Happy Friday, friend!
The sun creeps up before the kids are out of bed, we've exchanged snow boots for rubber boots, and I'm planning to clean my windows. These signs of spring excite me. Not just so that I can look outside without the grime and handprints, but the shifting seasons often seem to give me a little more momentum toward new growth.
Changes in our worship gatherings have also spurred on new life, as fresh joy mounts in our souls united together. In my reading today, I arrived in 1 Corinthians 14, and as the passage teaches us about orderly worship, we are admonished in verse 12, "strive to excel in building up the church."
It's a good word for us to receive and an important reflection. How am I striving, and excelling, in building up the church? Am I serving, encouraging and relating with those around me? Though we can do some of this at a distance, much of it we cannot, and now we find ourselves, perhaps a little stuck in how to build up our local communities.
The Spirit has given us gifts, God has given us passions and desires through our personalities. How can we, the redeemed, glorify God through our local church and edify the ones around us, in light of who he has created us to be?
What are some ways you build up the church?
This week on the blog:
Find encouragement from writing around the web! Here's some links I've found this week.
"For busy moms, one key consideration is what not to build your information diet around: the internet and social media." A convicting read from RisenMotherhood,
teaching us about the wisdom pyramid, and how this can apply to moms.
An article from Tim Challies exhorting us to be faithful in the areas we have been given to impact lives for the kingdom.
"as the pandemic has dragged on and on, the number of us feeling weak, burdened, and discouraged has swelled, and the cheerful and hope-filled have begun to feel more like the exceptions — especially in an increasingly cynical society. Might we now need a particular word of welcome for them as well?"
Some great insights from a physician through the challenges of his work, the opportunities he has, and the tension between helpless and hopeful.
"We all want our kids to be happy and to feel comfortable, especially at church. Over many years of ministry, I have talked to parents who expressed concern that their child did not have friends at church. Often this is a reason that families give when they stop attending."
"He longs to release you from the weight of wrongly-spoken words—words that cannot define you or confine your purpose to shine brightly the glory of God within you."
This is a short story written by Shauna Letellier, it's a really neat story with a powerful message!
This episode of the Journeywomen podcast, Hunter Beless interviews Jen Wilkin on the topic of God's character.
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