Weekend Reading, 9 October

A lot of great blogging out there this week, so I’m just going to cut right to the chase:

Some great posts this week on how we should approach our faith and the power of the Word.

• Matthew Paul Turner says he approaches his faith with doubt. I think he approaches it with humility. Like we all should
• Kevin Martineau vulnerably reminds us (by channeling Justin Davis) that our weaknesses don’t make us weak but a lack of sharing our weaknesses prevents the deep relationships we need to be strong.
• Amy Sorrells hates evil and fight it with her own strength. But she recognizes that only gives in to evil while trusting in God overcomes.
• Is living the Christian life impossible? I’d say it is; without Jesus’ divine power. Rick Lancaster encourages us to tap into that “divine power”
• Glynn Young shares a powerful post on the spiritual wilderness and healing that comes from the Word.
• Shawn Smucker asks what the first words of Jesus were when he started his mission. Jesus asked John the Baptist, “what do you seek?” Jesus asks us today, what do you seek? 
• Jared Wilson reminds us the power is in the Gospel, not in our abilities.
• He also draws our eyes to the Cross, to remember what God has done for us instead of focusing on what we want God to do for us.
• Dusty Rayburn challenges us to look at the world and our lives through God’s eyes and to stop being so self-focused.

On “Living the Life”:

• Justin Davis gets to meet one of his mentors and reminds us how powerful are our words, even at a distance (or over the Internet).
• Matthew notes that worrying about what others think paralyzes us.
• Michael Ellis gives us a lesson from a child’s heart on how to serve.
• Another great Blog Carnival at Bridget Chumbley’s on Healing. 37 links, totally worth the time.
• Michael Perkins implores us to keep knocking on that door! 

 On the Church:

• Richard Young (via Church Salser) notes that multi-site churches are only following the early church example and that our focus should be less on structure than on reaching our communities.
• Michael Lukaszewski, after studying Nehemiah, gives us five characteristics we need in the Church.
• Sharon Norris Elliott shows us that the purpose of the Church is to demonstrate God’s wisdom to the world. A challenge we should not take lightly.
• Perry Noble takes some lessons from the Mac vs PC commercials to examine how we treat those outside our church.
• Finally, Matthew Paul Turner writes a powerful post in light of all the recent news on bullying and how we need to own up to how poorly the church has treated the LGBT community.