Resources by Charlie Wingard
Various & Sundry: October 25
Illness kept me from posting these links a few weeks ago; Susan Cain answers questions about introverts and the workplace. Michael Kruger lists 10 books on the Bible’s authority. While I’m on lists of 10: “10 Things Americans Waste Money On” David Murray identifies 18 obstacles to personal devotions in the digital age. “Reason 2: Loss of Concentration. Tests of office workers reveal that they check email 30-40 times an hour, although they think it’s only 10-15 times an hour. 1 in 4 people check their smartphone every 30 minutes, 1 in 5 every 10 minutes.” In “Art, Nakedness, and Redemption,” William VanDoodewaard writes: “To reject nudity in art and film is no denial of artistic ability, nor of created…
Read More(My dear Aunt Martha would have turned eighty-two today. The week she died I wrote these reflections in another forum. She was a godly aunt and gifted teacher.) While on vacation last week, I received word that my Aunt Martha died on Thursday, October 11. One of the great honors of my life came later in the day when my dad and uncle requested that I lead her funeral service in Memphis on Saturday morning and the subsequent interment service in Batesville, Arkansas. Aunt Martha was born October 25, 1931 in Montgomery, Alabama, the third and youngest child of Tom and Dorinda Wingard. She was remarkable; I can say without fear of objection from any who knew her that she…
Read MoreIf there is one trial greater than another, it is the trial of being disappointed in those we love. It is a bitter cup, which all true Christians have frequently to drink. Ministers fail them. Relationships fail them. Friends fail them. . . . But let them take comfort in the thought, that there is one unfailing Friend, even Jesus, who can be touched with the feelings of their infirmities, and has tasted of all their sorrows. Jesus knows what it is to see friends and disciples failing Him in the hour of need. Yet He bore it patiently, and love them notwithstanding all. He is never weary of forgiving. Let us strive to do likewise. J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts…
Read MoreIn public worship, our congregation recites the Apostles’ Creed and other historic creeds and confessions. Some worshipers express the concern that this ancient practice leads to the vain repetition of words. And it certainly can. Even worse, if the truths that we confess fail to engage our hearts and minds, then we take the Lord’s name in vain. If profanity is the most obvious form of taking God’s name in vain, then the meaningless use of God’s name is the most serious. Using his name in worship without consideration of his character, singing hymns to Jesus without a love for Jesus, flippant prayers, and the empty recitation of creeds all involve the vain use of God’s name. God’s name is…
Read MoreIn the later Middle Ages and through the first centuries after the Reformation, both Protestant and Roman Catholic writers produces literature on the ars moriendi, the art of dying. Recognizing that death is an event of great weight and everlasting consequence, these writers taught that dying well does not come naturally but is a practice that must be learned. Furthermore, they saw dying as a practice that must be learned throughout the whole of life if it is to be executed well . . . Many people today express the sentiment that the best death is a sudden death that involves no extended period of pain or suffering. While such a perspective is eminently understandable, we should appreciate why so…
Read More“We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations, to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the Gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man, or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else, for men are God’s methods. The church is looking for better methods, whereas God is looking for better men. This vital, urgent truth is one that this age of machinery is apt to forget and the forgetting of it is as baneful in the work of God as would…
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