The Friday Update - The Most Important Thing About Us

— October 11, 2024 —

Happy Friday,

We are saved by grace through faith, not of works.

The Apostle Paul, Ephesians 2

Biblical faith is not principally about emulating a leader. It’s about being rescued. Yes, we are called to embrace our Leader’s teaching and follow his example. But the story that unfolds in Scripture is of a God who offers His love to those who do not deserve it and seldom appreciate it. Carve out a few moments today to be staggered by the scandalous grace of the Father and the finished work of the Son. 

Second: What we think about God is the second most important thing about us. 

Without Comment: 1) Per this UN report, 27M people are present-day slaves; 2) If you read an average of 300 words per minute, it would take around 500 hours in a year to read 200 books. That’s less than the 608 hours the average American spends on social media or the 1,642 hours they spend watching TV; 3) In addition to 2 hot wars, a cold war, growing acrimony between red and blue, tragedy-laced weather, and unfathomable levels of debt, the WSJ is warning that tensions between tennis players and pickleballers are on the rise.

Speaking of Reading: In this Business Insider piece, we learn that Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett read for at least an hour a day. Reportedly, Bill Gates reads 50 books/year, Elon Musk grew up reading two books/day, Mark Cuban reads for more than three hours/day, and Warren Buffett attributes his success to reading 500 pages/day. 

City of God > City of Man: Whatever your political inclinations, please remember that 1) God is bigger than the results of any election, and 2) while it’s irresponsible to ignore our earthly citizenship, our hope lies with Christ and His Kingdom. Let your light shine in the public square.

Good Without God 2.0: In December ‘89, political philosopher Glenn Tinder wrote a long Atlantic piece entitled, “Can We Be Good Without God?”—i.e., can we protect human dignity, advance altruism and humility, etc. without a belief in the transcendent? His answer was, essentially, no. This week, Harvard Professor Manvir Singh published a New Yorker piece entitled “The Post-Moral Age: If Conscience is Merely a Biological Artifact, Must We Give Up on Goodness?” In a way, Singh’s piece is an updated look at Tinder’s question. And what does he say? Not surprisingly, Singh essentially argues there is no such thing as goodness. (BTW, kudos if you want to read Tinder’s. I wouldn’t bother w/ Singh’s. And if you’re asking for my advice, read Ecclesiastes instead.)

Overheard: 1) God uses the talent pool available; 2) Christians need to have more confidence in the Gospel; 3) Pain redeemed is more powerful than pain removed; 4) The fear of the Lord is the precondition for wisdom; and 5) Western Civ depends on people who read long books.

Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) “The things we do, do things to us.” Unknown, and 2) “We can sleep peacefully knowing that God never does.” Kelly Kapic

WOTW: Honorable mention goes to fridgescaping (the trend in which you turn your refrigerator into a food showcase), focus fatigue (compassion fatigue’s increasingly popular cousin), and the HENRYS (i.e., the High Earners Not Rich Yet, a title ascribed to those not happy with a six-figure income). Full honors go to Vandemonium (a term describing the hysteria in Nashville after Vanderbilt’s unranked football team rolled over #1 Alabama).Note: While most will recognize vandemonium as a play on pandemonium, few will know that pandemonium was coined by Milton in Paradise Lost, where he combined pan (Greek for all) and daimon (Greek for demon). So, pandemonium literally means “all the demons.”

First: Earlier, I noted that what we think about God is the second most important thing about us. What is the first? What God thinks about us. 

Sermon: Click here to listen to last week’s sermon. It’s from Ephesians 2, i.e., one of the most important chapters in the Bible. 

I Wrote a Book: I wrote a book entitled On the News: How and Why the News Has Changed; How it’s Changing You; And What to Do About It. Rest assured, it’s brief (you can read it on a short flight).  Click here to download a free digital copy or here to listen to the free audio version. Read it soon, and then do me a favor and send it to two or three people by clicking here. Thanks.

Closing Prayer: Dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I hold up all my weakness to your strength, my failure to your faithfulness, my sinfulness to your perfection, my loneliness to your compassion, my little pains to your great agony on the Cross. I pray that you will cleanse me, strengthen me, and hide me, so that, in all ways, my life may be lived as you would have it lived, without cowardice and for you alone. Amen (Mother Janet Stuart, 1857-1914)

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