The Friday Five (7.11.25)
A Few Things for My Friends
Hey!
Every week, I share five things to encourage and equip in daily life with God.
I hope you’re having a great week and that these resources are helpful to you.
I love hearing from you when something resonates, and I am thrilled so many of you have joined the conversation over the last few months.
As a brief update: when all the summer activities wind down, I’m eager to get back to more regular Tuesday emails. This fall, I’ll be teaching through Luke and in our year-long theological discipleship program. Also still working on the dissertation and writing projects.
Have a great weekend,
MK
⬇️ Have you read my book on spiritual disciplines? ⬇️
Read the forward and introduction | Grab a copy here | Here’s a Discussion Guide
1. Experiencing God’s Love
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the love of God in our lives, how we experience it, how we image it to others, and what it means to love others as we love ourselves.
On a recent flight, I listened to Brandon Shield’s goodbye sermon as he transitioned out of pastoring the church he planted. It’s from the John Mark Comer Teachings podcast, and the title is what drew my eye.
Here’s part of the feed description: [Sheilds shares his] personal journey of moving from knowing about God’s love intellectually to experiencing it in a way that heals, transforms, and reshapes how we relate to others.
Listen to the whole thing here.
2. The Mercy We Needed, the Mercy We Give
I was going through a talk I wrote for our preaching cohorts, and found this gem from Zack Eswine:
Every preacher is a human being who once was a child needing to grow up, whose stories are mixtures of tragedies and triumphs. Every preacher is a human being who has given wrong answers, prayed incorrectly, misquoted the Bible, daydreams, and longed for things that now embarrass or have hurt other people. And it was there as such a person in such environments that God came and found us. Anything good we ever preach has been made possible by a prior testimony of God’s mercy. We’ve dreamt of making a difference. But what if differences are made by remembering where we’d be without God and then ministering to others out of that knowledge? What if preaching requires something prior to homiletics? ...Until we remember that God drew us to himself and nourished us before we even knew where to find the book of Exodus in the Bible or that such things as Arminianism or Calvinism existed, we will withhold from others the same mercy that was required for us to learn what we now know.
Zack Eswine, Preaching to a Post-Everything World, 11
Note: If you’re someone who preaches and teaches the Bible, you should read and have this book in your toolkit. There is a lot here to learn from and consider for our work and way of being.
3. The Divine Conspiracy Audio
Conversatio has made another audio teaching course from Dallas Willard available, this one on The Divine Conspiracy.
Here’s their write-up:
In 2004, Dallas delivered a thorough series of talks delving deep into themes from his acclaimed book, The Divine Conspiracy. The epiphany inducing talks are rich and dense with knowledge, wisdom, and insights. The 16 part series, complete with Q&A sessions, are available to you on conversatio.org.
Find the entire series here.
4 & 5 - Remembering and Lamenting
The news about the floods in Texas has been devastating over the last week. I’ve found myself unable to click on certain headlines, and laying in bed at night thinking of the continued waves of stories that have crossed feeds, friends, and our community.
Last night, our church held a care space for those struggling with the impact of the floods and in need of prayer. We took an evening together to read the names and descriptions of victims, then pray for the families of each one. It was a way to mourn with those who mourn, and to lament what has happened. I was reminded of attending Aggie Muster each year, where we would read the names of those who had passed and answer, “Here.”
Our youngest is eight, and tears have come quickly all week if I let myself think of getting the news so many have received. We wrestled in prayer last night for these families, and with the questions of how such suffering happens.
If you feel led to pray specifically, the lists we prayed through are here and here.
If you struggle with the idea or practice of lament, Mark Vroegop’s work, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament has helped me greatly.
Here’s Mark:
Lament can be defined as a loud cry, a howl, or a passionate expression of grief. However, in the Bible lament is more than sorrow or talking about sadness. It is more than walking through the stages of grief.
Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.
Throughout the Scriptures, lament gives voice to the strong emotions that believers feel because of suffering. It wrestles with the struggles that surface. Lament typically asks at least two questions: (1) “Where are you, God?” (2) “If you love me, why is this happening?” Sometimes these questions are asked by individuals. At other times they are asked by entire communities. Sometimes laments reflect upon difficult circumstances in general, sometimes because of what others have done, and sometimes because of the sinful choices of God’s people in particular.
You might think lament is the opposite of praise. It isn’t. Instead, lament is a path to praise as we are led through our brokenness and disappointment. The space between brokenness and God’s mercy is where this song is sung. Think of lament as the transition between pain and promise.
It is the path from heartbreak to hope.1
Thanks for Reading
If someone forwarded this to you, I write two kinds of emails: one on select Tuesdays about life with God and the other every Friday, where I share things I’ve found during the week. If you want to subscribe but can’t afford it, email me, and I’ll take care of it—no questions asked.
I pastor, teach, and lead at The Village Church, serving as an Elder and the Executive Director of Discipleship. In my spare time (ha!), I’m working on a Ph.D. in Church History, studying Jonathan Edwards and character formation. Also, I’ve written A Short Guide to Spiritual Disciplines: How to Become a Healthy Christian.
Thank you for reading and supporting my work as I seek to shepherd with compassion and wisdom, equipping people to embody God's truth for all of life.
Talk soon,
Mason
Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, chapter 1.
Thank you for taking the time to write these five items each week. I have found numerous helpful items to encourage my faith walk.