Credo’s Cache

Each week we will be highlighting important resources. Check back each Friday to see what we have dug up for you. From this week’s cache:

1. Jesus, Eunuchs, and the (Almost) 30-Year-Old Virgin: By Chelsea Kingston – Kingston says: “In a world where hedonism and gross individualism hold sway, the prominence of what a friend and pastor calls ‘the sexual fulfillment myth’ is no big surprise, really. And so, in a way that our culture finds almost impossible to comprehend, celibacy in singleness demonstrates a most visible sign of authentic Christian witness.”

2. Choosing Grace Over Outrage: By Scott Sauls – Sauls notes: “Having received such grace, Christians have a compelling reason to be remarkably gracious, inviting, and endearing in our treatment of others, including and especially those who disagree with us. Let’s be known by what we are for instead of what we are against.”

3. Jesus Repulses, Jesus Draws: By Tim Challies – Challies says: “When we preach Jesus today, we preach for a response. And there is always a response. Jesus repulses and Jesus draws. But an encounter with Jesus never accomplishes nothing.”

4. What a Difference Six Years Can Make: By Kevin DeYoung – DeYoung says: “Public opinion has shifted. Tolerance has become militantly intolerant. Every institution and every nation has its orthodoxies to enforce, and it looks like conservative religious persons are the new heretics. No debate is necessary. We haven’t lost the argument on marriage as much as arguments are no longer allowed. To say what our President used to say–and said explicitly while running for President–is quickly becoming unacceptable in polite society.”

5. Marriage for the Common Good: By James K. A. Smith – Smith notes: “Well, we might get a society a lot like our own. It would be a society where ‘private’ interests are pursued to the exclusion of the common good, as if the two are in competition and the wider community is a threat. A society where marriage is romanticized, which is why they so often fail. When we expect marriages to be extensions of idealistic weddings, we’re not only setting ourselves up to fail, we are abandoning the call to ‘household,’ to curate open homes where others are welcome and from which we lean out to serve the good of our neighbors.”

Matt Manry is the Director of Discipleship at Life Bible Church in Canton, Georgia. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Religion at Reformed Theological Seminary and a Masters of Arts in Christian and Classical Studies from Knox Theological Seminary. He blogs regularly at gospelglory.net.