Tag Archives: Bible reading

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This is a good time for my occasional reminder that links here do not imply 100% endorsement of everything on a site I’ve linked to or from.

Why Don’t We Read the Bible More? Three Common Misunderstandings, HT to Challies. “That we should read the Bible is rarely questioned. Why we should read it is also fairly well-established. What we rarely do is examine why we, as confessing Christians, don’t read the Bible despite saying that we should. In my years of lay and vocational ministry, I’ve known the acceptable answers to this question and what we perceive to be ‘unacceptable’ answers.”

To (Almost) Die Is Gain, HT to Challies. A young wife and mom contemplates the gains she experienced after a dangerous brain surgery.

Biblical Theology Is for Nerds, HT to Challies. “When Marvel fans piece together the interconnected stories of the MCU across multiple films, they’re exercising the same muscles needed to trace biblical themes from Genesis to Revelation. The skills that make someone an expert in Star Wars lore or DC Comics continuity might be preparing him or her for something far more profound: biblical theology.”

What Does “Love Your Enemies” Not Mean? HT to Challies. “I recently preached on Jesus’s most revolutionary ethical teaching––love your enemies (Matt. 5:44). It stands as a Mount Everest among ethical instructions that both Christians and non-Christians respect. Yet, because we have a certain modern definition of love, it is easy to misunderstand Jesus’s teaching. What did Jesus actually mean by enemy love and how do we integrate it with Old Testament texts that seem to contradict it?”

The Sweet Honey of Forgiveness. “I’m thinking we make forgiveness way harder than it needs to be. It seems cumbersome, impossible … and somehow so wrong.”

How Are Children a Gift From the Lord? HT to the Story Warren. “If kids are a blessing and having a house full of them is a gift, we are going to have to structure our lives a little differently than the cultural norm.”

Our Answer to “Imagine.”Just before I stepped up to speak at the funeral of a professing believer, I had to endure the playing of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’ The opening words are ‘Imagine there’s no heaven!’ . . . I began to pray that the Lord would give me wisdom about what to say about this choice of music for a funeral.”

How to Pray for a Cancer Survivor. Much of what’s written here can be applied to other kinds of major illnesses as well. Sometimes the mental, emotional, or spiritual healing from trauma takes longer than the physical.

The Darkness of Winter, HT to Challies, subtitled, “It’s Not the Villain I Once Pegged it For: How the Lord uses Winter to Grow my Faith.” I share the author’s aversion to winter, though her winters are harder to deal with than mine. But she shares how God uses them.

When Everyone Else Is Getting the Blessings You Want. It’s easy to focus on the one thing we want that we don’t have. But God has poured out many blessings on all of us. Lois shares several.

Food (Allergies) and Fellowship. “Food plays an important part in corporate worship and the fellowship of God’s people. It did in Scripture, and it does so today. So, one of the issues we should perhaps consider is the challenge of food allergies. While food allergies may seem simply like a personal health issue for individuals, it can also impact that individual’s fellowship with other believers in a local assembly.” I can “amen” all of this as we have family members with gluten, dairy, nut, and other food issues. I’d especially highlight being careful of cross-contamination–sometimes people who mean well don’t realize this is a problem, too.

C. S. Lewis quote

God’s presence is not the same as the feeling of God’s presence
and He may be doing most for us when we think He is doing least.
–C. S. Lewis

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Have things settled down for you now that the holidays are over? Or has your new year started full tilt? We’re in resting/puttering mode–getting things done here and there but taking it slow after a lovely but busy couple of weeks.

There are several good reads found this week. I hope you’ll have time for some of them.

A Happy New Year Task for Writers. Though geared to writers, it’s good for us all. Before resolutions or goals or words for the year, we need to consecrate everything to the Lord.

How Healthy Is Your Soul? Six Questions for a New Year, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “Strewn throughout Scripture, prophets and apostles, wise men and the God-man all urge us to watch ourselves, pay attention to ourselves, and stay awake “lest we drift away” (Hebrews 2:1). Unless we keep our hearts ‘with all vigilance’ (Proverbs 4:23), they will not be kept.”

More Bible, Better Bible in 2024. This was written to preachers but is good for anyone who writes or speaks from the Word of God: we need to read and study it for our own souls, not just to find something to share with others. This was written by one of our former pastors.

The Good Shepherd Is the Lover of My Soul. Some good lessons from the life of Michal, David’s first wife.

What Happens When We Share the Gospel? Six Encouragements, HT to Challies. We may not know exactly what’s going on in hearts when we share the gospel. But there are a few things we do know.

Honor Your (Elderly) Parents: How Adult Children ‘Make Some Return,’ HT to Challies. “What can we tell adult children in the church to help prepare them for this call to honor aging parents and elders? As one in the thick of learning the lessons (and the blessings) of honoring, I would suggest three main messages for the adult children among us.”

Parental Regret: How to Move Forward When You’ve Let Your Kids Down, HT to Challies. “Rather than letting regrets anxiously swirl in our minds, we can take the off-ramp of reckoning honestly with what happened. Did you notice the pattern? It’s relational. Let your regrets move you toward the Lord, toward other Christians, and toward your kids.”

God’s Power Is Made Perfect In Weakness, HT to Challies. “He’s not saying God gives me his power and I feel powerful. This isn’t a shot of divine Red Bull that makes Paul powerful in his own right. No, God’s power is at work even as Paul is weak.”

Finally, just for fun, (Southern) Pride and Prejudice–Jane Austen’s book read in an “American Southern” accent.

Maybe the circumstances you most fear will contain treasures you least expect. Sarah P. Walton

Maybe the circumstances you most fear will contain treasures you least expect.
Sarah P. Walton

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Some of the thought-provoking posts found this week:

A Sycamore Tree. a Car Crash, and God’s Provision, HT to Challies. “When we think of God’s providential provision for his children, we often think in immediate terms—the unexpected financial gift that comes on the day the bill is due, the odds-defying recovery, or the new job starting right when the severance pay ended. These kinds of immediate interventions are marvellous. They should lead us to praise and give thanks to the God who gives them. But we should also be ready to see that many of God’s provisions are prepared for us long before our needs arise.”

Brussels Sprouts or Brownies? How Would You Describe Your Bible Reading? “I wanted to love my Bible, but I didn’t. It seemed more like brussels sprouts than brownies. Something I consumed because it was good for me, not because it tasted good. I wish I could say my attitude toward the Bible changed overnight. Instead, it was a slow but steady transformation that began when I read a passage the apostle James wrote to the church. There I learned how to position myself to learn from and love God’s Word.”

Let the Cursor Blink, HT to Challies. “The path of wisdom has footprints of restraint. It’s the idea of holding back or keeping back. There’s an intentional restriction of what is said. This is the self-control that knows that sometimes it’s better to be slow to speak (James 1:19) or even not to speak (or text, or email, or post).”

Are Christians Parents Too Protective of Their Children? HT to Challies. “As nervous Christian parents, we sometimes think our number one job is to make sure our kids are never exposed to any non-Christian thinking. We may be tempted to place them inside a sanitized theological bubble, safe from all forms of intellectual contamination. But, as for germ-conscious parents, this may not be accomplishing what we think.”

You Can Parent Teens with Hope in a Secular Age. “All this leads Christian parents to their greatest concern: Is it possible for my teen to develop a strong faith in God amid a culture that celebrates sin, promotes self, and declares truth to be whatever feels good in the moment?“

Exercising an Idle Mind. “I see in myself the need to flee not just from idle hands but also an idle mind. As is true of many women, unless I’m sleeping, my mind is quite active. And if I do not give my mind a steady intake of good fuel to burn, I will often be burning whatever fuel I can find. The result? Lots of thoughts about aimless things.”

Walking Our Wives Through the Valley of Miscarriage: An Encouragement to Husbands, HT to Challies. “Miscarriage brings a unique grief in the valley of death; and it’s not an area well-known to us, especially us husbands. There are no maps; no entry and exit signs. There is only darkness, grief, and pain. And while, as fathers, we certainly grieve when our unborn children die, mothers seem to bear a far greater burden, a far deeper wound to the soul.”

Why We Worry When Choosing a Bible Translation, HT to Challies. There are difficulties but also benefits of having multiple Bible translations.

Why a Good God Commanded the Israelites to Destroy the Canaanites, HT to Challies. This is something atheists love to throw at Christians, and it’s something difficult to understand. This post raises some good points.

Elisabeth Elliot quote

This hard place in which you, perhaps, find yourself, is the very place in which God is giving you opportunity to look only to Him. –Elisabeth Elliot

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Here are some of the good reads found this week:

Everything Short of Hell Is a Mercy, HT to Challies. “Everything short of hell is mercy. This one truth should change the way we view our hardships and frustrations, no matter how terrible they may be. If we, as sinners, are not facing the wrath of the infinitely Holy God at this moment, our life is better than we deserve. That is true for every Christian and non-Christian alive right now.”

What to Say to Dave About Regular Bible Reading, HT to Challies. “Few of us have it fully sorted, and so we don’t feel qualified to tell others what they should be doing. I certainly don’t feel like I can speak from anything other than the wisdom that comes from regular failure. But failure is a good teacher, even if I’m not a good student, so here are five tips I might give to Dave.”

Should You Send Your Kids to Catholic School? HT to Challies. Some considerations.

In a Day’s Work: God’s Pattern for Productivity. “I’ve been studying the book of Genesis in depth, and something struck me recently about how God structured the days of creation. I think there may be something in this pattern that we can imitate in our own work.”

How Vocational Stewardship Leads to Human Flourishing, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “By ‘vocational stewardship,’ I mean the intentional and strategic use of one’s vocational power (skills, knowledge, network, position, platform) to advance human flourishing.” I would add that those things can be done on a smaller scale with neighbors, relatives, and church members.

The Porcelain Room. “Do I worry so much that I’ll forget to give them something they’ll need that I forget to point them toward the Lord who knows what they’ll need—and who will make sure they have it? Am I so preoccupied with the thorns and thistles of life that I allow them to crowd out the good growth of the gospel in our family?”

The Best a Man Can Get, HT to Challies. I enjoyed watching the American men’s gymnastics team win their bronze medal, the first US men’s team to medal in some time. This article about the team was great, too. “It’s a quintessentially American success story about a quintessentially American team, made up of distinct, memorable characters. The phrase ‘Diversity is our strength’ has become a cheap leftist nothing, but there are times and places when it actually means something, and the Olympics is one of them.”

The Curse of Knowledge, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “Have you ever had a teacher who was very smart but terrible at teaching? An expert who used so much jargon you could not follow their explanation? This is called the ‘curse of knowledge.'” The author shares ways to bridge the gap.

The Quiet Grief of Caregiving: Four Balms for the Overburdened, HT to Challies. “I forced a smile, swallowed down the tightness in my throat, and struggled against the tide of grief that’s become as familiar and worn as a tattered coat. It’s a mantle common to many who walk beside the hurting — the heaviness that presses upon the heart when we’ve witnessed others’ suffering over and over and over.”

Church Skills: Use Them or Lose Them, HT to Challies. “You might not think you have church skills, but you almost certainly do. You will have developed ways of making conversation, showing interest in people, caring for them, serving in all sorts of ways and lots of other such things. But as with anything we have learnt to do, if you don’t keep using it, you will lose it.”

I’ve experienced His presence in the deepest darkness hell that men can create. I’ve tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them.” — Corrie ten Boom, survivor of Ravensbruck concentration camp after helping hide Jewish people during WWII

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Here’s my weekly list of good reads:

Jesus Was No Victim. “It was physically dark, as the very sun refused to shine on the crucifixion of its Maker (Matthew 27:45). And it was morally dark, as a collection of bitter rivals joined to commit history’s most grotesque crime, the murder of the Son of God. Scripture holds Jesus’ murderers guilty for their crime (Acts 2:24, 36; 3:13-15; 4:10, 27). And yet, it would be wrong for us to see Jesus as the victim.”

The Silence of the Lamb. Adrian Rogers discusses why Jesus did not explain or defend Himself during His trials before crucifixion. One of my favorite parts of this: “If Jesus had risen up in his own defense during his trials, I believe that he would have been so powerful and irrefutable in making his defense that no governor, high priest, or other legal authority on earth could have stood against him! In other words, if Jesus had taken up his own defense with the intention of refuting his accusers and proving his innocence, he would have won! But we would have lost, and we would be lost for all eternity.”

How to Protect Your Kids from Sexual Abuse, HT to Challies. “Parents, educators, caring adults, and the church have grown more alert to the need to teach kids tangible ways to stay safe from abuse. Since concerned adults like you and me can’t always be with children, we must educate them in concrete, child-appropriate safety skills.”

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know, HT to the Story Warren. A mother reflects on what her son has taught her about Jesus’ love on World Down Syndrome Day.

On Whales, Menopause, and Thanks to God, HT to Challies. “In God’s good design, we humans share this somewhat rare life stage with only six other species on earth. Humans, however, are the only creatures who are able to reflect upon the experience of menopause, and even (stay with me here) thank God for it.”

Talk to God About What Hurts, HT to Challies. “When life is painful, God invites us to talk to Him about it. He wants us to cry out to him in humility–to talk to him about what hurts–that we might grow in our childlike trust in Him and His Word.”

Just Checking In: How’s Your Bible Reading Plan Going? HT to Challies. “I want to give a little encouragement for those who are trying to read through the Bible this year.”

Does God Care How You Cook Your Goat? The verses in the Old Testament about not boiling a baby goat in its mother’s milk are puzzling, both from the standpoint of why it was a law at the time and how it applies to us today. Tim Challies shares a couple of interpretations and applications.

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection,
not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime.
Martin Luther

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Here are some of the good posts found this week. The list is a little longer since I’ve had a chance to catch up on blog reading.

When You Don’t Want to Read the Word. “Remember when you couldn’t get enough of the Bible? Lately though, you make your coffee and start your morning; you’ve missed a few days of devotional reading. It’s not that you don’t love God’s Word—it’s just that in the busyness of life it doesn’t seem to have the same hold on you it once did. The craving isn’t there. The desire has dried up.”

Tunawa Leah. “Friends, another year has passed, and my heart remains burdened for this precious child of God. I first shared Leah Sharibu’s story of faith in the face of extreme persecution with you in January 2020. This year marks the sixth anniversary of this young lady’s captivity and enslavement at hands of ISIS-WA (aka Boko Haram) in Nigeria.”

4 Lesser-Known Women of the Bible {And What They Can Teach Us Today} “Sometimes in our day-to-day lives, in the struggles, we can feel unseen and underappreciated. More like those in the Bible who are not as well-known. Today I’d like to look at several of those lesser-known women in the Bible: Jehosheba, Abigail, Lois, and Eunice. You may not even recognize their names right off, which makes them perfect to discuss today.”

The Evangelist on the Titanic. “While the story of the Titanic is one of disaster, it is also a story of great heroism and of great faith. Numbered among those who drowned in the tragedy was a Scottish Baptist evangelist named John Harper.”

Worse Than Any Affliction: Why I Refuse to Grumble, HT to Challies. “My flesh is wasting away, and who would blame me if I complained? Certainly not the world — it’s natural for them to expect an old lady in a wheelchair to grumble over her losses. But followers of Jesus Christ should expect more from me. Much more.”

When the Walk Becomes a Crawl, HT to Challies. “The key to getting a long view of sanctification is to understand direction. What matters most is not the distance you’ve covered. It’s not the speed you’re going. It’s not how long you’ve been a Christian. It’s the direction you’re heading.”

Jesus Didn’t Diss the Poor: Making Sense of Matthew 26:11, HT to Challies. “In perhaps one of the oddest moments of the passion narrative, Jesus seemingly sets himself at odds with his disciples’ concern for the poor. Breaking ranks with the twelve, Jesus did not think Mary should have ‘given to the poor’ the money that she had used to purchase the oil needed to anoint Jesus’s feet.”

Westminster Abbey and the Danger of Inhospitality, HT to Challies. “Biblical hospitality forefronts our neighbor, not ourselves. Hospitality is about making someone else feel honored, loved, and comfortable.”

Applying Paul’s Great Commission Lifestyle Principles. “As we observe Paul’s life and teachings, especially 1 Corinthians 9, we see that he willingly laid aside ‘rights’ to his preferred lifestyle to be a more effective servant of Christ.” The context here is cross-cultural missions, but this is how we should be thinking and praying in all our interactions.

Why We Always Need More Books on Every Subject, HT to Challies. “‘Because we already have several good books on subject X, we do not need more books on subject X,’ the logic goes. I will push back on this logic for the following reasons below. You may not agree with all my reasons, but hopefully, they will deeper your appreciation for books.”

The Neurodivergent Believer, HT to Challies. “As believers, we acknowledge that God created each brain uniquely. The Apostle Paul describes this diversity within the body of Christ, emphasizing that each member has a distinct role (1 Cor. 12:12–27). Despite this diversity, being neurodivergent in a predominately neurotypical world can present unique challenges.”

Elisabeth Elliot The Secret is Christ in Me

The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.
–Elisabeth Elliot

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It’s been a super-busy week, so I have just a few links for you. But I think they’re good ones.

Why We Follow Some Old Testament Laws But Not Others, HT to Challies. “Critics accuse Christians of conveniently picking and choosing from Old Testament laws. We’re quick to ‘clobber’ gay people with verses from Leviticus, they say, yet we don’t keep kosher ourselves. The complaint, though, is based on a misunderstanding about the Mosaic Covenant that even Christians fall prey to.”

“Where Is Your Faith?” HT to Challies. “How do you cling to belief amidst such turmoil of the heart? How do you survive the death of a child? I can tell you, it is not what happens in that moment of complete darkness or even in the months and years that follow. Survival is forged in the pew every Sunday. It is built on the truths of Scripture that you fill your mind with day by day. It comes through knowing Who God is.”

We’re Missing It. “He wants time to love us that way and it can’t happen if He is a ‘to do’ list item, or in sound bites only throughout our day, or only while we grab coffee on our way out the door.”

Well-Worn Boots. Lessons from a pair of faithful old work boots.

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This has been a light blog reading week for me, but I did find a few things I wanted to share:

What I Long For More Than Miracles. “I suppose it is possible that I have witnessed a miracle in my lifetime, but if so, I’m not aware of it. . . . And if I’m honest, this doesn’t bother me in the least. It doesn’t bother me in the least because on many occasions I’ve witnessed something I count equally significant or perhaps even more so: I have witnessed the evidence and the intricacy and the perfect timing of God’s providence.”

Stooping to Filthy Feet, HT to Challies. “The man on his knees, rinsing sweat from Peter’s athlete’s foot and getting between Judas’s toes to wipe away the dung was our Creator, who is before all things and in him all things hold together; the hands that washed those verrucae and blisters would one day be the only ones qualified to break the seals and open the gates to the New Jerusalem.”

Winning Your Child’s Heart With Winsome Words, HT to Challies. “My years as a parent have helped me understand that my words do more than guide my children through their day. They shape how they think about themselves, other people, and how the world works. Most importantly, my words are one way my children learn about the gospel.” I wish I has this to read 40 years ago.

Bible Reading and Vain Vows. “We know the history of the people who made that vow at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Almost all of them ended up dead for disobedience and never set their feet in the promised land. They swore to do everything God told them to do, then they didn’t do it. We also know our own history when it comes to New Years Resolutions. These aren’t necessarily ‘vows,’ unless we actually vow something to the Lord, but we know that we are as frail as ancient Israel was. The spirit might be willing, but the flesh is exceedingly weak.” Includes several Bible reading plans.

Two sides of the issues from the same blogger: 3 Reasons Why You Should Make New Year’s Resolutions and 3 Reasons You Should NOT Make New Year’s Resolutions. HT to Challies.

I’d like to leave you with the last half of a poem by John Newton titled “At the Close of the Year.” (You can find the whole poem here.)

And since his name we knew,
How gracious has he been:
What dangers has he led us through,
What mercies have we seen!

Now through another year,
Supported by his care,
We raise our Ebenezer here,
“The Lord has help’d thus far.”

Our lot in future years
Unable to foresee,
He kindly, to prevent our fears,
Says, “Leave it all to me.”

Yea, Lord, we wish to cast
Our cares upon thy breast!
Help us to praise thee for the past,
And trust thee for the rest.

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Here are some of the articles that resonated with me this week:

Love Is a Skill, HT to Challies. “Anyone who has tried very hard to love other people well will know that love doesn’t always feel very natural. A lot of times it feels more like hard work.”

The Problem with Reading the Bible Verse-by-Verse, HT to Knowable Word. The verses divisions, subheadings, footnotes, charts, etc., in most of our Bibles “break up the text into little chunks (often arbitrarily), and we do not naturally read in little chunks, we read in big chunks. You read ordinary books section by section, not word by word, but all the footnotes and verse numbers condition us to read the Bible verse by verse.” Those tools are good for study later, “but the first and most important rule for interpreting and appropriating any biblical book is to actually read the book.”

Dig Deeper, HT to Challies. “Think of the scriptures like a fancy layered dessert — maybe a cake or parfait. There are several layers, and each offers new delights. If you don’t dig down into all the layers, you’re missing out.”

A Call for Endurance and Faith, HT to Challies. “We are not without encouragement in times like these, and sometimes the call for endurance comes in ways that seem strange to the contemporary churchgoer who has enjoyed religious freedom all their lives.”

What Does God Want of Me? HT to Challies. “But what I do remember are the three questions that came out of this difficulty, questions that my husband raised in the midst of this trial to help provide us with direction and guidance. These questions have stayed with me ever since, and have given me clarity and lessened my burden in a wide variety of situations: problems with children or other family members, issues in my marriage, dilemmas in church, personal trials, and more.”

Is Your Way Really God’s Way? ‘While the Bible is heavy on function (what we are to do) it is light on form (how we are to do it).” This article helps discern between form and function and the errors of insisting on our form of doing things.

Protecting Your Teenagers Online, HT to Proclaim and Defend. “We have a pool in our backyard. We also have young children. What steps do we take to protect them? 1. A fence; 2. Swim lessons; 3. Supervision.” Kristopher Schaal then applies these three levels of protection to internet usage.

Cultivating Attention: The Challenge of Reading Great Literature, HT to Linda. “As a literary critic, writer, and professor, I have the great privilege of working with literature every day, and helping others to encounter the beauty of great stories as well. Evangelization and discipleship through beauty is vitally important for our modern culture, for God is perfect Beauty as well as perfect Goodness and Truth. Stories, poetry, and all the arts can help us both to grow in our own faith and to share that faith with others in a compelling way . . . But it’s not easy. Many readers find themselves discouraged, encountering a gap between their desire to engage with great tales and the rather more difficult reality of the experience.”

Why the World Needs Readers (Like You), HT to Linda. “I’ll be honest. It’s in my own self-interest to say that reading is important. I am the author of a book blog, after all. But I believe—passionately—that reading is more than your average pastime. Much more. Here’s why I think that readers, people like you and me, are critical to preserving civilization—and helping it flourish.”

How an Introvert Does Thanksgiving, HT to Linda. “As a large and diverse group, we introverts love our families and the holidays no more or less than anyone else. So the fear and loathing with which we sometimes face this season is not an intro-aversion to the whole concept of family or holidays. It’s more the specifics of the experience that exhaust us; many of us are right now anticipating Thanksgiving with equal parts of delight and anxiety. Yes, pie. But also forced togetherness, lots of chitchat, and old family scripts replaying again and again. It’s a tradeoff. So, before the holidays flatten you like a runaway truck, perhaps take a minute to sort through their delights and the stresses to sketch out some strategies for Thanksgiving so you can enjoy more of the former and less of the latter.”

I Could Never Get Grandma’s Dressing Quite Right—Until She Was Gone, HT to Linda. “Back then I hadn’t yet learned that the most important thing about cooking for other people is the joy your food can bring them. . . .that on Thanksgiving, it’s a waste of time to roast a whole entire pumpkin for pie (the canned stuff is superior anyway!), and that investing in six great dishes is far better than churning out 12 I’m too exhausted to actually eat, and that turkey tastes approximately the same no matter what you do to it.”

thankful heart

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Here is the latest round-up of good reads found this week:

Hearts Painted by the Word Again and Again, HT to Challies. “The job of painting the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is never-ending. I heard once that they paint it end-to-end, but by the time they get to the end—however many years that may take—it is time to start over.” I love the analogy drawn from this!

When Working for God Becomes the Goal. “It is not God’s design or will that any of His children find their personal worth in what they achieve. God never tells us that if we fail to ‘make a difference’ or ‘leave our mark’ in some profound way that we are insignificant. But this ambition to ‘leave a legacy’ through measurable success is mainstream in some cultures. It has a glittering appeal to those who have a genuine heart to serve Christ and be good stewards of their gifts.”

The Silent Sin that Kills Christian Love, HT to Challies. “Perhaps the test of faithfulness in a day of moral degradation will be our love for people across chasms of difference. Faithfulness isn’t in showy displays that we hate all the right people. Faithfulness isn’t in adopting a contemptuous posture toward the current president or the former one. The way of the cross rejects the path of sneers and jeers, whether in the form of elite condescension or populist passion.”

Mothering with Humility, HT to the Story Warren. “I didn’t have much choice but to be completely transparent with my seven-year-old son. A few minutes earlier, his concerned little face had peered down the stairs, trying to figure out why I was responding angrily to something his dad had said. Now, I found myself trying to calm him down and convince him to apologize to his older brother, with whom he was furious.”

Parents, Just Go to Church. “Getting to church is hard. But that’s part of the value of attending church every Sunday. It sets the tone for the Christian’s daily struggle to live in personal relationship with Christ.”

Why Study Doctrine? “Some dismiss doctrine as uninteresting, irrelevant, or just plain boring. ‘Don’t give me doctrine. Just give me Jesus! Doctrine may be cool for pastors or Bible nerds, but I live in the real world. I need practical stuff that works!’ Why study doctrine? Let me suggest a few reasons…”

Why We Go Light on Polemics, HT to Challies. “I am not saying there is never a time to do polemics. After all, Paul says that we “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor 10:5). . . . The main issue I’ve faced with polemical approaches is that they risk triggering a defensive response, where someone is overtaken by the sense that they are duty-bound to protect their community’s honor from the attacks of an outsider.”

Becoming a Better Bibliophile. “I keep convincing myself that I would be a better person if I simply buy another book.”