Blessings to you today, my friends.

There are some new Kindle deals today (and some from yesterday I forgot to mention).
(Yesterday on the blog: Glorifying God and Glorifying Mountains)
Tempering our Tempers
This is a really helpful look at anger that is sinful and anger that is pure.
The Difference Between Optimism and Biblical Hope
“The Bible speaks a lot about hope, not so much about optimism. That doesn’t mean optimism is necessarily bad! (The Bible doesn’t mention pie, and only a monster would insist we avoid that.) However, both inside and outside of the church, there is confusion about hope and optimism.”
What Is Reformed Theology?
What is Reformed theology? There’s a modern answer and a traditional answer, as this article points out.
There Is Something Greater Than The Great Commandment
“Christians throughout all time have been, rightly, energized to love God more through this high calling. But I have to say this: There is something greater than the Great Commandment. Before you strike me off as a heretic, hear me out.”
Wings of Wonder (Video)
The John 10:10 Project is back with another great video, this one focusing on hummingbirds.
Tabernacles, Grief & My Greatest Hope
“When my dear April died, more than one friend asked me if I found solace in the fact that her death had brought an end to her suffering. In one sense, yes: I’m glad that she is no longer shivering in pain and rejoice that she is with Christ for he is a far better husband than I ever was. Even in death, God is faithful. But in another sense, ‘no.’”
Flashback: 10 Common but Illegitimate Reasons to Divorce
It is clear in the Bible that God’s intention for marriage is that it remain in effect until the death of one spouse. I believe it is also quite clear that God has provided a limited set of circumstances in which a marriage can legitimately be severed. However, many people—even Christians—offer reasons to divorce that are not sanctioned by God.

The gospel provides the only true remedy for sexual brokenness. The theological and pastoral challenges we face in the transgender revolution are indeed enormous, but they are not beyond the sufficiency of Christ’s cross and resurrection. —Al Mohler

The Lord be with you and bless you on this fine day.

There is once again a nice long list of Kindle deals to browse through, headlined by two apologetics words: Keller’s The Reason for God and Scrivener’s new The Air We Breathe.
Westminster Books has put together a Christmas Gift Guide with all sorts of good deals.
Trusting God Through Terminal Illness
This is quite an article. “I quickly progressed to using a wheelchair and had to give up the job I loved, teaching kids to play music. Within a few months, I was totally dependent on my wife to feed me, get me dressed and take me places. Within a year, I had lost the ability to eat and now I am losing my ability to speak. I use a ventilator to breathe, am fed by a tube in my stomach and spend my days in a specially adapted chair. I am very thankful that I have an eye-tracking device so that I can still use a computer and turn on the TV.”
Eleven Factors For Helpful Short-Term Trips
It’s important to do short-term missions trips well. This article provides helpful guidance.
Exciting New Resources from Visual Theology
Visual Theology is excited to announce several great new resources. They’ve created their annual Advent countdown poster in full color as well as a version you can color each day. And new for this year is a complete coloring book! For 29 days, you’ll follow the Christmas story as told in four distinct aspects of the Gospel. Both for kids and adults, start your Advent countdown today! Subscribe to their newsletter, and you’ll get the first week of coloring pages for free. (Sponsored)
Is Numbers 5 Unjust to Women?
Wendy Alsup: “When we read the Old Testament laws, it can seem like women get a raw deal. It’s hard to see a gracious God behind the laws that deal with rape, incest, and adultery, like the law we find in Numbers 5. But, as we take a closer look, we see that God has abundant mercy for women on display—even in these laws.”
Everybody’s Marriage Impacts Everybody Else’s. That’s How Social Institutions Work.
Derek Rishmawy considers David French’s “flip flop flip” on gay civil marriage and explains why his recent compromise is harmful.
Two Medieval Misconceptions
“When it comes to the period right before the Reformation, I’ve always had certain notions about what the church was like. As I’ve read more, I’ve come to realize that some of those notions are generally true, while others are only occasionally true.”
Flashback: A Simple But Life-Changing Realization
I was devastated when I heard an older friend I admired more than just about anyone else say, “I don’t think it matters where I get my appetite, as long as I eat at home.” Was that really the best I could hope for, that I’d be outwardly faithful to a wife but inwardly I would wander?

God loves us too well to grant every request of our selfish hearts. —H.A. Ironside

I believe that discernment matters. I believe that spiritual discernment is a necessary mark of spiritual maturity while a lack of spiritual discernment is a concerning mark of spiritual immaturity. As the book of Hebrews tells us, “solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). There it is, the connection between maturity and discernment.
There are many reasons I find myself at home among those who hold to Reformed theology, but one key reason is that the tradition places high value on discernment. Many of those who come to appreciate Reformed doctrine do so after finding a critical lack of judgment in their previous traditions. Disturbed by a blend of good teaching and bad, sound doctrine and unsound, they look for churches that care about diligently separating truth from error and right from wrong. They soon find themselves in a Reformed church.
Yet as I have reflected on discernment over the past 20 years, I continue to find myself perplexed by a strange conundrum: Sometimes the people who most value discernment in doctrine are the people most prone to neglect discernment in character. They can display a kind of credulity that makes them especially susceptible to listening to and believing untrustworthy sources. Ironically, their emphasis on discernment leaves them vulnerable to lies.
We all need to understand a hard truth: there are people out there who make stuff up. It may seem hard to believe, but it’s reality. There are people who fabricate facts, who create accounts of events that did not happen, and who write up conversations that never took place. There are people who act as if they have exhaustive knowledge of other people’s inner motives and desires when they do not and cannot. And even if some do not go that far, they may deliberately exaggerate matters and spread as truth what is no more than rumor or hearsay.
Aside: If you ever get the chance to spend time with the popular Christian you most admire, ask that person and I expect they will tell you that someone has publicly told lies about them. No matter who they are or how they line up on the major issues, ask them and I expect they will be able to tell of a time that someone, in the name of discernment, spread information that was absolutely false.
Those who value spiritual discernment need to account for doctrine, of course—they need to distinguish between doctrines that are true and doctrines that are false. But they also need to account for human nature, and this is where so many prove themselves easy prey. They assume that anyone who emphasizes sound doctrine has a sound life or that anyone who defends truth necessarily speaks truth. Somehow their discernment extends as far as distinguishing between good theology and bad theology, but it ends before it distinguishes people of upright character from people of dishonorable character. That’s especially true when the people who lack character are within the bounds of the same theological tradition.
The devil seeds liars, thieves, and deceivers into every tradition, including our own. Share
We would like to think that the people who tell lies exist outside the bounds of Reformed theology. We would like to think that once we have crossed the border between other traditions and our own, we have entered into a kind safe space in which everyone is on the side of truth and light. But sadly, that’s simply not the case. That’s not the way the world works. That’s not the way the flesh works. That’s not the way the devil works. The devil seeds liars, thieves, and deceivers into every tradition, including our own.
My encouragement, then, is to press on in spiritual discernment—to be deliberate in separating truth from error and right from wrong. There is never a time to relax your guard when it comes to this critical discipline. At the same time, it’s also to avoid the kind of naiveté that assumes everyone who lays claim to sound doctrine is truly concerned about defending and living out the Christian faith, not to mention concerned about the kind of unity Christ calls us to pursue. For if we are truly discerning, we will know that Satan is a master of disguise. That being the case, “it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:15). Servants of righteousness, that is, and experts in discernment.