to Church This Year, Diana Davis. It can be tough to invite people to church. What will they think? Will this invitation be awkward? How exactly do I say this without seeming like a weirdo? While we should all get comfortable with a healthy dose of the awkward, there are ways to make the invitation a little easier. How many ways? Davis gives you one for each week this year!
On the Lighter Side
What Is the Shortest International Border in the World? Half as Interesting. This is apparently a more complicated question than it sounds.
