It is a holiday weekend here in Canada—a strange holiday that goes by various names across the different provinces and even across different cities within the provinces. I know the first Monday in August as the Civic Holiday, but in Toronto proper it’s known as Simcoe Day while in B.C. as British Columbia Day and in Alberta as Heritage Day. As far as I know, Quebec doesn’t observe it at all. Strange, that. Either way, the majority of people in these parts have a day off to mark the very middle of summer.

I am choosing to work on the Monday, though, since I am preaching the following Sunday and generally prefer a six-day lead-up to a sermon. I find I am most comfortable in my preparation when I dedicate the best two or three hours of each day for six consecutive days. At that pace, my sermon is usually complete by Thursday or Friday, which gives me a couple of days to tinker with it—a process that typically involves sharpening illustrations and cutting about 30% of the content. I find that my sermons are almost always improved more by subtraction than addition. I’ll be preaching on “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” I’m excited to mine that little text and learn from it before I preach it.
Another reason I won’t be taking Monday off is that my family has just recently returned from a couple of weeks of vacation. We had a wonderful time together seeing new places and experiencing new things. Abby and Nate were able to be with us, as was Ryn, so we traveled as a group of six and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Ryn said afterward, “I’ve learned that Challies vacations are actually adventures more than vacations.” And I guess she’s right, though we tend to alternate so that one summer we do something that mostly involves lying around a beach or a lake while the next we do something that involves more flying or driving or other forms of movement. I kind of like that mix.
Abby and Nate are now well settled into married life. My paternal observation is that they are doing very well and enjoying one another in these early days. They’ve moved into on-campus housing at Boyce College/Southern Seminary where they each have a year or two of classes remaining, depending on the pace they choose. Nate is also working full-time which keeps him plenty busy. Michaela, meanwhile, is at the midway point of her summer vacation and working a good number of hours at the grocery store—covering for the vacationing full-timers, I suppose. As for Aileen, she is beginning a new part-time job next week and eager to see how that goes.
The whole group of us will be heading to the Getty Music Sing! conference over Labor Day weekend (that’s Labour Day for the Canadians) since that’s where I’ll be holding the launch event for my book Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God. (Pre-Order the book here!) Alistair Begg will be joining me for a conversation and then the band CityAlight will be debuting a new song they’ve written that was inspired by the book. Though the Sing! conference is an event you must pay to attend, my launch event is absolutely free for everyone, so if you’re in the Nashville area, please do drop by. You don’t even need to going to the rest of the conference! It would be great if you’d pre-register here so we know you’re coming. The event runs from 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM on Monday, September 4.
The book, meanwhile, has been printed and should be on its way to the publisher’s warehouse right now. I am eagerly awaiting my own copy of it. It is always an interesting experience for an author to meet a new book—there is a bit of fear (that there will be something wrong with the printing or that I’ll notice a brutal typo on the book cover despite so many layers of fastidious editing), a bit of hesitation (wondering if anyone would ever want to read the book anyway and what possible good it could do if they did) and, of course, a bit of joy and relief (it’s finally complete and finally ready to serve the church). Mostly I’ll be glad to finally have it in my hands and on my shelf.
Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoy your weekend, whether it’s a holiday weekend or just a normal one…
(And, just for fun, I had to take someone to the airport early Saturday morning, so decided to head into the city to catch a sunrise. As always, I snapped a photo and thought it came out quite nicely…)

This giveaway is sponsored by TWR, also known as Trans World Radio, whose mission is to reach the world for Christ by mass media so that lasting fruit is produced.
TWR is looking for engineering, IT, maintenance and finance specialists to help us tell the story to God’s glory. Explore these and other opportunities here. 
TWR is offering a bundle of inspiring books, including works by New York Times bestselling authors Timothy Keller and Max Lucado.
If you are the winner, you will receive the following: 

Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? by Timothy Keller. In what became his final book, the late Timothy Keller shows readers how to forgive and why forgiving is so important.  

Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine, by Max Lucado. Dive deeper into what it means to be changed by grace and how it has the power to radically rewire you.

The Cross in the Shadow of the Crescent, by Erwin Lutzer with Steve Miller. Erwin Lutzer addresses the challenges and opportunities presented to Christians by the rapid growth of Islam in the West. 

God’s Hostage, by Andrew Brunson with Craig Borlase. Brunson, an American pastor formerly serving in Turkey, shares his incredible true story of imprisonment, brokenness and eventual freedom.

God’s Secret Listener, by John Butterworth. Berti Dosti was an army captain in the atheistic country of Albania when he happened across a TWR broadcast – and kept listening.

And a bonus: Learn about the story of TWR in Making Waves: TWR’s journey to reach the world for Christ through media. This 257-page, softcover book weaves together listener testimonies with reports and personal accounts by TWR staff and leaders to paint a dynamic portrait of how the Lord is using TWR, its partners, and media to transform individuals’ lives. 
Welcome to TWR’s free book bundle giveaway. Only one entry will be accepted per person. Entries will close at 11:59 p.m. EDT June 13. The winner will be notified by email on June 18. We are only able to ship the book bundle to North American addresses.
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I’m thankful to Zondervan Reflective for sponsoring the blog this week to make sure you know about Jared Wilson’s book The Storied Life: Christian Writing as Art and Worship. I plan to read it myself!
Westminster Books is offering a pre-launch discount on a new book by Courtney Doctor. You’ll also find discounts on two new books by Vern Poythress.
There are a few new Kindle deals this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: Choose Better)

Somewhere along the line, we determined that bored is bad. But maybe it’s time to start recovering boredom.

“Brian Cox is a brilliant actor, but I suspect he needs some direction when it comes to understanding the Bible. He is angry at the Bible. Cox is raging against the Bible.” Murray Campbell explains why Cox is so far off-base.

I tend to agree with Samuel here, that there’s really no good reason to use TikTok. And yes, he deals with the argument that Christians ought to be present on every app in order to spread the gospel.

This is a helpful reflection on AI—the technology that seems poised to enter our lives whether we want it to or not. “Students use AI to answer the questions and cheat in their assignments. Ironically, that means instructors are using AI to make the tests, and students are using AI to take the tests. As a result, the use of AI frees up time from teaching and studying to do other things. But what are those things?”

“I remember the first time I felt the terrible grief in my chest. I was sitting on the black couch in my living room where I always sit, reading an email about move-in dates for fall 2023 at Western Kentucky University. My husband and I discussed possible dates while my oldest, still just 17, waited for the verdict. A minute later, the date had been chosen. I entered ‘Elliot Move in’ to Tuesday, August 15 at 1:40 on our shared family Google calendar. Then I started to sob.”

This is a question that gets asked so often and that must be answered with compassion. Yet, as Jonathan explains here, it is far from a slam-dunk case for abortion.

If there is any word used to describe masculinity in our day, any adjective commonly used to modify it, it is almost invariably “toxic.” We hear almost nothing of positive masculinity or healthy masculinity. But we hear endlessly of its toxicity. 

Where information has increased, wisdom has decreased.
—Kevin DeYoung