I’m sure every generation of parents has had to have some tricky and awkward conversations with their children. Just read your Old and New Testaments and you’ll see the kind of sexual chaos that has often been tolerated or celebrated in various times and places. Each one of these manifestations of rebellion against God has needed an explanation from parents who are committed to raising their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

What Do I Say When…?

Today’s parents are raising their children in a time of rapid cultural change when the specific forms of rebellion and the questions they raise are different from previous generations—sometimes subtly different and sometimes utterly and completely different. Parents can easily feel overwhelmed and may respond by attempting to shelter their children nearly completely and indefinitely. Yet wise parents know they need to prepare their children to live in this world and not some other. They know there are ideas they need to introduce, concepts they need to explain, and conversations they need to have.
What Do I Say When…? is a guide for parents who want to help their children and teens navigate today’s cultural chaos. Written by husband and wife duo Andrew and Christian Walker, it has ten chapters, each of which is devoted to an aspect of modern Western culture. Each one introduces the topic and explains what God says about it, which provides a brief biblical foundation for parents to begin with.
After that, each chapter advances to a guide to help parents discuss these matters with their children. Each guide is helpfully divided into three parts or, in the authors’ parlance, three “floors.” The first is for children between roughly four and eight years of age, the second for children between eight and twelve, and the third for teens up to around age 16. This ensures the conversations are appropriate to differing ages and levels of maturity.
The different topics range from human dignity and abortion to gender and transgenderism to identity and sexuality. They also cover technology, political engagement, and hostility against those who hold to the Christian faith. Each chapter is relatively brief—perhaps 15 pages or so—and provides just enough information for parents to help lay a solid foundation in the lives of their children and engage in useful training and conversation.
Many parents feel the need for some assistance as they help their children navigate today’s cultural chaos. What Do I Say When…? is just the right resource. It will give parents the information and the confidence they need to train their children well—to help them understand the truths of Scripture that counter every error of culture. It will equip parents to in turn equip their children so they can live well as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

Today’s Kindle deals include several volumes of the excellent Preaching the Word series of commentaries (which are ideal for devotional reading or sermon preparation or anything in between).
(Yesterday on the blog: Seasons of Sorrow Application Questions & Group Study Guide)
When My Iranian Friend Took Mohler’s Parking Spot
This one gave me a laugh. “‘Hi, this is campus po-lees,’ began the thick Kentucky accent. ‘Are you A.W.?’ ‘I am. Is everything OK?’ I replied, suddenly nervous. ‘Well… I got an Eye-rain-eeun here who says he’s comin’ to your place, but I caught him parkin’ in the president’s parking spot.’”
Gather to Grow
Karen tells of how she left the local church and what eventually brought her back.
Hearts Painted by the Word Again and Again
“The job of painting the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is never-ending. I heard once that they paint it end-to-end, but by the time they get to the end—however many years that may take—it is time to start over.” This leads to a helpful reflection.
The Reformation Ideal of Marriage
Michael Haykin: “Our memory of what took place during the sixteenth-century Reformation has been somewhat selective. As heirs of Reformed Protestantism, we have remembered it chiefly as a recovery of the gospel and the biblical way of worship. But we also need to recall it as a great recovery of the biblical understanding of marriage.”
Offers of Safety Are Not Always Safe
“When my children were young, I thought the best way to protect them from the evils of the world was avoidance. And that may be true for the very young. But as they grew up, I realized they were going to be young men out in the world some day. It would be better to teach them what was right and wrong with the things they would face.”
Reading Across the Chapter Breaks in 2 Timothy
This article reminds us that chapter breaks in the Bible are not original and sometimes very unhelpful.
Flashback: Rule #5: Ponder the Brevity of Life (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness)
Even the greatest believers will still be laden by sin as they cross the finish and receive their crown. The holiest saints will still be stained with sin, drawn to evil. It is only in the presence of Christ where they will experience final deliverance from the power of sin and final transformation to complete holiness.

The man who measures himself by the size of his bank balance will never have enough money to seem big in his own eyes. —Al Stewart

Good morning from far out over the Atlantic. I am heading to South Africa and will go from there to Zambia. I’m looking forward to preaching this weekend at Kitwe Church.
Today’s Kindle deals include Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe.
Meanwhile, Westminster Books has a new book by Michael Reeves discounted up to 58%.

Kendra Dahl: “The sin of abortion has some unique dimensions that masquerade as the haunting desire for self-forgiveness, and understanding them might help us come alongside struggling women.”

Kim Riddlebarger writes about some of the context of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and the kinds of lawsuits that were being lodged there.

God has revealed Himself in Scripture so that His people might know Him and testify of Him. Join Todd Chipman for free to study biblical interpretation through the lens of theology with For The Church Institute at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College. (Sponsored)

Jill examines her own heart and sees how often she fails to trust the giver of good. “God knows our necessities better than we do. Our loving Father also knows our wants and wishes well, and in His abundant kindness toward us, He so often delights in showering us with many of these non-essentials. He knows consummately what will bring us good and what will bring us harm, and He is trustworthy.”

“I was not the only one with a project on my hands. God had his own renovation in mind when He gave me mine— and my heart was even more of a challenge than a 1920’s house! God tore out spiritual walls to make room for better ones. His Spirit discovered discontentment leaking and warping my thankfulness. While I could pull off a smile at church, He saw past my façade to the termites of anxiety eating away.”

Justin Huffman: “Unlike any other of the religions of the world, Christianity is uniquely and entirely dependent upon the historical veracity of its holy book, the Bible. The very narratives and prophecies which make up the majority of its pages, rather than being simply a complement to, are the vitals of what Christianity contends as a religion.”

Do you remember Brian McLaren? I hadn’t heard his name for a while. But then David Robertson caught up with him and … oh my. “As for the Bible, you have all been reading it wrongly. According to McLaren it is ‘the collective diary of an indigenous people who saw what the coloniser mindset was doing to humanity, to the Earth and to her creatures.‘”

The way to reach the highest place is to seek the lowest, the way to attain wealth is to seek poverty, the way to be counted much is to esteem oneself as little. It is in this kingdom that the last are counted ahead of the first, that the weak are counted mightier than the strong…

The Christian life isn’t a call to isolated devotion, like a monk in a cave. Instead, the heart of Christian obedience is a life of love for other believers in a local church fueled by faith in Christ.
—Sam Emadi