Friday Links

Here’s the link roundup for this Friday–I’ve got some gems for you:

1. Make sure that you go to the website of the New England Center for Expository Preaching. If you have not heard of this vital ministry, well, here’s your introduction. NECEP is doing an important work in New England. Essentially, future pastors training for ministry come to New England to preach for many weeks in various churches. The idea, according to Dave Ricard, the program director, is to “get expositional preaching in New England by getting expositional preachers to come preach.” This is a most worthy goal. I heartily support it, and I encourage men with a burden to preach the gospel in the dry and darkened New England territory to do so. Browse the website and contact Dave Ricard for more information. Dave has a great heart, and he has a vital program started here.

2. Here’s an old but excellent article by Weekly Standard columnist Joseph Epstein on “perpetual adolescence.” Though published in 2004, the article makes many salient points. Epstein is a nice writer and a keen cultural exegete. This piece complements nicely the new book by Diana West, The Death of the Grown Up. I would encourage you to read the book, but if you don’t quite have time, at least read this article and consider how you and your church possibly participate in the disastrous phenomenon known as “perpetual adolescence.”

3. Saddening news about the divorce of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Well, not just sad. Enraging. President Sarkozy is a known womanizer, and it appears that his ways have finally driven away his wife for good. This is such a disgusting cultural trend. How awful to watch as faithful wives are humiliated by the lecherous ways of their husbands. Apparently, Sarkozy went so far as to kick his wife out of the presidential manse. Such intrigues are no stranger to French politics, but that fact does not make this event any less awful. How awful to see what men do to women in a world that celebrates personal and moral autonomy. These are the consequences. In a world like ours, many men stink. That’s it. There’s not much more to say. They fashion themselves into wretches, and the world crumbles alongside them. It is my hope that the men who are reading these words will commit themselves to ensuring that such disaster never darkens their doorstep. I pray this for myself, and as we go into the weekend, I pray it for you, brothers.