Why would a person take his own life, especially a young person who has so much to live for? When our natural instinct is to do everything in our power to preserve and protect our personal well-being, why would anyone kill himself? Suicide, though, doesn’t end all pain because it is never a solitary act with a single consequence of a life ended. When one person takes his/her life, a host of other lives are sucked into the vortex. Every person who commits suicide leaves others behind lamenting the loss, sometimes for the rest of their lives—colleagues and friends, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, children. Jon Noyes, from the ministry Stand to Reason, joined us and shared that suicide has impacted his own family and explains how this topic goes far deeper than an academic conversation.

https://www.str.org/w/suicide-when-hope-runs-out

CRU: Suicide Prevention Resources

Dial 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to talk to someone now https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/life-and-relationships/hardships/suicide-prevention-resources.html

Focus on the Family: Suicide - Resources 800-232-6459 https://www.focusonthefamily.com/resources-suicide/

If you need to talk, the 988 Lifeline is here. At the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, we understand that life's challenges can sometimes be difficult. Whether you're facing mental health struggles, emotional distress, alcohol or drug use concerns, or just need someone to talk to, our caring counselors are here for you. You are not alone. https://988lifeline.org/

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Remember Christian singer/songwriter Keith Green? Here’s a line from the song How Can They Live Without Jesus: “…he’s not just a religion/With steeples and bells/Or a salesman who will sell you/The things you just want to hear..”That first line in particular. It was clear that Green – born in 1953 – had that Boomer suspicion of all things structured about the faith. For him, sincerity lay in a lack of structure.

The more structure the less real. The less real the less likely to be how Jesus would have done it. By stating that Jesus is not “just” a religion with the familiar markings of a church building, and the calls to worship that bells ensued, he was seeking to distance the gospel from the conservative formalism that so many Boomers had rejected in the culture, not just in church. Green gave tens of thousands of his albums away for free, and refused to charge for his concerts. He practiced what he preached.

Note an irony about those two lines I just quoted.The rejection and removal of the former was often accompanied by the uncritical adoption of the latter. Enter the “seeker sensitive movement” in the church. How did this play out? Blogger and pastor Stephen McAlpine joined us to explain.

https://stephenmcalpine.com/keith-green-bill-hybels-and-the-loss-of-steeples-and-bells/

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Forgiveness. It is so much easier to talk about forgiveness, if you don't have someone in mind to forgive. The truth is, how can we withhold forgiveness from others, when those in Christ have been forgiven much? Listeners weighed in with stories of how they have been hurt.....and how God has helped them to forgive.

https://revdaveharvey.com/2024/07/23/3-questions-to-ask-about-forgiveness-2/

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