Credo’s Cache

Each week we will be highlighting important resources. Check back each Friday to see what we have dug up for you. From this week’s cache:

1. Don’t Get An Emotional Divorce Before You are Married: Dating Mistakes: By Deepak Reju – Reju says: “Here is my warning: deep emotional intimacy should not be established in the early stages of a relationship. Often times, you’ll hear from Christians (especially your parents or pastors or Christian mentors) about the importance of having physical boundaries in order to maintain purity in a dating relationship. But a guy and a gal can go too far emotionally as well.”

2. The Strange Oprahfication of Rob Bell: By Samuel James – James notes: “Those who most benefited from Bell’s Mars Hill ministry are not the people who instinctively turn to Oprah Winfrey and Joel Osteen for spiritual guidance.  I feel a measure of sadness for those people; they have to feel a bit betrayed right now. Even if he was wrong in crucial ways, there was a time when Bell had something to say. I don’t think that’s the case right now.”

3. Apologetics & The Power of God’s Word (Including a little more from Origen): By Bruce Baugus – Baugus says: “Thus we have a second apology from the evident efficacy of God’s word: not only is it true, but it has the ability to bring to pass or establish whatever it declares and foretells, up to everything God has appointed it to achieve in the world. Only a word spoken with divine authority has that kind of power over reality.”

4. Church as the True Local: By Jonathan Parnell – Parnell says: “That is what distance means, after all. It is the space between two things: knowing God and living in ignorance, tasting his goodness and glutting on trifles. The advance of the gospel means stepping right into the middle of this and determining, God help us, to bridge the gap.”

5. The Legacy of a Disciple-Maker: By Jonathan Romig – Romig says: “My mentor lived a life of grace. When he was diagnosed with stage four cancer, nothing about that grace-filled life changed. He went much quicker than expected, but I got to write him a letter before he passed. In that letter it was my turn to remind my mentor of his need for God’s grace.”

Matt Manry is the Assistant Pastor at Life Bible Church in Canton, Georgia. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Religion at Reformed Theological Seminary and a Masters of Arts in Christian and Classical Studies from Knox Theological Seminary.