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A batch of the best highlights from what Todd's read, .
If you’ve tended to think of spiritual warfare as mainly about how our prayers give aid and strength to protective angels fighting off aggressive demons, I challenge you to expand how you think about spiritual warfare, because in the Bible spiritual conflict is intimately associated with political struggle. So I hope this insight leads you to explore a more politically and socially engaged vision of spiritual warfare. But if you’ve already adopted this socially and politically engaged vision of spiritual warfare, I want you to expand your vision, too. For one thing, Jesus wasn’t much of a political activist. When Jesus described the battle he was fighting, he talked more about Satan than about Caesar. And when spiritual warfare is reduced to political struggle it’s tempted toward violence. For example, as we work for justice in the world, feelings can run hot; we’re often tempted toward bitterness and hatred when we face the people we’ve identified as the cause of the problem. So if Jesus was an activist, he was an activist who preached “love your enemies” and “bless those who curse you.” And that battle—the deep spiritual struggle to extend love, mercy, and grace for our enemies—must accompany any vision of Christian activism. Spiritual warfare isn’t just political engagement, it’s also a journey toward love.
Reviving Old Scratch
Richard Beck
I use the following rules of thumb to tell me which digital storage medium is best for any given piece of information:
* If it’s an appointment or meeting happening at a specific time, it goes on my calendar
* If it’s a task that I can complete anytime, it goes in my to-do list app
* If it’s text, it goes in my notetaking app (since that offers the best search function by which to find it again)
* If it’s content that I’ll be collaborating on with others, it goes in my cloud storage drive
* If it can’t go in any of the above locations (because it’s too large or a specialized file type, for example), then it goes in my computer’s file system (the Documents folder)
The PARA Method
Tiago Forte
In short, our empathy for everyone in the world makes us anxious and upset, leading to depression, despair and cynicism. Eventually, we burn out.
Stranger God
Richard Beck
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
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