Top of the Blogs this week


Stop Instagramming Your Perfect Life – Relevant Magazine
Using technology for community not comparison. “Community—the rich kind, the transforming kind, the valuable and difficult kind—doesn’t happen in partial truths and well-edited photo collections on Instagram.” Convicting for those of us with Instagram addictions.

Exploitation or protection? Slavery in the Old Testament – Of Dust and Kings
How the Old Testament law aimed to prevent exploitation in the ancient world, not engage in it. “Unlike the slavery of the surrounding cultures in the Ancient Near East, the Hebrews had strict laws about the involuntary enslavement of others.”

John Piper’s last sermon as Pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church – Desiring God
Easter marked John Piper’s last weekend as pastor at Bethlehem Baptist, and he finished with a sermon on the Great Shepherd from Hebrews 13:20-21. “God is the absolutely existing, reconciling, covenant-keeping, shepherding, sanctifying, Christ-exalting God.”

Frank Schaeffer says goodbye to his mum, Edith – Huffington Post
“Here’s what my mother showed me how to do by example: forgive, ask for forgiveness, cook, paint, build, garden, draw, read, keep house well, travel, love Italy, love God, love New York City, love Shakespeare, love Dickens, love Steinbeck, love Jesus, love silence, love people more than things, love community and put career and money last in my hierarchy of values and — above all, to love beauty.”