The video above features a new song from Matt Papa that is a powerful call to world wide missions. Matt is giving the proceeds from the song—every single dime, for it’s lifetime—to missions. You can see which organizations here.
Listen, and then go support the cause by buying the song on iTunes.
HT: Josh Harris
Is the Hook-Up Culture a Good Thing for Women?
Is the hook-up culture good for women? (Click the link to watch Rosin answer this question). If you ask Hanna Rosin, author of the new book “The End of Men,” hooking up is not only a good thing, it’s a basic need.
This isn’t a new argument, in fact “hooking up” is as old as the Bible (see the story of the Woman at the Well in John 4), but it sure is a central part of a bankrupt worldview that our culture today has bought into hook, line, and sinker (no pun intended). Rosin’s logic follows the familiar feminist line - marriage derails the ability of women to pursue their career goals, but companionship and sexual intimacy remain important human needs, and so hooking up is good and necessary. However hooking up always leads to consequences of some type, some of which can also derail a woman’s career aspirations, so other things, like abortion for example, must also become necessary and good.
This worldview is a cultural slippery slope, but more than that it is a lie that destroys lives (sometimes quite literally). The lie is this: relationships and sex are just basic human needs; they are a means to end, in which the Self ultimately satisfies itself by pursuing what is necessary and good without regard for others. Hooking up is selfishness in the same way that abortion is selfishness - they each place the needs of the Self over and above the needs of others.
The truth is that sex and relationships are beautiful gifts from God. He is the Author and Creator of both and He has made us for to enjoy them. And the Christian worldview doesn’t ignore these needs, but it also doesn’t raise our need for intimacy above our need for God. When people elevate sex and relationships beyond where they should be, it doesn’t lead to fulfillment, it leads to heartache and disappointment.
Hanna Rosin is suggesting that sexual flings are necessary in order to lead a life that is satisfying and it’s a a belief that many living in the so-called “hook-up culture,” mostly college-age young people, have adopted as their own. But this is a lie. No relationship - not even with a spouse - is going to satisfy our ultimate need for a Savior. Only Jesus will do that. He is what satisfies completely. And He, in putting our sin upon Himself, has demonstrated what true love is all about.
HT: Andrew Sullivan
Here’s a short video celebrating the little things of everyday life. Take some time today to enjoy the little things in your life. Happy Labor Day!
Striving for the Faith of the Gospel
Philippians 1:27-30
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Living As Dead People
Our reality as believers will be always a kind of mystery. We live in this world experiencing a real tension. We are here, but we are not from there. We are called to see what is unseen and to seek what can’t be found in this world. And as a reasonable explanation for this, the …
HT: Fighter Verses
