Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

There are lots of great books lined up for you in today’s Kindle deals. The list includes several that are for parents.

“Self-shaming is a defense mechanism rooted in the belief that we’re unlovable to God and others. We voice the harsh words we fear others are thinking—as if beating them to the punch might soften the blow or inspire us to change. Ironically, self-shaming doesn’t protect us; it only perpetuates harmful lies and keeps us in bondage.”

How can you know if you are self-righteous? And what does it have to do with “I don’t deserve this?”

The Church History Handbook is an elegant, full-color handbook with robust summary content, charts, infographics, maps, doctrinal studies, short biographies, and more—and it’s designed to last a lifetime. Pre-order through Lifeway.com and receive 40% off your order when you enter the promo code CHALLIES40. (Sponsored)

This wonderful piece of writing celebrates one of God’s great creatures and draws some important lessons from it.

I enjoyed this meditation on what we may see and know in eternity.

Paul O’Brien considers the concept of equality and asks where it comes from.

This is universal, isn’t it? “I have to admit that my heart sometimes grows cold to realities that should never cease to amaze me. It’s easy to become spiritually dull at truths that cause angels to wonder.”

In a small church a pastor will be able to get to know—to really know—his people and the value of each and every soul. Where in a big city church he may preach to anonymous masses, in a small country church he will preach to well-known individuals.

In the same way that playing matchbox cars on the front lawn loses its attractiveness when we’re invited to spend the afternoon at a NASCAR race, sin loses its appeal as we allow ourselves to be re-enchanted time and again with the unsurpassable beauty of Jesus.
—Dane Ortlund

Every now and again I like to share one of our worship services from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this to provide just one example of how a church applies the principles of Scripture to its public worship. If there is something you see here that would bless your church, you have permission to pilfer freely!

This service’s cast of characters included Patrick as our service leader, Dwight as the elder who prayed the pastoral prayer and read the Scripture, Allie as the lead worshipper, and Paul as the preacher. Our band consisted of piano and violin with two female vocalists. The various elements of the service are in bold with the name of the person who led the element in parentheses. Items in quotes represent roughly what the person said to the congregation. Items not in quotes are explanatory. The entire service took approximately 90 minutes.
Pre-Service Singing
In order to integrate a little more music into our time together, we often sing an extra song five minutes before our 10:00 AM start time. This year we are singing the same song for four weeks in a row in attempt to grow more familiar with it and to learn to sing it in parts. This week and month we sang “I Surrender All.”
Call to Worship (Patrick)
Patrick began the service with a call to worship. “‘Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”’ This call to turn to God comes from Isaiah 45. The right day to turn to God is today. The best time to get right with God is now. Every single person will stand before God and explain their life. There are no exceptions. None whatsoever. So turn to Him now. And praise His holy Name.”
Singing (Allie)

“Come Ye Sinners”
“Grace Greater Than Our Sin”

Corporate Praise (Patrick)
“We have sung of our intention to come to Jesus and our confidence in His abounding grace. What else is true about God that should encourage anyone to approach Him today. He is gracious … what else? What makes us sure that any person can approach Him? What do we know is true about Him from the Bible that should encourage all of us to turn to Him? Just shout those out.”
For a few minutes the congregation shouted out their answers.
“The only thing that holds us back from God is our sin. Let’s use the words of that great Psalm of confession, Psalm 51, to sing our plea for forgiveness and our confidence that He will grant it.”
Singing (Allie)

Psalm 51 (set to Crimond)

Pastoral Prayer (Dwight)
Dwight led the pastoral prayer. Each week we pray for some items that are urgent but also some that are “scheduled.” This week those scheduled items included one like-minded congregation in our city, the war in Ukraine, and one of our church members who was preaching at a nearby church.
Scripture Reading (Dwight)
“Please take your Bible and turn to Judges 2. We will be reading from Judges 2:6 to Judges 3:6. You will find that on page 188 if you are using one of our church Bibles. This is what Holy Scripture says…”
Dwight read the text, then closed with, “This is the word of the Lord,” to which the congregation responded, “Thanks be to God.”
Singing (Allie)

“There is a Foe, Whose Hidden Power”

Sermon (Paul)
Paul preached the opening sermon for a new expositional series on the book of Judges. This sermon was, in my opinion, a master class in how to introduce a book. It was titled “We Need a Savior.”
Singing (Allie)

“There Is A Fountain” (acapella)

Commission (Patrick)
Patrick tied the message of the sermon into a “commission” that challenged the church to live out its truths throughout the week. This commission replaces (and carries some of the content of) what would usually be labelled “announcements” or “notices.” It forces us to tie information we want the church to know into a call to action based on the truths of the Word.
Benediction
The benediction was 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

Good morning. Grace and peace to you. And happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians.
Because this is peak summer and therefore an especially slow week in terms of traffic, I will be posting only A La Carte articles (with perhaps a book review or two along the way). My original articles will resume next week.
There are all sorts of new Kindle deals to look through today. The deal of the day is probably Andrew Peterson’s The God of the Garden.
(Yesterday on the blog: Beware of Idleness)

This article makes a simple but crucial point: love prays.

“Walking is probably not the fastest way to get there, but getting there may not be the goal of the trip. Poetry is probably not the fastest way to communicate propositional truth, but it is possible that merely learning propositional truth is not the goal.”

You’ll enjoy this celebration of the humble vulture.

“Depression is one of the dreadful shared human experiences of life in this fallen world. So many things work on each one of us, from within and from without, that we all have times and seasons when we feel ourselves drowning under the weight of the anxieties, pressures, and trials. This ultimately results in a depression of mind and heart. A distinction must be made here between what may be called sinful depression and sinless depression.”

“There are lots of places in the Bible I would remove if I could. Whether it’s a rule I don’t want to follow or a judgment that just seems too harsh for modern sensibilities, my fallen flesh would love to apply a bottle of white out to many verses. There’s one place, though, that’s nothing like that.”

Sarah reminds us that beauty is often found in the most unexpected places.

…when he became a hated criminal, when he was dragged before the courts and accused of crimes, his friends quickly made themselves scarce. They disappeared into the night, leaving him to fend for himself.

Next to mother and father, there is no one who can do so much to help a young man to live nobly, as his own sister.
—J.R. Miller