Grace and peace to you today.

There’s a nice little list of Kindle deals this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: How Can We Measure Spiritual Progress?)
Living in the Blackened Forest
Brianna Lambert: “Yesterday I met a friend at a park and watched my three children play, while another mom got the worst phone call of her life. I laughed and joked, and felt the sun’s rays as my kids showed off their playground skills, while another mom faced tragedy I can’t comprehend. I watched the drips from their ice cream cones cover my kids’ faces and hands, while another mom walked into an empty room that would stay that way forever.”
He Will Turn Our Grief into Joy
Meanwhile, also on the theme of sorrow, Randy Alcorn points that out “God doesn’t only promise to replace our grief with joy, but to turn it into joy.”
5 Considerations of an Action
“Biblically speaking, we may analyze every action on the basis of at least 5 ethical considerations. They are: motive, intention, the action itself, the impact it has on others, and people’s perception of the given action.” This article tells how to properly consider the morality of an action.
Should I Pray Someone Else’s Prayers?
“So why would I—a low church, Baptist—find prayers written by someone else useful? More specifically, why would I find the written prayer in The Book of Common Prayer called The Litany useful? It’s because praying the Litany on a consistent basis reorients me to the fact that I live each moment of my life by the grace of God alone.”
Wounds in Beauty Glorified
“Why did Jesus’s body bear the visible marks of his death on the cross?” Michell Chase offers a multi-part answer.
Are All Abortions Equally Heinous?
“I was asked to evaluate this hypothetical scenario: ‘Two women had abortions only for the sake of convenience and did not have any health problems. One had it while she was one month pregnant. The other had it while she was eight months pregnant. Are they equally heinous and serious?’” Amy answers in an interesting way.
Flashback: Renew Your Mind
You can be conformed to this world or you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The choice lies before you every day.

Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink. —D.L. Moody

May the Lord bless and keep you today.

There is a good selection of new Kindle deals today.
Shall we cancel the theologians?
Carl Trueman says “there is a form of cancel culture emerging within the ranks of Christians. It operates with selective pieties drawn from the wider woke culture and reflects, whether by accident or design, the same self-righteousness that marks the secular world.”
3 Simple Ways to Flatten Your Neighbor
And in a not-entirely-dissimilar way, Trevin Wax says “unfortunately, many in our society seem to be reverting to fourth-grade categorizations for just about everyone, and often doing so with the zeal of a crusader for a righteous cause.”
Ligonier’s New Bible for Students and Young Adults
The Reformation Study Bible, Student Edition from Ligonier Ministries is an ideal resource to help young people grow in their knowledge of God and His Word. Its many unique features include hundreds of questions and answers that bring clarity to key subjects of the Christian faith. Use code CHALLIES by January 21 to save an extra 5% on this new study Bible in the Ligonier store. (Sponsored Link)
When Aslan Wept
Writing from Bangalore, Sheena Gershom looks at an excerpt from C.S. Lewis and asks, “Isn’t that an accurate picture of the love and compassion of our Lord in the face of our disheartening circumstances? While it is within God’s power to remove our suffering and make us feel better again, sometimes He does not. We can only trust that He’s grieving alongside us while working things out behind the scenes for our good and His glory.”
Christians Are Going Back to Church—But Maybe Not the Same One
In this article, CT says something many of us have been observing: that there is a lot of movement between churches at the moment.
How To Understand And Dispel The Fear Of Witchcraft
Joseph Byamukama writes about witchcraft–a very present and pressing issue in many settings. “In 2016, the former Ugandan Parliament House Speaker Rebecca Kadaga raised eyebrows and caused controversy for her re-election thanksgiving to the ancestors in a shrine. Before her, the then Vice President, Professor Gilbert Bukenya, had done the same. Indeed many politically influential Africans appeal to the power of witchcraft. But what is witchcraft? Why does it persist in Africa? And how do we respond to it as Christians?”
Flashback: On Being Thought Well of By Outsiders
An elder must have the respect not only of believers but also of unbelievers. And here is how this one challenges me: To be respected he must be known.

More skepticism may be traced to a neglected prayer closet than to the arguments of infidels or the halls of secularists. —F.B. Meyer

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.
There is a nice big batch of Kindle deals today that include Alistair Begg’s Pray Big and Seth Lewis’ Dream Small. Both are excellent.
(Yesterday on the blog: Maybe We Make Meditation Too Difficult)

Kathryn Butler: “What does it mean to die with dignity? Abstractly, we all long for a dignified death, during which family surround us and we suffer minimal pain and anxiety. In reality, however, the dying process is often unsettling, even when we try to prepare ourselves for its messy realities. Perhaps most importantly, however, conflating the phrase ‘death with dignity’ and assisted dying confuses the conversation.”

Did the Apostle Paul endorse slavery? Denny Burk has a useful answer to the question.

Dave Harvey has a good article about forgiveness in the context of marriage. “Forgiveness is rarely instantaneous. The words ‘I forgive you’ are freely offered with a faith towards God, but we all know they can betray the chaos churning within. Heartache and mental anguish can break into your mind unannounced. It creeps up when you’re down and often waits to greet you the moment you wake. But biblical forgiveness absorbs at least two costs.”

“In polls with a political purpose, it is astounding to hear the significant number of people who claim to be Christians who also said they hadn’t been to church in years or even decades. Is being a vital part of a church’s life and ministry necessary or even important for a Christian? Isn’t it enough to have a personal relationship with Christ, trusting Him for the forgiveness of your sins out of your death and for the gift of His righteousness into His life?”

Sarah Ivill offers some useful instruction on pursuing contentment. “When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror and wanted to change what you saw? In the past month, about what have you said, ‘I want that?’ When your friend received the promotion, product, or prestige that you thought you would receive, what was your reaction?”

“Sometimes the right words, said at the right time, can change someone’s life. Encouragement has the power to really make a difference to people, yet it is a rarer thing than it should be.”

For our lives to display godly beauty, we must be changed, we must be transformed. And this kind of transformation needs more than ease, more than merely good times.

My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart, and to heal the broken one.
—John Newton