May the God of love and peace be with you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include some books for adults and some of kids.
(Yesterday on the blog: Do You Knock at the Gates of the Grave?)
How and when was the canon of Scripture established, and by whom? (Video)
Stephen Nichols does a great job of describing how the canon of Scripture was established.
It’s February: Check on Your Single Friends
Lisa LaGeorge asks us to remember our single friends in February. “February breaks me a little, and I know I’m not the only one. If feels silly to even think about sometimes. The flowers don’t last, the chocolate is generally sub-par, and all my married friends roll their eyes about how overrated going out to dinner is. But there is still that thing about wanting to be wanted.”
Kevin DeYoung on “What is The Mission of The Church?” @ The Radius Missiology Conference
June 29-30, 2022 @ Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC. Kevin DeYoung will look at what is and is not the mission of the church. (Sponsored Link)
Burial is Hopeful
“A planter in a garden, with carefully labelled markers by each tiny seed so that the gardener would remember what eat seed was as it grew. When we bury our bodies we plant a seed in the ground, waiting for it to grow into an oak of righteousness in the new creation. We remind ourselves that what is now is brief, and what comes after is long and joyous. Burial is fundamentally hopeful.”
The Beijing Olympics: Pray for the Persecuted in China
Randy Alcorn sees the Olympics as an opportunity to remind us to pray for the persecuted Christians in China. He also discusses whether Christians should boycott the Olympics because of China’s persecution and other human rights abuses.
Freedom from the Tyranny of “Success”
Aaron Armstrong: “All of us have moments where we don’t respond to God’s blessings to others in the way we would want or expect, whether His blessings to an individual, to an organization, or a church. We start to play comparison games, even if only in our heads. We start to wonder why this person or that church is more successful than us.”
The Difference between the Apple and the Worm
Denny Burk helps us distinguish between the essence of a doctrine and its “accidents.” “As I have observed popular debates about complementarianism over the years, I have noticed how people often confuse what the doctrine is with other associations that have little or nothing to do with the teaching.”
Flashback: Travel Tips from a Journey Round the World
I spent a lot of last year traveling the world to carry out research for my forthcoming church history project–a project that took me to 24 countries across 6 continents. Now that the travel is winding down, I’m beginning to think about a few of the travel lessons I learned along the way. I decided to jot them down and share them in case they prove helpful to you next time you set out on a journey of your own.

Surely God will not wink at their sin who wink at his dishonor. —George Gillespie

It was twenty years ago this week that I made the decision to try to post something to my blog every day for a year. At that time the site was suffering from a lack of attention. I would write occasional articles and often get positive feedback on them, but I lacked any real commitment and dedication. The time between posting articles had stretched from days to weeks, so I decided I’d give it one more shot by making the commitment to post something new every day for a year. If I failed, I’d just give up and find a new hobby.

But it worked. From November 1, 2003 to October 31, 2004 I posted something every day. At the end of the year I decided I enjoyed holding myself to that kind of discipline so renewed the commitment. And somewhere along the way, it became a habit that stuck—and a habit that has remained two decades later. Tomorrow I’ll round out twenty years of daily blogging.
That’s not to say that I have always posted something of the highest quality—though I do try to ensure it is always worth reading and that it will benefit people in some way. And that’s certainly not to say I write every day or am even involved in posting it every day—there are people and automation tools that can do that for me when I am on vacation or taking a weekly day of rest. But it is to say that I’ve maintained the habit and enjoyed doing so.
So as I hit that 20-year mark, I want to express my gratitude to you, the readers. None of this would be possible if you didn’t commit to reading it. The fact that you continue to read this site is a blessing and encouragement to me. I’d say “Here’s to another 20 years” but I kind of doubt I’ll maintain the habit that long.
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And now, turning to a completely different subject, I thought I’d share a few thoughts and articles that may be of interest to you. While I link to several good pieces of writing each day in my A La Carte column, I focus almost exclusively on Christian material. Sometimes, though, I read other material and feel like commenting on it. That’s some of what you will find below—interesting articles from mainstream sources that are accompanied by some brief commentary.
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Happy birthday to Abby who turns 21 today!
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The Verge has an article that makes me chuckle: Apple’s new video reactions are making therapy incredibly awkward. If you have upgraded to the most recent versions of Apple’s operating systems, you may have noticed that they now include “video reactions.” When using FaceTime or another video app, you can use gestures to trigger certain reactions in your conversations. Some of these gestures are relatively common like a thumbs up or a thumbs down, but they can trigger uncommon on-screen reactions like a heart emoji or a fireworks display.
With that in mind, “SimplePractice, a company that offers a telehealth platform, is warning patients about Apple’s new video reactions feature that might let people unintentionally add heart emoji or virtual fireworks during a telehealth video call. Awkward.” Awkward indeed! The warning extends to other uses of video such as business meetings or litigation—times when an unexpected heart emoji or laser show may slightly disrupt what was otherwise a very serious conversation. Thankfully, it is possible to disable the feature—something you may wish to consider. And thankfully this feature came along well after that strange stretch of time during the pandemic when we seemed to be on video calls all day and every day.
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I was recently pondering the parable of the Good Samaritan and wondering this: if Jesus were to speak the parable today, who would play the role of the Samaritan in our modern Western context? If Jesus was attempting to challenge the kind of pious religious folk who are convinced of their own spiritual superiority, who would be the person who so revolts them that they would be infuriated to learn he was actually the one who had behaved righteously—the one who represented the sharpest cultural division of that day?
I was thinking the other day of the Modern Parable films that were released about 12 years ago. They provided a modern adaptation of the parable and, as I recall, the Samaritan was played by a devout Muslim. But that was not too long after 9/11 and what might have resonated in that day probably wouldn’t today. I know there is a lot of historical context that divided first-century Jews from Samaritans, but I’d be interested in knowing your thoughts on the closest comparison in our day.  Who is our modern Samaritan? (Facebook is probably the best place to leave a comment since I removed the commenting function on my blog a very long time ago.)
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“Something feels a bit off with Airbnb these days.” The Atlantic recently wrote about Airbnb and the way it has changed over the years. I remember the early years when every home or cottage we rented made us feel like we had been invited in as the guest of the homeowner. They would often be there to greet us and would leave a little welcome gift behind. There was something charming about it. But that was then and this is now. Today’s Airbnbs are often owned or at least managed by professional companies who want the experience to be very professional, bland, and sterile.
The author says, “You risk ending up, like I did in Vermont, in one of multiple cookie-cutter units listed by the same host, units that lean less ‘cozy ski lodge’ and more ‘IKEA display room that has never known human touch.’” And that’s exactly it. We recently rented one that had four chairs around the table and in the cupboards were four plain white IKEA mugs, four plain white IKEA plates, and four plain white IKEA bowls. Nearby were exactly 4 IKEA knives, forks, and spoons. The walls were stark and bare and there was no more furniture than absolutely necessary. It was a home devoid of warmth, character, or anything beyond the absolute necessities. I guess that’s fine as far as it goes, but I still find myself looking for listings that have a bit more of the older feel.
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Fast Company wrote about the note-taking app Obsidian. Whether it’s Obsidian, Roam Research (which I prefer), or one of several imitators, this new generation of note-taking apps offers features and power that previous generations did not. Their purpose is not just to help you write notes, but to help you figure out how to create ideas and bring meaning from those notes. So if Evernote or even your computer’s built-in notes app is meant to simply record information, these apps are meant to record information and then help you do something with it. I have found them invaluable and would say that if your work is in the realm of ideas, you may find they really benefit you as well. I continue to use Roam (as I’ve outlined here), though if I was starting over I’d definitely consider Obsidian as well.

It’s Black Friday which means you’ll find tons of great deals on all sorts of items. I’ve got one huge list of print books (and other items) and another huge list of Kindle deals. Enjoy!

Stephen writes about the uniqueness of Christian forgiveness. “Whatever the post-Christian future looks like, one thing is for certain, it would look less forgiving. Here we were thinking that if we got rid of the vengeful, judgey, judgey God-thing, we would become a culture of harmony and acceptance. Turns out all we did was outsource the vengeance to ourselves.”

Justin explains how to make the best decisions (even though they’ll also inevitably be imperfect decisions).

Calling all Canadians! Today is Black Friday, and 21Five, Canada’s gospel-centred Christian bookstore, has some special deals to share with you. Shop $2 bargain books, popular titles for 20% off and fruit of the spirit ESV journals for 50% off. And the savings don’t stop today—this Cyber Monday, 21Five has free shipping on all domestic orders! Hurry to 21Five.ca to take advantage of these awesome sales. (Sponsored)

“If the King of kings, the eternal ruler of Heaven, put up a job listing to become one of his ambassadors, what requirements would you expect it to include? If the application process was anything like the way our nations work, it would probably have a lot to do with who you know personally, who owes you a favour, and how well-connected your family is.”

This is an interesting look at some of the emotions that can hide beneath your expressions of anger.

Glen Scrivener: “In evangelistic terms, low tide means we cannot drift toward faith. Like it or not, when the tide is going out, simply to be a Christian means to go against the flow. And to embrace Christianity becomes a conscious journey. But it’s a journey that makes sense. The connection holds, and as you walk the path you’ll own it for yourself. At that point, you might just say, ‘Jesus is right!’—and mean it in ways that high-tide ‘drifters’ never could.”

Here’s a short but powerful reminder that the local church is to be a community of gratitude.

We will know that though we dropped our anchor into the depths of an ocean whose bottom we could not see, it fastened securely to the rock.

We have plenty of troubles and trials, and if we like to fret over them, we can always do that; but, then, we have far more joys than troubles, so our songs should exceed our sighs.
—C.H. Spurgeon