Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.
Aim High. Repent Often.
Christians are often called “hypocrites.” Trevin Wax wrote an article “to distinguish between the kind of hypocrisy Jesus excoriates and the stumbling attempts of sincere believers to live according to his commands.” This one is worth reading a few times.
Jesus reserved his sharpest words not for those who fell short but for those who wouldn’t admit their shortcomings. The Pharisees weren’t condemned for having standards too high. They were condemned for performing righteousness while concealing corruption—for polishing the outside of the cup while the inside was full of greed and self-indulgence.
The solution to hypocrisy, then, isn’t to lower your aim. It’s to be honest when you miss.
AI Is Coming For Your Systematic Theology
Tim Challies writes about a troubling trend of AI-produced books on systematic theology on Amazon. He introduces us to the sort of books he’s talking about, tells us why the prevalence of these books is dangerous, and advises us how to spot them. He also warns that this trend is likely to get much worse.
If you were to visit Amazon today and search for “systematic theology,” it would not take you long to find a host of similar works. Many of them have scads of enthusiastic reviews and feature realistic-sounding author bios that say things like, he “is a Christian author and teacher of systematic theology with a passion for making biblical doctrine clear, accessible, and meaningful for today’s readers.” Yet in reality, he does not exist at all, and the books under his name have been generated through nothing more than clever prompting of a Large Language Model.
How to Worship When God Feels Distant
Emily Jensen offers some biblical advice on how we can worship when it feels God is far from us.
Sometimes we’re tempted to hold off on praising God until we judge ourselves ‘faithful’ or have an emotional sense of God’s nearness. But the truth is that we were never faithful enough to begin with—we’ve always had to approach God humbly, by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8–9). God hasn’t gone anywhere, and you don’t have to do a checklist of ‘right’ things before coming to him in worship.
On the WPCA Blog This Week
This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Why We Reread the Bible. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!
Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.