Together For The Gospel

Hey Bethel Family,

Go HERE to see where Pastor Tyler and I will be this week. You can sign up for access to the livestream if you'd like to listen in on/watch any of it. If you miss it, he media should also be available a few weeks after the conference is over.

Please pray for us. Pray for the speakers. Pray for everyone attending, that God would do some serious soul-shaking work in our lives. Pray that there will be powerful ripple effects in the churches and communities represented; waves breaking on the shores of eternity from the stones tossed in the pond this week.

The Difference Between Hospitality and Entertaining

Jen Wilkin unpacks the difference in a really helpful way over on The Gospel Coalition website. Here's a taste to whet your appetite:

• Entertaining is always thinking about the next course. Hospitality burns the rolls because it was listening to a story. 

• Entertaining obsesses over what went wrong. Hospitality savors what was shared. 

• Entertaining, exhausted, says “It was nothing, really!” Hospitality thinks it was nothing. Really. 

• Entertaining seeks to impress. Hospitality seeks to bless.

Read the whole thing.

"Why Porn Kills Sex"

Russell Moore has an excellent post here, in response to this week's Time Magazine cover article.

One excerpt:

...Why does it seem that pornography ultimately kills sexual intimacy? There are, to be sure, many psychological explanations. Pornography desensitizes one to sexual stimuli, feeds the quest for endless novelty, and creates a script of expectations that does not, and cannot, meet up to the real dynamics of personal relationship. But I think there’s more afoot here.

... Pornography kills sexuality because porn isn’t just about sex and because sex isn’t just about sex.

Read the whole thing.