And suddenly just like that two weeks fly by and I haven’t posted a thing. That’s not quite the same as not having written a thing but I just haven’t posted. Several sermons on Romans have been crafted and delivered and numbers of other ideas, notes, thoughts have all been captured. Just, in case you missed it, not posted. I also ran in the Stockholm Half Marathon last weekend on a scorching 26 degrees day. That’s twice this year I’ve run in ridiculously hot conditions and I’m just not suited for it. But I was happier with how I ran, coming in at a shade over 1:46 for the 21.1 km course.

I’ve also been storing up articles like they’re going out of fashion so I need to start writing these to share all the good stuff I’ve found you. So on to the links.

---

You Should Read These

1. Church is Our Evangelism Strategy: “The Church is God’s plan A to rescue the world and for the Father to transform the world into the image of the Son by the Spirit.” Preach, Tim Suffield, preach.
2. 6 Sermon and Preaching Myths That Aren’t True. I think the last one is especially good.
3. Enchanted. Or not? There was a really interesting back and forth about ‘enchantment’ (basically there’s more than meets the eye to this universe of ours) between Brad East & Alan Jacobs and a few others. The link takes you to an index of sorts.
4. Kurt Vonnegut’s 55 year-old commentary on the American Poor. I thought this was interesting: “It also explains why American religious identity has had such a garish obsession with wealth. To the best of my knowledge, America has never spawned its own ascetic movement. The Amish, the Shakers and the Quakers were all imports from the Old World. America’s gifts to Christianity are the Prosperity Gospel wealth-and-health movement with private jet evangelists, and Mormonism which literally promises it’s most faithful adherents that they will each rule their own planet one day.”
5. The World’s Loudest Sound. Incredible stuff.
6. Swedish Americans and American Swedes. Apparently The Bronx was named after a Swedish guy. Who knew? Well, now you do
7. Inuce illuminates Chinese church with giant blue stained-glass window. It’s certainly striking.

---

You Should Look At This

14 Extraordinary Highly Commended Photos From the 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest

---

You Should Listen To This

Summer is pretty much over, although autumn is off to a good start. But here is some late summer vibes

---

You Should Watch This

I have tried and failed so many times to see these. Looks like I’ll have to go to space.

---

This Week’s Postings

Nil. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nothing. The big fat zero.

---

From The Archives

One of the many things the cross shows us is what we really are: mortal, weak, subject to death. And it is all those things that will need transforming. God in His wisdom chose to reveal a path that leads to an imperishable life that combined breath-less weakness and then and only then, mighty power. Death has been swallowed up, its sting pulled because it is now not an enemy but the soil in which we are planted. Jesus didn’t finish that journey to dust and ashes because the grip of death was rudely interrupted.

When we are weak

I hope you enjoy your weekend. Do let me know if there’s something here you appreciated and feel free to share.