Grace and peace to you today.
This morning’s Kindle deals include a couple of excellent books on marriage, one on masculinity, one on Calvinism, and more besides.
Westminster Books has a great deal on a great new book by Kevin DeYoung—Daily Doctrine. Be sure to give it a look. I have been reading it and highly recommend it.

“Sadly, when we insist on comparing our mothering, ministry, appearance, or career choices with other women, we come up short every single time because we are holding ourselves to an unrealistic standard. Our imaginations create a situation in which it feels impossible to be content because we are continually striving to measure up on every front with the imaginary ‘perfect’ mother on Instagram. Social media hands women a broken yardstick for measuring our performance and our worth.”

It’s Pastor Appreciation Month! Celebrate with Midwestern Seminary by entering your pastor to win a $10,000 Pastor Appreciation Package, dedicated to a family vacation and a church need. Everyone who enters also receives an exclusive eBook by Charles Spurgeon from one of his lesser known works for FREE! Enter your pastor today! (Sponsored)

You’ve heard things like this, I’m certain: “We don’t go to church, we are the church. I have a relationship with God; I don’t need an institution or a building. Going to church is a man-made, American, modern invention.” So what does the Bible have to say about going to church?

“When I was in college, I thought my testimony was boring. I never shared it. I could accurately explain Jesus, the atonement, and the doctrine of saved-by-grace-through-faith, but when the concreteness of my rebellion against God pressed upon me, I questioned everything. Does he save? And who is Jesus?“

Robert Cara has a short but helpful piece on the authorship of Scripture.

I think we all wonder at times why God says no to the good things we ask of him. Blake Glosson provides a good answer.

Jacob writes about all the loneliness people are experiencing today and the solution the church can offer.

We need a word of virtue that fits in the space between busy and lazy. We need to use it, and we need to live it.

Spiritual authority depends more on care given than on power wielded.
—Daniel Doriani

It has been a little while since I have provided anything like a family or personal update, so I thought I would do so today. Also, I have received quite a number of questions about the Canadian truckers and their Freedom Convoy, so wanted to offer a few observations on that.

I am under some very heavy writing deadlines just now. I’m also in the season of pastoral ministry when I arrange personal visits with a good many members of the church so I can learn how they are doing, how the pastors can better serve them, and so on. It has been busy but blessed days!
I wrote a lot of blog articles over the past month or so and got those all queued up so I could then spend a couple of weeks focused entirely on books—one that is in the final stages of editing, one that needs to be completed in the next few weeks, and one that has suffered various delays but is now finally getting underway. The first of them will be released in September of this year with the others coming in 2023. This has kept me from being able to dedicate the time necessary to organize my thoughts and find something helpful to say about the truckers and their Freedom Convoy. So today I’ll offer just a few brief observations and then direct you to some articles that you may find interesting.
It’s my assessment that most Canadians, and especially Christian Canadians, are at least somewhat sympathetic to the core concern of the truckers—the mandate that keeps unvaccinated truckers from entering Canada without a mandatory two-week quarantine. Not only that, but it seems that a growing number of Canadians—generally a very cautious and compliant people—are ready to be released from nearly all the pandemic mandates and restrictions. The various provinces are steadily ditching the provincial measures and this makes the federal ones appear more out-of-step by contrast. (Note: the United States has recently begun to forbid unvaccinated Canadians from entering at all, so even if the Canadian government cedes to the demands, I don’t think it will fully resolve the situation.)
All that said, there are still many Canadians who are extremely concerned about COVID-19 and many others who fear anything that smacks of protest or rebellion, and for that reason this has become a very polarizing issue in families, churches, and broader society. That’s especially the case as the protests have stretched into weeks and have extended to actions that have much lower levels of popular support, such as blockading border crossings. Some people see tyranny in the government, some see anarchy in the protestors, and some see a combination of the two. If you know Canadians who are not speaking loudly and publicly about their convictions, it may be that they are being discreet lest they alienate family members, offend friends, hinder witnessing opportunities, and so on. It would be unwise to take silence as either support or condemnation.
Whatever else this situation has done, it has almost universally convinced people of the weakness of our government, especially on the federal level. The various minority political parties are united in their condemnation of the way Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party of Canada have handled it. The fact that a relatively small number of people has been able to essentially take over the core of our nation’s capital—and that no one has been able to do anything about it—is making our leaders a laughing stock. The Prime Minister’s insulting statements about these people and his unwillingness to show any compassion toward their plight has only increased their tenacity. It is probably accurate to see the truckers as especially representing the working class in a kind of non-violent uprising against the elite political class, for while the politicians (and the civil servants they oversee) quickly pivoted to working from home and saw their pay cheques unaffected throughout the pandemic (and, indeed, often saw substantial increases), much of the working class was laid off, had their hours reduced, and so on. This explains the symbolic significance of transport trucks dominating streets that are usually trod by only the political elite.
This situation has already cost a police chief his job and the head of the opposition party his leadership. There is much conjecture that it may also cost the Prime Minister his position. His recent decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, a move few people deem wise, necessary, or legitimate under the circumstances, is being widely perceived as a sign of weakness rather than strength—possibly the action of a man who is in his political death throes. Then again, he has survived plenty of scandals in the past and it’s not implausible that he will survive this one.
If you are concerned for Canada, please do pray for peace and justice within the nation. You might pray also for peace and unity within the church. If Canadians have all their freedoms restored or even increased while the church crumbles, there will have been no great victory. If people who lean toward one side or the other have their view vindicated, but along the way become alienated from their fellow Christians, the cause of Christ will still have suffered. If you’d like to pray for more than that, perhaps pray for the truckers and residents of Ottawa who are Christians and for the various groups and individuals who are deliberately going wherever the crowds are gathered to preach the gospel. And why not pray that the first response of Canadian Christians, no matter the situation, would be to get on our knees and plead for wisdom, love, and divine help.
For some helpful reading consider:

Tristan Hopper’s primer on Canadian politics which helps explain some of the ways in which our political system is different from that of the United States. For example, “we have a regularly scheduled event known as Question Period where the prime minister takes his usual seat in the House of Commons and is assailed with abuse by members of the opposition.”
Raymond J. de Souza on Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act.
Jonathon Van Maren on “Let Freedom Honk.”
Clint Humfrey & Yanick Ethier on the Freedom Convoy as a form of lament.

Phew! There’s so much more I want to say, but I hear my book projects calling me again. So just briefly, let me turn to family news.
Abby’s wedding is coming up in just three months and much of her attention, as well as Aileen’s, is focused on that occasion. It’s my understanding that the planning is going well, but also my understanding that it’s best if I don’t get too involved! Abby and Nathan will both have school to finish up, so intend to remain settled in the Louisville area for at least another couple of years before re-evaluating. I expect this means I will continue to have good reason to shuttle back and forth on a regular basis. Abby asked Michaela to be her maid of honor, so she is getting ready to fulfill all of the duties that come with it. Meanwhile, she’s pressing on in high school while anticipating the day she can follow in the footsteps of her siblings and attend Boyce College. Nick’s fiancée Ryn remains part of our family, of course. She will graduate from Boyce in May and, the very next day, be one of Abby’s bridesmaids. What a day that will be!
Thanks for reading the blog, and thanks for reading to the end of this rather long article!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you on this fine day.
Westminster Books has discounted a new title that has gotten some especially noteworthy endorsements. There are also quite a number of titles on the church nicely discounted.
Kindle deal collectors have a few to look at today.

This issue is so important. “As society is presently ripped apart with divisions on every issue, the church is likewise bombarded with divisive people who are using the current cultural divide to mimic the culture and tear apart the body of Christ. Christians have to be acutely aware that Satan uses cultural moments like this in the church to separate the body of Christ. I can’t think of a more appropriate caution at the moment than to call Christians to awareness regarding both to whom they listen and how they handle themselves before those who seek the ruin of the church.”

Brett McCracken looks at a study that concludes we are witnessing a widening gender divide in which women are heading one way politically while men are heading another. He suggests that the church can be a force to bridge this divide.

This is good advice: never preach to one person. “I would be in the throes of my weekly sermon preparation and as my message would develop, I would begin to think, ‘Oh! This is a perfect message for so-and-so—they’ve been struggling with this particular problem, and this is precisely what he needs to hear.’ Without fail, if such a thought crossed my mind it seemed to be an inviolable rule of the universe that the person would not be in church on Sunday.”

A few days ago I shared an article by Samuel James in which he stated that Christians are not ready for the prospect of “adult AI.” In this helpful interaction, Phil Cotnoir challenges some of James’ conclusions.

Esther shares a handful of encouraging poems that nicely complement one another. Kudos for writing a poem whose effectiveness depends on rhyming with spacious nine times over!

The New Testament is full of metaphors used to describe the church. T. M. Suffield covers some of them here and reminds us that we benefit from considering each of them (rather than focusing all our attention on a favorite).

If it’s your conviction that observing these days is consistent with the Bible, then by all means do so. If it’s your conviction that observing them is inconsistent with the Bible, then by all means refrain. And as you celebrate or refrain, be careful not to judge or condemn those who choose the opposite.

We should strive to make church a place where being anonymous or nominal is difficult to pull off.
—Jeremy Pierre & Deepak Reju