20 Things I Wish I'd Known in My Late Twenties
Well-written and really practical advice! Worth the five minutes it takes to read and consider these key principles the writer wishes she had known when she was our age. At least we all have #19 down! And, here's a sneak peak at one of them: "18. Live loved. — Wake up every morning and—before you put your feet to the floor—let your mind and heart linger on the fact that the Creator of the Universe loves you passionately, completely, unconditionally and eternally. Nothing matters more than this. This one truth can change absolutely everything."

20 Ways to Be Refreshing in the Local Church
Some really good suggestions here! I'd encourage you to read through and highlight 2 or 3 that you could start doing this coming week. Put them on a notecard or on your phone; sticky tac them to your mirror; pray for God to help you refresh your church family in this way; and then work to do so! Here's why — (excerpt) "There are few epitaphs I would rather have engraved on my tombstone than Paul’s words of commendation to Philemon, 'the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you' (Philemon 1:7). Oh, how I love Philemons and want to consistently be one!"

A Christian’s Guide to Reading the News: Five Rules to Remember
"If you have been following the news recently, you probably have noticed a lot of discouraging headlines about war, disease, immorality, and economic uncertainty. People are protesting in streets from Hong Kong, China to Ferguson, Missouri. From Moscow to Washington D.C., leaders seem to be more interested in drinking vodka and playing golf than helping the people they serve. How should a Christian react to all of the bad news in this world? Here are a few thoughts that might help us read the news in a redemptive way. ..." If you are a news-reader or news-worrier, this is a helpful article!

The Deadly Deception of Sexual Atheism in the Church
"The love, sex and dating forecast among adult single believers for the foreseeable future is this: cloudy with a chance of fear and pride." Don't allow your fear of missing out or your pride over knowing better excuse, empower, or embitter you in this crucial area! 

A Letter to the Caliph
Worried about the rise of militant Islam. You have nothing to fear ... really! Read this open letter from Tim Keesee (director of the "Dispatches from the Front" DVD series) to the ISIS commander and self-declared Caliph. "...I think it’s best that you know that you will not succeed. You and your Caliphate are destined for failure. Of course, all empires, caliphates, and reigns of terror eventually come to an end, but something else is happening — another kind of failure in your command over the Islamic world. It’s that Jesus Christ is building his Church, and he said that “even the gates of hell” (which sounds a lot like Mosul right now) cannot stop its advance."

About a week ago, we considered the mission of the church during our ABF hour. Time didn’t allow me to conclude the way that I had hoped, so I’ll do so here.

The New Testament authors all humbly and gratefully identified themselves as “slaves of God.”

• Titus 1:1 – “Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ” (cf. Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1).
• James 1:1 – “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
• 2 Peter 1:1 – “Simon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ.”

Of this humbling, yet honorable term, William Barclay writes:

(i) To call the Christian the doulos [slave] of God means that he is inalienably possessed by God. In the ancient world a master possessed his slaves in the same sense as he possessed his tools. A servant can change his master; but a slave cannot. The Christian inalienably belongs to God.

(ii) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that he is unqualifiedly at the disposal of God. In the ancient world the master could do what he liked with his slave. He had the same power over his slave as he had over his inanimate possessions. He had the power of life and death over his slave. The Christian belongs to God, for God to send him where He will, and to do with him what He will. The Christian is the man who has no rights of his own, for all his rights are surrendered to God.

(iii) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that the Christian owes an unquestioning obedience to God. Ancient law was such that a master’s command was a slave’s only law. Even if a slave was told to do something which actually broke the law, he could not protest, for, as far as he was concerned, his master’s command was the law. In any situation the Christian has but one question to ask: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The command of God is his only law.

(iv) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that he must be constantly in the service of God. In the ancient world the slave had literally no time of his own, no holidays, no time off, no working-hours settled by agreement, no leisure. All his time belonged to the master.”

(The Letters of James and Peter, rev. ed. [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976], 293; emphasis in the original).

By way of application, we had considered the following in our series together through Titus:

Paul was always driven by the reality of who he had become in Christ.  His understanding of the grace of God (I Corinthians 3:10; 15:10; Ephesians 3:7) and of his own unworthiness (I Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; I Timothy 1:15) helped him easily claim the responsibility of “commissioned slavery.”  How much of a bearing on your daily mindset and pursuits does your position have?  What drives your work ethic?  What motivates you in the business and ugliness of the work place?  What compels your relationships with people?  What influences the way you plan for tomorrow and dream about the future?  What summarizes your goals for this year?  Does the awareness that you are God’s slave and Christ’s ambassador influence your thinking and regulate your interactions and plans?

O church, you’re on a mission as a “slave of God”!  Fulfill your calling until the rest that awaits.