Bits & Pieces (4/25/13)

No Blessing Like Health – Except Sickness – A poignant reminder that it is often our infirmities that make us more effective ambassadors for God.

Escaping the Train to Auschwitz – This is a powerful story of one young boy’s capture and evasion, and how he shares his story with the next generation to ensure that a similar tragedy never happens again.

Envy Hunts in a Pack – “But even gospel-driven sanctification can misfire. Instead of actually applying the gospel to the sin in our hearts, we just wave the disinfectant at the gunk, acting as though the mere presence of the gospel will have some magic effect. We can’t just wield the gospel like a mantra that is supposed to spontaneously transform the filth into fullness and fruit.”

The Lost of Mentoring – This article offers three essentials to mentoring and gives us reasons why we should consider making the investment to do so.  (H/T)

Is Sincerity Enough? – “So a person can be very sincere and not believe in that objective truth. But will their sincerity keep them from experiencing the consequences of not believing in and trusting in Christ? This is where I think we need to realize that by all means we should be encouraging and tolerant (in the right sense) of people’s different viewpoints—but in the end, let’s not apologize for what Jesus actually said. We shouldn’t minimize it by saying, “Well, the important thing is that people are sincere.” Well, it is important whether or not people are sincere. But in the end, it’s also extremely important whether they are right and believe what is true.”

Real Beauty – “We are tempted and begin to think, Oh, it’s not that bad. I deserve this. It’s not a big deal. But the minute we give into sin, Satan twists things by overvaluing the sin and undervaluingthe power of the cross. Once we’ve sinned, we jump to thoughts of never being able to be forgiven, of grace not being enough, of being too evil, too dirty and too unrighteous. That is why the truth of what Christ has done is so amazing. When we confess our sins, God forgives us. He sees what Jesus has done, and He accepts us as clean and holy. He sees us as beautiful.”