Free Stuff Fridays (Ligonier Ministries)
This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Ligonier Ministries. They are offering free admission to ten pairs of winners at their 2023 National Conference.
As Christians are pushed toward the margins of a hostile society, we cannot afford to surrender our convictions or to retreat in fear. By God’s grace, we have the truth that this lost world needs. Now is our time to stand with unrelenting devotion to God’s unchanging Word. Taking place in Orlando on March 23–25, Ligonier’s 2023 National Conference will encourage Christians to live courageously and without compromise amid changing times, finding stability in the eternal truth of God’s Word.
Enter this giveaway today to receive free admission to the 2023 National Conference. Ten winners will be randomly selected, and each winner will receive free entry for two people.
Even if you don’t win admission to Ligonier’s 2023 National Conference, you can still save on your registration with the early-bird discount for a limited time.
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A La Carte (November 27)
I know my American friends will be taking a day away from the Internet tomorrow. But since Thanksgiving has long since come and gone in Canada, I’ll keep up with things on your behalf! Check back Friday for my annual list of Black Friday deals for Christians. There will be lots of great sales to browse through!
Today’s Kindle deals include a lot of great options, many of them by and for women. Also be sure to see the Pre-Black Friday print book deals here and Pre-Black Friday Kindle deals here.
Stephen McAlpine: “Trans isn’t really about trans. It’s about presenting a competing vision of humanity to the culture that reframes reality, redirects our teleology, which is now trans-human, actually. Faced with withering hopes for this world and the failing bodies we inhabit, we are seeking to loose ourselves from their surly bonds. We are seeking an identity to be constructed, not to be received.”
It is so important to be reminded of this, that though God chooses to use us, he does not need us.
Did you know that writing your thoughts down improves memory and retention? Journalling as you study God’s Word is a great way to keep record of your prayers and reflections, as well as impress the truths of Scripture deep into your heart. Get started at 21Five, Canada’s gospel-centred Christian bookstore, with their 50% off sale this week on ESV Fruit of the Spirit Devotional Journals—just $5.50 each! (Sponsored)
I really appreciate this little liturgy for rest.
Sharon Mueni: “I joked with a friend sitting next to me at the event: being single sometimes feels like you belong to the last tribe of Israel, waiting to be allotted land (marriage); at other times it feels more like you belong to the tribe of Levi, where the Lord is your portion, and you will be single forever. Right? Here are a few reflections on what I learnt.” These are valuable reflections.
David Kaywood considers what Ephesians 5:16 means when it calls us to make the best use of the time.
And think you’ll appreciate Andrea’s meditative prayer of gratitude.
This is a loose format I follow in many of my reviews and I have found it quite effective in reaching a general audience with an interest in popular-level books. I hope you find it helpful!
Gratitude is a lifestyle. A hard-fought, grace-infused, biblical lifestyle.
—Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth -
When God Feels Far Away
This week the blog is sponsored by Baker Books and is adapted from Jamie Rasmussen’s new book When God Feels Far Away: Eight Ways to Navigate Divine Distance.
If you’re anything like me and consider yourself a Christian, you and I would probably agree on a few ‘essentials.’. Things like believing God is real, that He is good, and that His grace is revealed to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We would also agree that because of what Jesus did on the cross, and our faith in His completed work, we can enjoy an ongoing relationship with God, and He is always with us.
The problem is, it doesn’t always feel like it.
In fact, if I can be completely honest and vulnerable, there are times when it not only feels like God is not with me, it feels like He’s far away. Like “Elvis has left the building” far away. And after 40 years of being part of this Christ-following tribe and 35 years as a pastor, I know I’m not alone. I’ve never bothered to count, but if I had, I would have lost count of the number of people who I’ve heard cry out in some form, “Where is God in all this chaos?”
When life unravels, even for (or maybe especially for) the faithful, circumstances suddenly feel like a shaky Jenga tower ready to collapse on top of you if one condition is too carelessly shifted. You can know in your mind that God is with you, but when your experience doesn’t match your theology, you find yourself in the middle of a crisis of faith (I think the technical term is “a dumpster fire of life.”) So, what do you do when you don’t know what to do?
As a veteran of difficult seasons of divine distance, I’ve walked these seemingly lonely paths and guided many others through their own. I’m familiar with the too-common practice among Christians to “buckle up and double down” on our spiritual disciplines, expecting God to be drawn magnet-like to our good behavior (only to be exponentially more disappointed when it doesn’t work as intended).
There is a better way.
Using the historic narrative of Esther and the Jewish people in the time of their exile, this book illustrates how eight biblically grounded actions, expressed through a relational filter, can yield fruitful results that bring hope, encouragement, comfort, and even direction. When God Feels Far Away isn’t a self-help book. It is a guide that will help recalibrate your mind and perspective to be both practical and biblical, empowering you and I to see and experience the nearness of God in our circumstances even when He feels far away. -
A La Carte (May 20)
I very much enjoyed a week off with my family. And now, back to work and back to normal blogging. (Kind of back to normal—I’m also heading to Albania this week to speak at an event there.)
Today’s Kindle deals include four different titles by John Piper.
(Yesterday on the blog: One Measure of Greatness)“Late in February, an active-duty US Air Force airman set fire to himself outside of Israel’s embassy in Washington, DC; afterwards, some journalists rushed to try and provide historical context for the practice of ‘self-immolation.’” Noah Diekemper just how badly they did in trying to show how this is somehow a Christian practice.
“It’s so sweet to walk into a church and know that God’s people are gathered for worship. Of course He is near. A holy moment. But isn’t it a holy moment, too, when you are sitting in a doctor’s office, holding hands with your faithful wife, enduring the bad news with faith? As believers we tread on holy ground in every school building, nursing home, leafy forest floor, and in every possible scenario we could dream up.”
This is such a good new song by CityAlight.
If you read the title and guessed “Carl Trueman,” you’d be correct. “Regardless of the political stakes, at ground level the births, marriages, illnesses, and deaths continue. Pastoral ministry goes on, day to day, year to year, whatever the political officer class, right and left, are debating. And so in this context, the Church must continue to do that to which she has been called: proclaim Christ in Word and sacrament. The big problems of life—sin and death—remain, whoever wins the election in November 2024. And so the Church needs to remain faithful to her appointed task and not become simply an arm of those vying for political power.”
I think this article is especially important for pastors and other church leaders. “If we affirm the regulative principle for the Sunday morning gathering, shouldn’t we also apply the same conviction to the rest of our discipleship ministries?” That’s worth considering!
Dr. Andrew Walker offers some thoughts on thinking well about social justice.
There is always the danger that we regard children as little projects more than real people. There is always the danger that parenting becomes abstract rather than deeply personal—the mere following of principles instead of the careful shepherding of souls.
…we cannot receive what God has to give when our fists are clenched and our eyes shut, concentrating on our own moral exertion. We need to open up our fists and our eyes and lift both heavenward to receive his love.
—Dane Ortlund