I don’t know if there is anyone who reads my site in Bangkok, but if there is … I am going to be in the city on Wednesday, July 26. If anyone would like to meet up for lunch and to perhaps meander the tourist part of town, let me know!

How a Christian Patriot Might Love His Wayward Country
Denny Burk considers how a patriot might love his country, even when it’s not always easy. “We do not choose our homeland. It is something that we are born into. Thus our acceptance of our home is not like a house that we can leave when we tire of it. It is like the love we have for our family…”
What Happens to Little Ones When They Die?
This is a good explanation of why the majority of Christians have been confident in saying that infants who die go to heaven.
Are you a “Marrow Man?”
Thomas Boston’s emphasis on God’s free offer of grace and Christ’s meritorious work pierced to the very marrow of Christian theology. Read his Complete Works to taste the vibrant Reformed spirituality that has encouraged Christians for more than 200 years. (Sponsored Link)
Learning to Forgive Family
John Piper takes on the matter of forgiving family. “This is utterly crucial. It’s a matter of life and death, and I mean eternal life and death, as we will see in just a moment. So, I take this question really seriously, and I hope this family will take the issue seriously also.”
If You Don’t Believe in Hell
“Beliefs ripple. But we make a concerted effort to ignore that. Especially within the system of Christian faith, people can be tempted to pick and choose which doctrines they are ‘okay with’ and which ones they leave behind. The problem lies in the ripples.” Pierce explains how this works with the doctrine of hell.
When Your Life Feels “Too Small”
We have probably all been told that we ought to dream big or have God-sized dreams. But “have we also been told that God-sized dreams don’t need to be ‘impressive’ by the world’s estimation? Have we also been cheered on that our daily work doesn’t have to be visible in order to be valuable? Have we heard the message that ‘ordinary’ work can be extraordinarily impactful?”
Preaching to the Imagination
“I was struck by how Jesus spoke to the woman’s imagination and how this interaction helps me as a preacher to better understand my calling to preach to the imagination effectively.” Yes! Let’s make sure we attempt to engage the imagination when we preach.
Flashback: Slogging Blogging
All I can do is keep going and trust that the long effort will be rewarded with occasional success—the success of knowing that I’ve been able to bless or encourage or equip another person.

The sinner can no more raise himself from the deadness of sin than Lazarus, who had been dead four days until Jesus came. —George Whitefield

Amelia Taylor had joined her son as he traveled to the great seaport of Liverpool. Hudson was about to make the long journey to a far-off mission field and she wanted to be with him to the final moment, to pray for him one last time, to see him depart for the great work God had called him to. He never forgot that day. His mother came aboard the ship with him, entered his cabin, and smoothed the little bunk. She sat with him for a time, sang a hymn, then knelt down and prayed. And just as they said their “amens,” the ship’s horn sounded and it was time for her to go ashore.

Hudson knew that, for his sake, his mother had restrained her emotions as much as she was able. But as they parted, as she went ashore, and as the ship pushed off from land, she could hold them back no more. As “the separation really commenced, never shall I forget the cry of anguish wrung from that mother’s heart,” he said later. “It went through me like a knife. I never knew so fully, until then, what ‘God so loved the world’ meant.”
As the ship pulled away from shore, as it turned toward the ocean, and as it began to fade into the distance, Amelia wondered whether she would ever see her son again, whether the ship that bore him away would ever return him to her side. She cried out in uncertainty, in sorrow, in anguish of heart.
We are all familiar with that kind of anguish, that kind of sorrow, that kind of uncertainty. We have all watched death carry off someone we love and known that the vessels that carry them away from the shores of this life will not bring them back. We have all wondered what has become of them, what they are doing, what they are experiencing. We have all wondered whether there is truly life beyond the grave, whether their feet have landed safe upon the shores of a distant land. We have all wondered whether there is life beyond that horizon, life beyond what our ears can hear, what our eyes can see, what our minds can perceive.
Many grasp for some kind of certainty, some kind of assurance. They long for just one person to come back, one person to make the return journey, one person to assure them that heaven is real, that God’s promises are true, that their loved ones are safe and well and whole.
But suppose one did return, one did claim to have entered those blessed gates and to have experienced heaven’s joys and to have fellowshipped with the saints and angels and to have seen the very face of Christ. We would have to accept heaven’s reality and existence on the basis of just one person, just one witness, just one frail and fallible human authority. That would be no assurance at all. That would be insufficient to sustain us through dark nights and deep griefs, insufficient to console us when sorrows like sea billows roll and threaten to pull us under.
God has not seen fit to provide us that kind of witness, that kind of assurance. No, he has seen fit to provide us a better witness, a better assurance. Instead of having us base our confidence on the word of friends or family members, he has us base our confidence on his infallible words. And why would we believe the word of a man if we will not believe the word of God himself? Why would we long to base our confidence on a created being if we will not believe the one who created us? Why would we prefer man to God, mortal to immortal, dust to glory?
In our anguish, in our sorrow, in our uncertainty, we have the word of God, the God who has declared the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, the God who promises, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.” We have his sure and certain word that as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. We have his promise that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” And each of us must ask: If we will not believe this, what will believe? If we will not believe him, who will we believe? What more could we ever want, ever hope for, ever need?
As our loved ones are pulled from our grasp, as they depart this world and fade from our sight, we have the greatest of all hope and the greatest of all assurance. We have the sure and steady word of the God who made us, the God who saved us, the God who raised his Son, the God who has promised that he has given us the ultimate victory through Jesus Christ. And when we have that word, we have all that we need.

In the past few weeks I have seen a fair bit of discussion about book endorsements—about those little blurbs you so often find inside the first few pages or on the back cover of a newly-published book. There seems to be some consensus that the entire endorsement system is faulty, but little consensus about what to do about it. I thought I’d give a behind-the-scenes glance at the system based on my understanding and my experience and then offer a few of my own thoughts about what, if anything, should be fixed.

How Endorsements Work
After an author completes a manuscript, and after an initial round or two of editing, the publisher begins to seek endorsements. Most often it is the responsibility of the author to request and provide these, though occasionally the publisher will make the request—especially with better-known authors. The publisher usually provides a PDF of the manuscript in near-final condition with the option to instead receive it printed on plain printer paper (since at this stage it has not yet been printed as a bound book). It almost always comes with a warning that the contents may still change a little bit as editing continues. They typically come with a deadline of 4 to 6 weeks. The person who has been asked to write the blurb then writes it out and sends it through to the author or publisher along with their preferred attribution (e.g. —Tim Challies, blogger and author).
Publishers will usually want to have at least 5 or 6 solid endorsements for a book. Endorsers are most often chosen for their connection to the topic of the book or for their name recognition. Of course to get 5 or 6 you may need to request 10 or 15, and this is one reason books occasionally end up with several pages of endorsements. Authors will usually request them from friends and acquaintances and perhaps also make a few long-shot requests from people they admire but don’t know.
I can only speak personally here, but I have never been offered money or any other perk in exchange for an endorsement. Neither have I ever had any “tit-for-tat” pressure applied as if I owe it to someone since they once did something nice for me—though it’s possible I have applied this pressure to myself at times.
I haven’t ever counted, but I probably receive 30 or 40 endorsement requests per year and suspect there are other people who receive far more. Some are from people I know, some are from people I haven’t met but look up to, some are from people I have never heard of before.
If someone provides an endorsement, they basically do so as an act of kindness, as there is little to gain, especially when measured against the time it takes to read a book and write a blurb. And you may need to trust me when I say they are surprisingly difficult to write.
Why Publishers Want Endorsements
Endorsements are considered a necessary part of publishing a book for a number of reasons, most of which are quite obvious. Here are some of them.
Most obviously, they work. It’s easy for readers to blame the industry, but I think it would be just as easy for the industry to blame the readers. As readers, we want to be able to assess books quickly and without rigorous analysis. Endorsements offer us the shortcut we want.
Then, readers cannot be familiar with every author, so endorsements help make relational connections. “I don’t know this author, but if that person I do know appreciates her, she must be okay.” In this way they are a free and effective marketing tactic.
Also, many publishers publish such a wide variety of authors that their brand does not offer any clues as to whether a book will be very good or very bad or somewhere between. No matter what comes from Banner of Truth you know it will be good and trustworthy because they are so judicious with what they produce. But then the publisher who publishes John MacArthur also publishes Sarah Young, so its own brand doesn’t count for nearly as much. Endorsers can provide credibility that publishers do not.
Then there’s this: endorsements are good for search engines, whether that is a global one like Google or a specific one like Amazon. Forewords, which are essentially long-form endorsements, are even more effective in this way. Sometimes the main purpose in an endorsement or foreword is to associate a book with a name that is more recognized that the author’s.
Finally, there are so many books being published, and often on the same subject, that endorsements can separate them from one another. What makes a reader choose one marriage book over another when both may be perfectly good? It could be the names recommending it on the back cover.
And I am sure there are many more reasons besides.
What Endorsements Mean
It would be a mistake to assume that every endorsement means that the person has thoroughly or completely read that book. We could debate whether it should mean this, but as it stands it does not. It could mean that the person has read it all or it could mean he has skimmed it. It could even mean he hasn’t read as much as a single word. Sometimes a clue will be in the endorsement (e.g. “I love this author and make sure to recommend all of his books”) and sometimes you will only be able to guess.
I expect that every endorser sets out to read every word of every book, but sooner or later is challenged in their conviction. And, to be fair, the ethics of endorsements are not always completely straightforward.
What about a condensed version of an existing work that I endorsed in the past? Can my endorsement roll over from the longer work to the shorter version of it? I was recently asked this very question.
I was recently asked to write a blurb for a book that is on a non-controversial topic I know well, by an author I know well, and even edited by an editor I know well. I have read probably 20 books on the subject, including every one the author cites. Should I read thoroughly or will a relatively quick skim suffice?
What about a reference work? I was asked to write endorsements for very large systematic theologies by both John MacArthur and Wayne Grudem—the first edition of MacArthur’s Biblical Doctrine and the second edition of Grudem’s Systematic Theology. Each would take weeks to read carefully from cover-to-cover. I am quite familiar with both authors and what they believe. Should I have read every word?
Or what about when a publisher asks for endorsements for the collected works of a historic author? I was asked to write a blurb for a three-volume set by an author who lived and died more than a century ago. I have read some, but not all of what those volumes contain. Should I read all 2,500 pages before writing the endorsement?
All of this to say, endorsements are perhaps a little more complicated than we might think. I believe most authors and publishers do their best to treat them seriously and ethically, even if also imperfectly.
Do Endorsements Need to Be Fixed?
Does the endorsement system need to be fixed? I don’t really think it does. It may not be ideal, but not much in this world really is. I am convinced that it works well enough and I am not convinced we have a viable alternative. So maybe let me offer a few suggestions for both readers and authors.
Readers:

Don’t make too much of endorsements. Don’t take them as meaning more than they do. Read them to ensure you know what the endorser is really saying. And understand that what an endorsement really communicates is “I trust this person enough to extend a bit of my reputation and credibility toward him.”
Develop your own list of trusted endorsers—people who you have come to regard as reliable in their recommendations.
Go a little deeper in evaluating the merits of a book than simply reading the blurbs on the back cover.
Don’t assume that the endorsing system is corrupt or driven by anything more (or less) than friendships and goodwill. There may be some exceptions, but I think they are few and rare.

Authors & Endorsers:

Take endorsements seriously. Do you remember how honored you were the first time you got asked to write one? Try to maintain that sense of privilege rather than regarding them as just another chore.
Write honest endorsements that avoid hyperbole. And it’s probably better to read manuscripts more thoroughly and write fewer endorsements than to endorse far more based on quick skims.
Understand and accept the risk you take when penning an endorsement. It is no small thing to put your name on another person’s work, because if the book ends up being controversial and gaining criticism, you may catch some of the flack. If you are going to read books in a cursory way, understand that your risk is even greater.
Don’t request more endorsements than you really need. No book benefits from having three or four pages of them. And no one wants the endorsement they took the time to write to be one of 30. So don’t waste people’s precious time and don’t feed your ego by pursuing quantity.