Spiritual pride takes great notice of opposition and injuries that are received and is apt to be often speaking of them and to be much in taking notice of their aggravations, either with an air of bitterness or contempt.  Whereas pure and unmixed Christian humility disposes a person rather to be like his blessed Lord, when reviled, dumb, not opening his mouth, but committing himself in silence to him that judges righteously. . . . It becomes the followers of the Lamb of God, when the world is in an uproar about them and full of clamor against them, not to raise another noise to answer it but to be still and quiet. . . . Meekness and quietness among God’s people, when opposed and reviled, would be the surest way to have God remarkably to appear for their defense. . . . Nothing is so effectual to bring God down from heaven in the defense of his people as their patience and meekness under sufferings. (Jonathan Edwards, Works)

by Richard Shin

I hope you are all having a great week. We have another great set for you all out there. Let’s get started:

• China is one big country. In the number of people, in land, in economy, and in influence, it is quite big. And because of that, we often hear about it. Yet, things aren’t often what it seems. Joann Pittman helps us understand a little better the truth about China.
• Ray Ortlund gets interviewed by Tony Reinke from Desiring God about how he uses social media, particularly his blog and Twitter.
• Speaking of Ray Ortlund, he has a list of ten things that he cares about more the longer he lives.
• Russell Moore speaks about why impostors love the church. I was particularly intrigued by the last reason: a perversion of the Christian doctrine of grace.
• Paul Tautges speaks about how we can live by faith, not by feelings. We must be careful not to “deny our emotions” but so often we are driven by them that faith. Instead, we should use emotions as “responders to truth, not judges of it.”
• Eric Davis has a list of eight ways we can encourage one to join a local church in this 2-parter. You can find them here and here.
• There are many ramifications of having a low view of Scripture. Off the top of my head, it can lead to inconsistency in our reading, higher view of ourselves, lack of commitment to the local body, lack of care for Christian unity, and many more. Lisa Robinson’s post from Parchment & Pen speaks about how we can overcome a low view of Scripture.
• I’m a firm believer of our being thinking Christians. Philippians 4:8 guides us on how to do that. Paul Tautges (yes, another one) flips each good thing around and gives us a list of things to not think about.

That’s quite a few. Hopefully you get to enjoy some of these over the weekend. See you on Sunday.

Coram Deo