It’s a double birthday here today, so happy sweet 16 to Michaela and happy something a bit beyond 16 to Aileen!

Today’s Kindle deals include a John Piper classic.
(Yesterday on the blog: Like a Ruined Castle)
How to Fall in Ministry (and What to Do When You Do)
Jared Wilson writes about ministry leaders being exposed in their sin. “Each time it happens, we get less adept at incredulity, less inclined to outrage and distress. We’re not happy about it, of course, but we are, sadly, getting used to it. Then the backward troubleshooting begins, the diagnosing of sicknesses long after the deaths. Ministry post-mortems tell us so much, but it would be great if we could see the falls coming. But can’t we?”
Twitter Anger and the Righteousness of God
“If we are not angry about something today, then it seems we must lack virtue. How could the cultural dialogue surrounding gender, sexuality, abortion, racism, and countless other issues not lead to anger? You would almost have to be dead inside or extremely apathetic not to be triggered by these things.”
3 reasons Christians slander one another
And in a similar vein, here’s Aaron Armstrong. “I have a confession: I am, on occasion, a doom-scroller. I can easily get sucked into reading nonsense Christians say about one another on Twitter. And I can get riled up really quickly, especially when I see people committing a sin specifically condemned in Scripture: ‘Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters’ (James 4:11a).”
Thinning the Peaches
“It hurts to rip healthy, growing peaches off a tree, but if I don’t then I won’t have much edible fruit later in the summer. If the nutrients gathered by the roots are spread too thin across too much fruit, then each peach will end up small and will lack the necessary amount of sugar for that delicious, sweet taste. Not only that, but the sheer weight of so many peaches would break many of the branches.” As is so often the case, there’s something we can learn from nature.
What to Ask a Passage Before You Preach It
“Good questions force us to identify treasures we often miss. Those treasures come in all forms. We see God’s holiness, our sinfulness, as well as God’s sovereignty and grace. We also discover his promises, our identity in him, and more. Therefore, when observing a text, here are five questions that have helped me. Over time, you’ll develop your own.”
Apologetics: Final Examination for Christian Apologetics
I quite enjoyed reading the questions Timothy Paul Jones asks of students in the final exam of his Christian Apologetics class. They are based on memes, Metallica, Star Wars, and so on.
Flashback: If Only I Had Been Saved By Merit!
One of the hardest tasks for every Christian is to deeply believe and forever remember that we’ve been saved by grace. This is a lifelong challenge because our natural tendency is always to veer back to merit, to assume that we’ve been saved by something we are, something we’ve got, or something we’ve accomplished.

Death is half disarmed when the pleasures and interests of the flesh are first denied. —Richard Baxter

Today Westminster Books has a neat trilogy for kids on sale. You may also enjoy their The Pastor and the Modern World podcast.

(Yesterday on the blog: A Manifesto for Times of Suffering)
What Does It Mean To Be Winsomely Reformed?
Michael Kruger: “It should also be said that being winsomely Reformed does not mean that one is weak, fearful, or lacking in conviction. To say we should be winsome is not to say everything a Christian should be. Christians should also be strong and faithful, even courageous and bold. But let us not confuse being strong with being belligerent. Nor should we mistake being bold with being caustic. The loudest and most aggressive people are not always the ones with the most confidence in God’s word.”
The Wicked Bible
This is such an amusing bit of church history. “A scandalous printing mistake in a 17th century King James Bible caused it’s printers to lose their license, and a vast majority of the bible copies to be hunted and destroyed. The copy itself earned the nickname ‘Wicked Bible’, thanks to an unfortunate, but hilarious mistake in the Ten Commandments.”
The God of the gaps or the God who makes the grass grow?
Rick says that “science, rather than explaining away God, has opened a marvelous window for us to see in ever greater detail what it is that God does every day to govern and take care of his creation.”
How To Never Burn Out
Seth offers a sure “solution that will keep you from ever burning out in your service for others.”
Essentials and Non-Essentials in a Nutshell
“We Evangelicals talk a lot about essentials and non-essentials. Rightly so. We talk about distinguishing between those areas in our faith – those doctrines – which are central or ‘cardinal’ doctrines, and those which are not so important. However, we often have trouble when someone asks us to define, distinguish, and defend this whole ‘essentials/non-essentials’ distinction.”
How The Gospel Guides us in Engaging Indian Culture
Jimit Mehta: “I grew up in a traditional Gujarati home, steeped in our unique culture. But my family also travelled to different states, multiple times a year. I tasted a slice of many diverse cultures, each as beautiful as the other. But it was only when I became a follower of Christ that I learnt to truly behold this kaleidoscope that is India, in all of its breathtaking beauty.”
Flashback: 7 Things Your Church Needs From You
God made you part of your church for your good. You cannot do life on your own. You aren’t strong enough, you aren’t wise enough, you aren’t mature enough, you aren’t godly enough.

We all want a sense of meaning. But, boy, is it hard work creating one. By contrast, the loving Creator God says to us, Stop trying to create meaning. I’ve given you a glorious one. —Matt Fuller

One of the most important habits you can develop is the habit of accepting that life is full of disappointments. One of the best ways to grow in contentment is to accept the inevitability of discontentment. One of the ways you can be most joyful in life is to be realistic about life, to know that the people in it will so often fail to meet your expectations. Having admitted all of this, you can embrace it as the way life is and even the way God means for it to be.

Your church will disappoint you. The pastor will preach some weak sermons, the elders will make some poor decisions, and the members will fail to share every one of your burdens and minister to every one of your sorrows. You will be tempted to become discontent with your church and begin to cast wistful eyes toward other congregations. You will begin to wonder if the path to joy involves picking up and moving on.

Your husband will disappoint you. He will fail to please you, fail to fulfill you, fail to be all you want him to be. You will be given too little attention, sinned against too often, hear too little of your love language. You will be tempted to become discontent with him, to demand more, and to insist that peace will come only on the other side of his personal reformation. You may even be tempted to leave him altogether and start over with someone who promises more.

Your sex life will disappoint you, the wonder of the early days soon giving way to the struggles that come with too little opportunity or too little willingness, too much demand or too much distraction. How many people have made shipwrecks of marriage, family, and ministry because they could not accept the disappointment of a sex life that is imperfect and less than completely fulfilling?

Your parents will disappoint you and so too your children. Your friends will disappoint you and so too your relatives. All will fail you at many times and in many ways. And, of course, you will do the same for them. Your church will disappoint you and you’ll disappoint your church. Your spouse will disappoint you and you’ll disappoint your spouse. Your sex life will disappoint you and it will disappoint your spouse as well. No one will ever fully meet your hopes, desires, and expectations. No one ever can fully meet your hopes, desires, and expectations. And you can’t meet theirs.

I acknowledge that this could all sound discouraging and depressing. I acknowledge that it could be taken as a call to apathy, an excuse to give up effort altogether. But that would be the wrong response. The right response is to accept the reality of imperfection and to be content with discontentment. The right response is to understand that nobody and nothing can live up to your expectations and that nobody and nothing is meant to.

Christians speak often of the ways that beauty and pleasure are meant to direct us beyond themselves to what is ultimately beautiful and ultimately pleasurable. Beauty evokes wonder and wonder evokes worship and worship evokes longing. In that way, the beauties of this earth direct us to the perfect and complete beauties that we will experience in God’s presence. The longing and the ache are a feature rather than a bug, for they point us to the time and place when our hopes will finally be realized and our longings finally satisfied. And it seems to me that there is a way in which disappointment can function in a similar way.

Instead of being discouraged by disappointment, would it not be better to allow it to remind you of the state of this world and, better, the state of the world to come? Would it not be better to allow it to remind you that this world is not meant to completely fulfill you and not meant to satisfy your every longing? Would it not be better to let it increase your desire to be with God in that place where all disappointments will be taken away? And then to enjoy life as it is, not as you long for it to be?

God’s gifts are good and are meant to be enjoyed. Yet none of them can deliver all that they promise.Share

God’s gifts are good and are meant to be enjoyed. Yet none of them can deliver all that they promise. Each of them brings a level of satisfaction but also a level of disappointment, a sense of beauty but also a sense of longing for more. We need to be wary of that longing for more because it can motivate us to make poor decisions or even depraved ones. It can lead us to forsake the ones we love and be discontent in even their greatest efforts and best attempts to love. It can lead us to act rashly and in ways that hurt others and dishonor God.

So when you encounter life’s disappointments, do not be surprised and do not be dismayed. Do not allow them to cause you to turn aside or turn away from those who love you and those God has called you to love. Learn to accept them as an inevitable reality of life in this world. Instead of resenting them, embrace them and allow them to deepen your love and your longing for the only One who will never let you down.