Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include a selection from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Corporate Confession of Sin)
Does God Read Every Thought?
John Piper was asked whether God knows our thoughts. “The short answer is yes, but what’s really important, as I have thought about this, are the implications of that answer, and they are many and really significant.”
The Wisdom of Avoiding Strife
“Conflict is hard. By ‘conflict,’ I’m referring not to everyday disagreements, but to the sort of disagreements that look like knock-down, drag-em-out fights, that turn people into enemies of one another. The book of Proverbs refers to such situations as ‘strife.’”
The Kingdom of God Bible Storybook” Now Available from Lithos Kids
A faithful retelling of the story of God’s kingdom from Genesis to Revelation. Fully illustrated Old and New Testament volumes for ages 2 to 11. (Sponsored Link)
Could Jesus Come Back Tonight?
He sure could!
Trusting Visible Giants to Our Invisible God
“David was victorious over Goliath because he trusted the invisible God with very real and visible and impending problems. But remember this! It is easy to look at someone else’s successful battle, after the fact, and take for granted the outcome.” Isn’t that the truth!
Lyman Beecher’s Prodigal Son: The Story of a Runaway Who Came Home
“In a family of pastors, Charles Beecher (1815–1900) was the black sheep.” Obbie Tyler Todd tells about how he ran away from the Lord and how he returned.
Sex and Christ Crucified
“In our culture, sexual relationships are where Scripture seems most contrary to the majority opinion, and the majority opinion affects us more than we realize.” Ed Welch explains.
Flashback: Get to Know Yourself
To know myself, I need to look outside of myself. My best assessment of self does not come from within but from without. It does not originate with me but with God.

Everyone, almost, can be thankful in prosperity, but a true saint can be thankful in adversity. —Thomas Watson

The first day of a new month is an ideal time to ponder this: Right now, at this very moment, God is reigning from his throne. All will be well.
A new month brings a whole new batch of Kindle deals. I’ve added some already and should have a more complete list by 6:30 AM EST or so.
(Yesterday on the blog: What a New Day and New Month Will Bring)

Megan Basham’s new book intends to show that many Evangelical leaders have sold out to a leftist agenda. Samuel James offers this thorough review which accounts for the book’s strengths and weaknesses. “Somewhere in the process of development, this book had something that would have been genuinely persuasive and effective. There’s a version of it that would have focused on evangelical consequences rather than evangelical motivations, and would have provided a perch for truth-conscious Christians, regardless of what presidential candidate they like, to reflect on lessons learned in a truly incredible decade.”

This is a helpful call to cultivate Christlike compassion on social media. “It isn’t just my reputation on the line; I am a representative of something bigger than myself. The Lord has used this concept to point me toward an even greater reality: whenever I am on social media, regardless of what account I am logged into, I am a representative of Christ.”

In this case, Dave stands in for that person you know who is struggling to read the Bible regularly. “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.”

Timothy Paul Jones explains how we can have confidence in the authorship of the gospels. This matters because it is a routine point of attack for skeptics.

Casey McCall: “Truth and righteousness become elastic concepts that bend at the discretion of whoever stands behind the podium. When it comes to doing what’s right, it’s damned, if you do it; justified endlessly, if we do it. When it comes to truth-telling, the rules change based on who’s doing the talking. This all occurs within a financially lucrative media ecosystem that has mastered the art of keeping everyone perpetually outraged by focusing our attention on what’s wrong with them.”

Small is often underrated. That’s true of churches, pastorates, disciplines, and much else.

When we are heavily burdened we are to take one specific action: cast. We are to throw or hurl or toss our burdens upon the Lord. We are to bring them to his attention and to plead with him for his help. And so we close our eyes and pray or we lift our eyes and cry out for his help, his assistance, his deliverance.

Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard.
—C.H. Spurgeon

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

CBD is having a sale with some excellent titles discounted, including: ESV Readers’s Bible (set); Prayer by Tim Keller; Gentle and Lowly & Deeper by Dane Ortlund; 1 2 3 books by Jen Wilkin; Be Thou My Vision; Suffering & New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp; ESV Study Bible (black genuine leather) and more.
There are a couple of new Kindle deals yesterday and today.
The Speck You See in Their Eye Might Be the Exact Log in Yours
“In a time when the world’s view of conflict resolution seems to be defined by ‘winning’ and humiliating your adversary, there is a lesson that I continually apply in order to try to bring grace and healing to tense situations.” It’s a lesson we’d all do well to consider.
Africa, the Prosperity Gospel, and the Problem of Unguarded Churches
I appreciate what Kenneth Mbugua has to say about the great need of the church in Africa.
January’s for Reflecting, Not Resolving
I think John Onwuchekwa may be on to something here. “Maybe part of the reason why so many resolutions fail by February is that they were early. Maybe the resolutions weren’t wrong; they were just underdeveloped. Maybe, they needed an extra month or two in the oven.”
God Has Not Given You a Stone
“God has not given you a stone in your circumstances. However pleasant or unpleasant your life may be, God is always giving the bread you need. He is never going to trick you or be cruel to you. God’s providence may lead us to a dry bank, yet even there God commands the raven to feeds us. In all things, even that thing you wish most never to have happened, God has not given you a stone.”
Millennials, Don’t Waste Your Childlessness
These are some interesting thoughts about an infamous tweet regarding intentionally childless millennials.
Homeschooling is a Better Offense than Defense
Samuel argues that homeschooling is better seen as a tool of offense than defense. “What is homeschooling good for? The answer, I think, is also fairly simple. Homeschooling is a powerful vehicle for personal formation, inasmuch as it normalizes a home-centered rhythm of life.”
Flashback: The Greatest Christians and the Most Visible Gifts
…in God’s economy earnestness counts for more than eloquence, obedience for more than acclaim, submission for more than any measure of visible success. If God chooses the weak to shame the strong, perhaps he also chooses the least visible to humble the most prominent.

God never leads us through a place too narrow for Him to pass as well. —F.B. Meyer