Join The Underlines // The Best Of What I Read

A batch of the best highlights from what Joshua's read, .

Jesus is more than an example to be followed; he’s a Savior to be trusted. This is why we miss the point if we see Jesus’ wilderness temptation as only how to overcome temptation, with advice like “Jesus used Scripture, so you should too.” This focuses on a flea and misses the elephant in the room. The point is not, “He did it; you can too!” The point is, “You don’t do it; so Jesus did it for you.”

The Pursuing God

Joshua Ryan Butler

The contemporary church model thrived in American soil. Americans’ staggeringly high appetite for church attendance, standardization, and franchising, accompanied by a significant reservoir of latent Christians who were only an invite away from re-engaging with the church, ensured that the model, if done right, could succeed. However, in other parts of the West, namely the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe, the model struggled to work as they found themselves further down the road of secularization.

Disappearing Church

Mark Sayers

But those who are over others should shew themselves to be such that their subjects may not blush to disclose even their secrets to them; that the little ones, vexed with the waves of temptation, may have recourse to their pastor’s heart as to a mother’s breast, and wash away the defilement they foresee to themselves from the filth of the sin that buffets them in the solace of his exhortation and in the tears of prayer.

The Book of Pastoral Rule

Saint Gregory the Great

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