Darryl Dash's Blog, page 45
September 17, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Why I’m No Longer Trying to Be Extraordinary
Alongside my ambition, I also now long to be faithful and content in life’s more mundane rhythms.
Church is often dull because we think about it like secularists, not according to scripture.
Do You Submit to the Bible, or Does the Bible Submit to You?
The question I had to wrestle with was whether I was willing to submit to the Bible or whether I would submit it to me.
September 13, 2022
Examples
In some ways, we’re not so different from the recipients of the book of Hebrews.
They’d believed in Jesus, but they were wavering in their obedience. Their circumstances were different: they seemed to be in danger of drifting back to a form of Judaism. But we should be able to relate. We’re always in danger of drifting from Jesus to lesser things.
That’s why I find Hebrews 13:7 so powerful. “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, a...
September 11, 2022
A Farewell Sermon (Acts 20:17-38)
Big Idea: When someone serves God faithfully and leaves, the church responds with love, sorrow, and blessing.
When someone serves God faithfully in a local church, something remarkable happens.
That’s what happened with Paul in Ephesus, and it’s what’s happened here in our church for the past couple of years.
As part of his third missionary journey, Paul stayed in Ephesus and lived there for about three years. God used him while he was there, and the church in Ephesus had been marked by his ministr...
September 10, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Hers was a life of service, not self-actualization.
Lord, Help Me See the Ways to Die Today
A few months ago, I began asking the Lord every morning to give me chances that day to die to myself, and for the Spirit to help me recognize those opportunities. He has never failed to answer this prayer. Not once.
Treasuring the Trail of Translation
If you’ve been taught the language, read the Greek New Testament before you teach the English one....
September 6, 2022
The Finite and Infinite Game of Pastoral Ministry
Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game explains the difference between finite and infinite games:
Finite games — “Finite games are played by known players. They have fixed rules. And there is an agreed-upon objective that, when reached, ends the game.” Examples are football and team sports. Finite games have established rules, and a beginning, middle, and end. The goal is to get to the end and win, and the winner is easy to identifyInfinite games — “Infinite games, in contrast, are played by known ...September 4, 2022
Rest (Exodus 20:8-11)
Big Idea: Embrace God's gift of Sabbath.
We have a problem.
In his book The Way We're Working Isn't Working, Tony Schwartz describes what it is:
The way we’re working isn’t working ... More information than ever is available to us, and the speed of every transaction has increased exponentially, prompting a sense of permanent urgency and endless distraction. We have more customers and clients to please, more e-mails to answer, more phone calls to return, more tasks to juggle, more meetings to attend...
September 3, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Be Comforted in Your Smallness
Resting in our smallness, we are delivered from fear, lest our shoulders should bear the weight of the world.
From the Lonely Pastors: Please Invite Us to Your Party
Many pastors are lonely, and their congregations are unaware. Pastors and their people must work to overcome barriers to relationship.
7 Simple Steps to Preserve Your Local Church’s History
How you preserve and organize your documents now is critical for future leaders...
August 30, 2022
When You Hear of a Scandal
In the late 1980s, I came across Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. To this day, it’s one of the most impactful books I’ve read. I still remember entire sections of the book, including one of the best chapter titles I’ve encountered (“The Sadness of a Book Never Read”) and his description of what he calls the sinkhole syndrome: when our private worlds can no longer support the weight of events and stresses from the outside.
I began reading everything I could of MacDonald’s writings,...
August 27, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Why It Matters That Jesus Was and Still Is Human
The Son has not retreated back into the disembodied divine state in which he existed before he took on flesh.
What is impossible for God, who cannot change, is possible in Christ because of the glory of the incarnation.
The Spiritual Gift of a Closed Door
While you wait for some door to open, be as faithful as you can be with whatever work, however seemingly small, God has entrusted to...
August 23, 2022
Find Joy in the Chaos of Twitter
Twitter is confusing. I get so much value out of some of the people I follow, but a lot of it seems like a giant waste of time. I sometimes wonder if it’s worth continuing to use it.
A couple of months ago, I came across Kevon Cheung’s helpful book Find Joy in Chaos: How to Build Your Twitter Presence so Connections and Opportunities Come Find You. I enjoy Cheung’s relational approach to using Twitter.
I asked him some questions about the book. Here’s a summary. If you want to listen to my entire ...
