“What God desires is unity, not uniformity. Instead of avoiding all conflicts or demanding that others always agree with us, we can celebrate the variety of God’s creation and learn to accept and work with people who simply see things differently than we do. Unity means we are of one purpose, one mind, one heart. Uniformity means we are clones of each other, with everyone looking, thinking, and acting the same.” (Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson, Resolving Everyday Conflict)

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Friday! Short, unlike the weekend! Here are this week’s links!

• What does it mean to keep ourselves in the love of God, according to Jude 21? Paul Tautges gives a short but meaty answer.
• Kelly Needham writes 13 signs you can tell of a friendship gone wrong.
• With the church in China suffering more from persecution these days than in recent history, four Chinese pastors provide some lessons they have learned along the way as they seek to be faithful to God in their planting of house churches.
• Leave it to Joe Carter to give a list of nine things we ought to know about Ulrich Zwingli.
• John Piper wrote a short biographical sketch of John Bunyan, celebrated preacher and author of many books, most notably The Pilgrim’s Progress.
• With the recent departure by former pastor Joshua Harris from the Christian faith, some of the issues raised has popped up on secular and Christian blogs and radio. Justin Brierley recently interviewed Jessica van der Wyngaard, director of the documentary ‘I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye,’ on his podcast Unbelievable? The documentary chronicled Harris’ rejection of ideas in his first book. Brierley also included Christian apologist Sean McDowell in the interview to provide a believer’s perspective.
• Melissa Cain Travis highlights some good conversation talking points from the show The Good Place to go deeper with an unbeliever. I may not agree with everything written, but this a good example of taking what people watch, and turning it to a discussion of what really matters in life.

That’s all for this week! See you all on Sunday! And enjoy Labor Day!

Soli Deo Gloria